Marianne Krawczyk

Freelance game writer

Notable projects

God of War, God of War II, God of War III

Project focus

With experience writing and designing on a number of AAA game titles, Marianne Krawczyk is most often recognized for her work on the the critically and commercially acclaimed franchise God of War.

In addition to working on many games in that series, Krawczyk has written for Area 51, The Sopranos: Road to Respect, and more, including a number of soon-to-be-announced titles for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Specifically, she focuses on story and dialogue. She has worked with all of the major games publishers, including Sony, Activision, Vivendi Universal, THQ and Midway. In addition to writing for games, she has also written about game writing.

She is the author of Game Development Essentials: Game Story and Character Development. Krawczyk is the recent recipient of the BAFTA for Best Story and Character for God of War II. She has also won other awards for her excellence in character development.

What stands out

As her awards indicate, Krawczyk's strength is truly in her characters, like God of War's Kratos, who has developed a life and a following of his own that keeps God of War fans coming back for more.

She has gone on as saying her strongest characters find her -- and just start talking. Thank goodness they do, because that leaves us with characters to remember.

Our take

"In the U.K., where the equivalent of the Oscars -- the BAFTAs -- encompasses games as well as film, God of War II won the award for Best Story and Character.

That's an impressive achievement, but those who play games are already aware of how instantly iconic the twisted hero of that series, Kratos, has become.

Would the games still have been immensely popular relying on their brutal gameplay alone? Sure. Could he have become an icon without the dark and disturbing story that underpins that action? It does not seem likely at all."
- Christian Nutt, features director, Gamasutra