A while back Game Hunters talked to David Goyer, who is a writer on the rise in Hollywood. After writing Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, he is currently penning screenplays for and the new Superman film (with director Zack Snyder) and The Dark Knight Rises.

His past work also includes the ABC TV series FlashForward, which caught the eye of the gang at Treyarch, developers Call of Duty: Black Ops. They thought Goyer's ability to work on a TV series that dealt with mental time-shifting would make him a good candidate for advising them on Black Ops, much of which plays out in flashbacks.

In our story today on writer David Goyer and the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops on USATODAY.com, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said that "to have somebody who has actually dealt with that grammar as part of telling a story was pretty critical. ... He was a gamer. It was a really great fit."

More from our interview with Goyer:

How did you and the Treyarch developers actually connect?

They literally just called my agent. They were apparently fans of some of the stuff I had worked on and felt they were at a point in the development of the game that they thought they could benefit from having, I guess an outsider, someone with a non-gaming perspective, to come in and take a look at what they had done.

I play games and was familiar with Call of Duty, but had only heard rumors about Black Ops. So I was intrigued from the standpoint of a fan to come in and see what they were doing, so I had to sign a big nondisclosure agreement. It was kind of neat, they took me through the game and we sort of did a playthrough of everything and looked beneath the hood and they showed me all the scripts. It was a really interesting experience. I played games but don't come from a gaming background. And obviously their game experts don't necessarily come from a film background. They just threw it out to me and wanted to know my thoughts from story to script to gameplay to everything.

What did you expect going in? Based on what you saw what was your perception at that point? For years, game developers have been accused of chasing movies and this is an example of a game that creates its own story and drama.

Going in, I really had no idea what to expect but I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised when I got involved because I thought the game was already very sophisticated. Not just the engine and the game play but the storytelling itself I thought was very sophisticated, among the most, if not the most I had ever seen in a game. And certainly was as good as anything I had seen in a movie.

I was very excited about that. They were very open and very collaborative. I do think initially that maybe video games were chasing film for a while but I think certainly with Call of Duty and Black Ops that has turned out to not be the case at all. What is interesting with the Call of Duty franchise is they never really expressed any interest in making a movie out of it per se. They have been perfectly happy with developing their own movies and their own mythology. And I think the Black Ops one, in particular, feels like wholly its own thing. It doesn't feel particularly beholden to film. There are elements that I think all of us are influenced by because it is a Cold War story and it does have -- one of the reasons I was originally intrigued by it was because it does have elements that remind me of The Manchurian Candidate or even Seconds or things like that. But I was impressed.

Can you describe what consultation or advice you gave to them?

Initially, it was take a look at the script and the characters. They hadn't recorded any of the character dialogue yet. They were thinking of casting Sam Worthington; they hadn't done that yet. Gary Oldman was going to reprise his role but they hadn't cast any of the other roles. But as we got into it they sort of threw open the flodgates and said, 'We'd like hear what you have to say about any aspect of the game and don't hold back.' So we got into it. Motion capture things hadn't been shot yet and there were some things we ended up reshooting. We shot some new material, both live-action and motion capture. It ended up being very sprawling going into sound design and things like that. We were constrained by certain technical parameters in terms of things that had already delivered, but I was surprised at how much we did end up changing in a short period of time. But I want to reiterate that what they had to begin with, I was really blown away by.

What type of games do you like?

Obviously, Call of Duty. I played the Modern Warfare games and some of the original ones. I've played Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Shadow of the Colossus, Assassin's Creed, BioShock, things like that. I play a fair amount. I probably play about a half dozen a year, time permitting.

What strengths do you think games have compared to film and TV?

Games aren't entirely linear so when you play games you can have a different experience. And sometimes you can play the games more than once and have a different experience. This is a game, in particular, where I hope players will play it once, go through it, get to the end, I think there are a number of surprise reveals as you get further and further in the game. Then I think it will be very fun for them to go back a second time and play through it knowing what they know about the ending.

Also the main thing about games is they are immersive. In the case of Black Ops, which is a first-person shooter, you are the main character. It can be more immersive in that it allows you to invest more of yourself into the character. So you have this experience of all this is happening to you, as opposed to passively sitting back and watching a story unfold. I think because of this, it is just a completely different kind of experience. When you are playing the game you feel like you are in that world, you feel like you are on these black ops missions, like you are in the midst of all of this danger and mayhem. No matter how good a movie is, it is so hard to convey that in film because you are either in your home or sitting amonst a larger audience.

So do you play Call of Duty multiplayer?

I don't tend to play much multiplayer, that is a whole other experience obviously, and a completely different kind of social experience. My brother does. He almost exclusively plays multiplayer games. I think it is interesting how we have migrated into that, maybe it is because of my feature background that I tend to like the single-player. I tend to like sitting in my living room, turning the lights down and the sound up and just playing by myself.

What are you working on now?

Obviously, we are starting prep on the next Batman film, which I wrote the first one. And we are starting prep on the new Superman film, which I have written a script for with Zack Snyder. A little further out I have a novel coming out next year called Heaven's Shadow, I co-wrote and have sold the film rights of that to Warner Brothers and will be adapting my novel later next year after the work is done on Superman.

What is Heaven's Shadow like?

It is the first in a trilogy of books that will be coming out yearly starting with next summer, Heaven's Shadow, Heaven's War and Heaven's Fall. I have co-written them with Michael Cassutt. Ace is putting them out. They are hard science or more Crichton science I guess. They take place in near future about 10 years from now. They are a first contact story, but I think a diferent wrinkle on it than most of the movies or novels I have read before.

Can you tell us anything about the upcoming Batman and Superman films?

No, there is a strict embargo other than Zack Snyder, who directed 300, is directing the Superman film and casting has begun.

Anything else you would like to say about Black Ops.

When I saw what they were going for I thought it was really subversive and really daring. I think they were succesful with what they did with their storytelling. It's pretty bold.

We certainly talked about what we could do to have the player experience what Mason feels like. There are so many detail things they did in the environment and sound design. ... It was probably the most collaborative experience I have ever had. I have to say it was a very different kind of sandbox to play in and the most fun I have had probably since film school working on a project.

By Mike Snider