Buffy The Vampire Slayer

You’ve both written a lot in the Whedonverse. What attracts you to keep coming back?

CHRIS: Characters. I don’t really have any interest in Firefly. Not sure if that’s considered to be part of the “Whedonverse.” It’s more the Buffyverse that interests me. I haven’t done it in a while, but I’ve actually been flirting with the idea of doing a new Buffy story. I miss the characters very much. Their relationships, their sense of humor, their integrity, all of that. Joss did make the best toys.

TOM: Yeah, it’s all about the fun. Joss has created a really amazing group of characters, as well as playground to place them in.

How do you deal with continuity?

TOM: A good memory of the episodes helps, and If I don’t know it, I ask Chris and if he doesn’t remember, we go on line and ask the fans.

How was it working on the Chaos Bleeds computer games?

CHRIS: Good and bad. On the first Buffy game, we wrote the script based on an existing story that we had only a little influence over.

TOM: Chao Bleeds was our first chance to come up with the entire story, as well as dialogue. Really fun stuff, but a crap load of work.

CHRIS: We wrote it from top to bottom, the story, the script, every damn thing. But from the moment we set out the level design for the game, it was chipped away. Our original plans were bigger than what we ended up with. Levels were dropped. Even then, I still think the story remains intact. I’m pleased with what we were able to do. What I’m NOT pleased with is that the game just doesn’t play as well as the first one. I think that’s a shame. Every video game site and magazine raved about the first one. But that one took three years to do. They wouldn’ t put it out until it was perfect, which is a good goal. The second game, the fighting engine isn’t nearly as smooth as the first one. Same with the camera controls. It takes a LOT away from the game play, as far as I’m concerned. I still enjoy it, and I haven’t heard many complaints, but it bugs me enough that I’ve only played about halfway through it. Eventually I’ll finish, just because you can’t not play your way through the story. It’d be like writing a movie and not going to see it.