Writers rewarded for work on video game

Dead Head Fred writers Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan have been presented with the first ever Writers Guild Award for video game writing.

Dead Head Fred is a PSP game about Fred, a private investigator, who is looking into the affairs of businessman Ulysses S. Pitt. Pitt claims to be the saviour of the people, but is actually rotten to the core. He cottons to Fred, though, and Fred ends up dead.

And beheaded.

A scientist in Pitt’s employ preserves Fred’s eyes and brain and reanimates his corpse in the hope that Fred can turn the tables on the bad apple.

Fred’s new head is nothing more than his brain and eyes floating in a jar, but he collects other heads - including a corpse head that can spew fluids that it’s sucked up and a stone head that can break through walls - and Fred is able to swap one head for another depending on the situation he finds himself in.

Rated mature, Dead Head Fred is hindered by long loading times, uninspired level design, and terrible gameplay mechanics, but there are two elements of the game that are great: writing and voice work.

The main character, Fred, is voiced by John C. McGinley and the main antagonist, Ulysses S. Pitt, is performed by Jon Polito. They make the game.

Therefore, the writers of the game deserve recognition, because without their witty dialogue, there would have been nothing clever for McGinley and Polito to say.

Congrats to Ellis and Cogan. And to all the other writers who were nominated, who also deserve the recognition for their hard work.