Evan Skolnick is an American writer, editor and producer who has created content in a wide variety of media including newspapers, magazines, comic books, books, websites, CD-ROMs, computer games and video games. He is currently an instructor in the Game Design & Development program at
Cogswell College in San Jose, California, and a prominent game writer, with credits on recent titles such as ''
Cuphead: Don’t Deal with the Devil!'', ''
Mafia III
''Mafia III'' is a 2016 action-adventure video game developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K Games. It was released in October 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, in May 2017 for macOS, and in October 2021 for Google Stadia. It is ...
'' and ''
Star Wars: Battlefront''.
Biography
Early years
Skolnick grew up in several suburbs east of Hartford, Connecticut. From an early age his interest in both writing and art was apparent, and when he was 15 he began publication of ''Phantasy'' magazine, a small fanzine devoted to the then-wildly popular ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
'' “paper and dice” role-playing games. The magazine’s popularity grew to the point that two local Connecticut newspapers, the ''
Hartford Courant'' and the ''Journal Inquirer'', ran stories profiling the teenaged magazine publisher.
Marvel Comics
In December 1988, Skolnick was hired by Marvel Comics as an editorial assistant. Within six months he had been promoted to assistant editor, and over the course of the next few years worked with a succession of Marvel editors including
Gregory Wright, Sid Jacobson and, ultimately,
Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza (born December 31, 1961) is an Argentine-American comic book writer and editor who is best known for his work on Marvel titles such as ''X-Men'', '' X-Force'', ''New Warriors'', ''Nomad'', '' Cable'', ''Deadpool'' and ''Thunderbo ...
, on a wide variety of properties ranging from
RoboCop to
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...
to
Bill & Ted to
Wonder Man
Wonder Man (Simon Williams) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in '' The Avengers'' #9 (October 1964). The c ...
.
All the while Skolnick was doggedly pitching various series concepts, including an over-pitched
Turbo
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...
limited series proposal. He was continually rejected and told to focus on pitching fill-in stories for existing series, but his driving interest at the time was the creation of new series, or pitching to write for major new planned publications. Skolnick’s behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations in trying to get a Turbo mini-series published at
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
were described in detail in a
letters column in ''
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They traditionally consisted of teenage and young adult heroes, and were often seen to serve as a junior counterpart to Avengers (comics), ...
'' Vol. 1 #73, the very issue in which one of the Turbo characters is killed.
Eventually Skolnick heeded the advice of his superiors at Marvel and began to pitch and land small writing jobs on existing series, such as
Iron Man,
RoboCop and
NFL SuperPro. Skolnick continued to sharpen his editorial and story-pitching skills under the mentorship of Nicieza, writing several prominent annuals for series such as
Excalibur
Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in th ...
and
Deathlok
Deathlok (also referred to as Deathlok the Demolisher) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in '' Astonishing Tales'' #25 (Aug. 1974), created by Rich Buckler. At least three sub ...
, and ultimately landing the regular writing post on ''
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They traditionally consisted of teenage and young adult heroes, and were often seen to serve as a junior counterpart to Avengers (comics), ...
'', from which Nicieza had decided to resign from issue #53.
Video games
Skolnick had several dalliances with the video game business well before entering it. At Marvel, he was the managing editor of the
Double Dragon
is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals.
The origina ...
limited series, based on the popular arcade game. At Acclaim, he wrote for and edited several video game strategy guides. And at
Archie Comics he plotted a back-up story starring
Sonic the Hedgehog.
Skolnick was hired in 2001 as senior producer at Hyperspace Cowgirls, a small interactive studio based in Manhattan that was moving from developing
websites
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wiki ...
and
CD-ROMs to developing video games. Here he learned more about video game development and oversaw the production of THQ titles such as ''
Britney's Dance Beat
''Britney's Dance Beat'' is a rhythm game based around the music and videos of American singer Britney Spears. The game was developed by Metro Creative Graphics, Hyperspace Cowgirls, and Art Co., Ltd–published by THQ. The game was releas ...
'' for PC, ''
Stuart Little 2'' for PC, and ''Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'' for
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
.
In 2002 Skolnick moved upstate to work as a producer for the prominent video game developer (and
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Viven ...
subsidiary)
Vicarious Visions
Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Sk ...
, where he managed the development of titles such as ''
Crash Bandicoot
''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...
Purple'', ''
Shrek 2
''Shrek 2'' is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 picture book '' Shrek!'' by William Steig, produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The sequel to ''Shrek'' (2001) and the ...
: Beg for Mercy!'', ''
Ultimate Spider-Man
''Ultimate Spider-Man'' is a superhero comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2011. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Spider-Man comic book franchise as part of the company's Ultimate ...
'' GBA, ''
Over the Hedge
''Over the Hedge'' is an American syndicated comic strip, written by Michael Fry, and drawn by T. Lewis. It tells the story of a raccoon, a turtle, a squirrel, and their friends, who come to terms with their woodlands being taken over, by su ...
'' DS, and ''
Guitar Hero III
''Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero 3'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the third main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series, following ''Gui ...
'' Wii.
Skolnick also served as the company’s unofficial editorial director, providing writing and editing guidance for numerous Vicarious Visions titles.
Skolnick has cited his role as lead writer on ''
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2'' as the highlight of his years at Vicarious Visions, and the impetus for him to transition fully from game production into game narrative development.
In July 2011, Skolnick was hired as lead narrative designer on ''
Star Wars 1313
''Star Wars 1313'' is a cancelled action-adventure video game that was under development by LucasArts. The game would take a more mature, gritty direction compared to past '' Star Wars'' video games and, like 2002's '' Star Wars: Bounty Hunter'' ...
'' at
LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.
After Disney’s acquisition of LucasArts in 2012 and its subsequent cessation of all internal game development at the studio in 2013, Skolnick went on to write on a freelance basis for a variety of prominent game projects, including ''
Dying Light
''Dying Light'' is a 2015 survival horror video game developed by Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game's story follows an undercover agent named Kyle Crane who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a ...
'', ''The Godfather: Five Families'', ''
Star Wars: Battlefront'', ''
Mafia III
''Mafia III'' is a 2016 action-adventure video game developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K Games. It was released in October 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, in May 2017 for macOS, and in October 2021 for Google Stadia. It is ...
'', and ''
Cuphead: Don’t Deal With the Devil!''
In 2016 Skolnick was hired as a senior writer at Telltale Games,
and while on staff contributed to ''The Walking Dead: A New Frontier'', ''Batman: The Enemy Within'', and ''Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series''.
Skolnick has revealed his role as writer and narrative designer on the
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
/
Pixelopus
PixelOpus was an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California, It was established in 2014 as an in-house studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The studio's debut game, '' Entwined'', was released the same year. Their second a ...
PlayStation 4 game ''
Concrete Genie
''Concrete Genie'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Pixelopus and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game was announced at Sony's PlayStation Media Showcase at Paris Games Week 2017 on October 30, ...
''.
Speaking Engagements
Since 2006 Skolnick has participated in narrative-focused panels, talks and tutorials at various conferences, such as the
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...
(GDC), the
International Game Developers Association
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers."
The IGDA is incorpo ...
(IGDA) Summit,
San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...
, and the East Coast Game Conference.
His day-long storytelling tutorial at GDC has run every year at the show since 2007.
Book Writing
In 2008, Skolnick contributed a chapter to ''Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing'' published by A K Peters. In 2009 he wrote a chapter for ''Writing for Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG'', also published by A K Peters.
In 2014
Watson-Guptill
Watson-Guptill is an American publisher of instructional books in the arts. The company was founded in 1937 by Ernest Watson, Ralph Reinhold, and Arthur L. Guptill. They also published the magazine ''American Artist''. Their headquarters are at 17 ...
(a
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...
imprint) published the Skolnick-authored ''Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques''. The title was included on "The 20 Best Video Game Design Books" list by Concept Art Empire, and on a "100 Must-Read Books on Writing" list by Bookriot.com.
College-Level Teaching
In 2015 Skolnick accepted a one-year teaching engagement at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...
as a Professor of Practice in their Games and Simulation Arts and Science (GSAS) program.
Since then he has transitioned to
Cogswell College in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
, and currently serves as an instructor in their Game Design & Development (GDD) program, spearheading the school’s ne
Game Writing concentration
References
External links
Comic Book Database listing of Skolnick's comics creditsMoby Games listing of Skolnick's video game creditsQuoted in the Hollywood Reporter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skolnick, Evan
American comics writers
1966 births
Living people
Writers from Hartford, Connecticut
University of Connecticut alumni