Rhianna Pratchett (born 30 December 1976) is an English video game writer and journalist. She has worked on '' Heavenly Sword'' (2007), ''

Overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or ...

'' (2007), ''

Mirror's Edge ''Mirror's Edge'' is a 2008 action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008, and for Windows in January 2009. Set in a near-future city, i ...

'' (2008) and ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...

'' (2013) and its follow up, '' Rise of the Tomb Raider'' (2015), among others. She is the daughter of fantasy writer

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

Career

Rhianna Pratchett studied journalism at the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...

. Following graduation, Pratchett began writing for '' Minx'' magazine, where her first games reviews were published. She moved to the long running '' PC Zone'' magazine as an editorial assistant, staff writer, eventually becoming a section editor. She wrote for many other publications including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Pratchett moved into script writing and narrative design in 2002 with '' Beyond Divinity'', produced by Larian Studios in Belgium. She also wrote a novella to accompany the game. In 2007, her work on '' Heavenly Sword'' was nominated for a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

and a year later she won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain 'Best Videogame Script' award for ''

''. Pratchett wrote the comic ''Tomb Raider: The Beginning'' with

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

and the ''Mirror's Edge'' miniseries with

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, along with several of her own short stories. She has contributed to various books on games narrative including ''Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing'' and ''Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames''. Since 2012, she has been co-director of Narrativia Limited, a production company which holds exclusive multimedia and merchandising rights to her father

's works following his death. In 2012 and 2013, Narrativia announced that it would be working on three television projects based on Pratchett's father's works: '' The Watch'', '' Good Omens'', and '' Wee Free Men'', as well as several other projects; Pratchett was reported as co-writer of ''The Watch'' but in 2019 she announced she had not been involved in the project "for many years". In a deal announced in April 2020, multiple ''Discworld'' novels are to be adapted for television by Narrativia, Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content. She has also spoken on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio 1, Radio 4, 5Live and multiple conferences around the world, including Develop, Animex, GDC and TEDx Transmedia. In June 2015, she said that her father's 41st Discworld novel ''

The Shepherd's Crown ''The Shepherd's Crown'' is a comic fantasy novel, the last book written by Terry Pratchett before his death in March 2015. It is the 41st novel in the ''Discworld'' series, and the fifth based on the character Tiffany Aching. It was published i ...

'', to be published posthumously later that year, would mark the end of the series, and that no further novels or books of unfinished work would be authorised for publication.Terry Pratchett's daughter declares The Shepherd's Crown will be the last Discworld novel
, The Guardian, 12 June 2015 In 2023, Pratchett hosted her first radio programme, ''Mythical Creatures'', a ten-part documentary series for BBC Radio 4 about creatures from British folklore. It was first broadcast from 18–29 December 2023.

Works

Video games

* '' Beyond Divinity'' (story editor) –

Larian Studios Larian Studios is a Belgian independent video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher founded in 1996 by Swen Vincke. Headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, Larian focuses on developing role-playing video games but has previously worked on e ...

(2004) * '' Stronghold Legends'' (writer) – Firefly Studios/ 2K (2006) * '' Heavenly Sword'' (co-writer/story) –

Ninja Theory Ninja Theory Limited is a first-party British video game developer for Xbox Game Studios based in Cambridge, England. Notable games it has developed include '' Kung Fu Chaos'', '' Heavenly Sword'', '' Enslaved: Odyssey to the West'', '' DmC: ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

(2007) * ''

'' (writer/audio co-director) – Triumph Studios/

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports ...

(2007) ** '' Overlord: Raising Hell'' – expansion pack (2008) * '' Viking: Battle for Asgard'' (writer) – The Creative Assembly/

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

(2008) * ''

'' (writer) –

DICE A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

/ EA (2008) * ''

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two ga ...

'' (additional writer) –

Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with subs ...

(2008) * '' Overlord: Minions'' (writer) –

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

(2009) * '' Overlord: Dark Legend'' (writer/voice director) –

(2009) * ''

Overlord II ''Overlord II'' is a 2009 action role-playing game and sequel to the 2007 video game ''Overlord'' and its 2008 expansion pack in the form of '' Overlord: Raising Hell''. It was developed by Triumph Studios and published by Codemasters for Pl ...

'' (writer/voice director) – Triumph/

(2009) * '' Risen'' (co-writer of English localization) – Piranha Bytes/

Deep Silver Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a division of Plaion. History Deep Silver was announced in November 2002, with their first release to be '' Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars''. According to Craig McNichol, who ran Koch Medi ...

(2009) * '' CSI: Fatal Conspiracy'' (writer) – Telltale/

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

(2010) * '' BioShock Infinite'' and '' BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea'' (additional writer) – Irrational Games/ 2K (2013) * ''

'' (lead writer) –

Crystal Dynamics Crystal Dynamics, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. The studio is best known for its games in the ''Tomb Raider'', '' Legacy of Kain'', and '' Gex'' series. Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse ...

/SE (2013) * ''Beat Buddy: Tale of the Guardians'' (writer) – Threaks (2013) * '' Thief'' (story and cinematics) – Eidos Montréal (2014) * '' Rival Kingdoms'' (story and characters) (2015) * '' Rise of the Tomb Raider'' (lead writer) – Crystal Dynamics/SE (2015) * '' Overlord: Fellowship of Evil'' (writer) – Codemasters (2015) * '' Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey'' (story consultant) – Salix Games (2019) * '' Lost Words: Beyond the Page'' (writer) – Sketchbook Games (2019) * '' Surgeon Simulator 2'' (writer) – Bossa Studios (2020) * REKA (lead writer) – Emberstorm Entertainment (2024)

Gamebooks

* ''Crystal of Storms ( Fighting Fantasy)'' – published by Scholastic (2020)

Other books

* ''Campaigns & Companions: The Complete Roleplaying Guide for Pets'' (with Andi Ewington) - published by Rebellion (2021) * '' Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch'' (with Gabrielle Kent) - published by Penguin Books (2023)

Tabletop games Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a Table (furniture), table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, Tabletop role-playing game, tabletop role-playing games, or ti ...

* ''Bardsung'' (lead writer and narrative designer) – Steamforged Games

Comics

* ''Mirror's Edge'' #1 to #6 – published by

(2008) * ''Tomb Raider: The Beginning'' – published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

(2013) * ''Legends of

Red Sonja Red Sonja is a sword-and-sorcery character created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially inspired by Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino. A warrior from the Hyborian Age of Ear ...

'' #3 – published by

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

(2014) * ''Tomb Raider'' #7 to #18 – published by

(2014–2015)

Film and television

Pratchett has appeared in the documentaries ''Games Britannia'', ''Critical Path'' and

Charlie Brooker Charlton ‘Charlie’ Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English screenwriter, producer, presenter, author, cartoonist, and social critic. He first became known for creating and presenting satirical television shows that featured biting criticis ...

's ''How Video Games Changed the World''.

Achievements

* '' Rise of the Tomb Raider'' (2015) – Won Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing at 68th Writers Guild of America Awards 2016. Won Outstanding Achievement in Character for Lara Croft at 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards 2016 * '' Risen'' (2009) – co-nominated for a WGGB award 2010. * Won the European Women in Games Hall of Fame Award in 2013.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratchett, Rhianna 1976 births Living people 21st-century English women writers Alumni of the London College of Printing English comics writers English women journalists English television writers English voice directors English women television writers People from Sedgemoor (district) Video game critics British video game writers Women video game critics Terry Pratchett