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Writing a video game script isn't easy. Especially when that video game is designed to scare you senseless over the course of nine hours and include multiple story lines depending on which path you choose.

It also isn't easy when development takes four years and spans two separate consoles.

That's exactly what happens with Sony's latest big-budget exclusive Until Dawn, which launches on the PlayStation 4 today.

"When you write a linear story you make decisions around the character. But on this we had to imagine what if the character made a different decision - allowing the gamer to go in and make those choices," said Larry Fessenden who, along with his co-writer Graham Reznick, scripted the game.

Those decisions are what makes Until Dawn a unique prospect. The set-up is familiar to fans of the horror genre. It's your typical "cabin in the woods"-type scenario.

You, as the player, have to guide a group of characters through surviving the night in an abandoned house.

The game is heavily narrative-driven, like The Last of Us or Heavy Rain before it, but it purports to offer you a different story each time you play it through branching choices you make during the gameplay. It could be something as simple as a response to a question.

Other times you could be faced with a moral dilemma, like sacrificing one character to save another. It aims to keep the game fresh, even when being played for the second or third time.

All of which makes it tricky when you're writing the thing.

"We would talk about the characters and we would talk about the scenes and how they would play out," said Fessenden. "There's puzzles in the game too: Turn the lever and this doesn't work, etc. The difficulty is simply keeping track of everything that's going on."

Fessenden says he and Reznick would write separately, before coming together and "punching up" the scenes before working it out with the game's developers, British company Supermassive Games.

Fessenden knows his craft too. As well as being a writer, he's a director, actor and producer who's worked in the horror genre on film and TV for years. Seriously, his IMDB page is pretty impressive. This is his first video game.

"I brought to it an enthusiasm. Like a choose-your-own path. You want to draw the audience in and replicate the horror of existential reality," he told Mirror Online.

Around two years ago, the decision was made to redevelop Until Dawn for the cutting-edge PlayStation 4 console . It meant that, from a writing perspective, more could be left to the visuals.

"We could replace a line with a look, such as a frown or scowl," said Fessenden.

Until Dawn is the latest video game to lure in top-class acting talent. The lead character Samantha is played and voiced by Heroes' Hayden Panettiere.

"It used to be that only deep genre people would do video games. But now you've got the likes of Spacey doing it. I think writers can see the potential of video games," explained when Mirror Online asked about the popularity of writing for a video game.

Like a film or a TV series, video game production still takes a long time. Fessenden admits he worked on Until Dawn for four years - leaving the process to make films and other productions in between.

"You have to be committed to your characters and the job of the artist to be able to turn that back on.

"Of course I have a secret weapon, my co-writer. And we get fired up for it again - to get back in that world."

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And he firmly believes that the PlayStation's newest exclusive is going to be a much-anticipated horror treat for eager gamers.

"There's a sheer thrill of seeing the world coming alive. You get to finally walk through the lobby of the lodge and see the paintings hang on the wall and the snow collecting outside."

That is, if you can survive the night.