User:Harisorkin/sandbox

Haris Orkin (born July 26, 1956) is an American novelist, game writer, screenwriter, and playwright. He is best known for his James Flynn comedy thriller novels and his work in video games.

After receiving a B.A. from Beloit College and an MFA in Creative Writing from USC, Haris soon realized he had no discernible skills with which to make a living. Advertising beckoned. After several years writing and producing award winning radio and television commercials, Haris sold his first screenplay, Save the Dog, which was later produced as a Disney Sunday Night movie.

Sex, Impotence, and International Terrorism was produced by L.A.’s Renegade Theater Company and was chosen as a critic’s choice by the L.A. Weekly. It was later sold as a film script to MGM/UA.

His play, Dada was produced at The American Stage, The Nebraska Rep, and the La Jolla Playhouse. Nobody Lives Forever has been performed at The John Harmon Theater and The Player’s Club in New York City.

His original screenplay, A Saintly Switch, was produced by Disney. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starred David Alan Grier and Viveca Fox. Haris has also written scripts for Universal, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, and Paramount.

In 2005, Haris broke into the world of game narrative when he wrote the script for Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard, developed by Liquid Entertainment and published by Atari. He wrote a game for the Kingdom Hearts franchise for Disney and Square Enix that same year.

Call of Juarez, a game he wrote for Techland and Ubisoft was released in 2007. Kane's Wrath, the expansion to the best-selling Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars, was released in 2008. Red Alert 3 for EALA came out in late 2008 and Haris received a Writer's Guild Award nomination for best video game script. Ubisoft and Techland released Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in June 2009 to strong sales and excellent reviews.

Dead Island was released in 2011 and was one of the top selling titles of the year. In 2013, Haris worked on Company of Heroes 2 for Relic Entertainment and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger for Ubisoft.

Dying Light for Techland and Warner Brothers Interactive came out in 2015. To date it has sold over 5 million copies. Haris also worked as a writer on Tom Clancy’s The Division. When it was released in 2016, it was the fastest selling new IP in video game history.

2016 also saw the release of Mafia 3 for 2K Games. Besides being the fastest selling title in 2K’s history, it was also nominated for a BAFTA award. Get Even, developed by The Farm 51, came out in 2017 and received multiple reviews praising the narrative.

In 2018, You Only Live Once was published by Imajin Books and received rave reviews in Kirkus and Publisher’s weekly. 2020 saw the release of the sequel, Once Is Never Enough, which for a short time was the number one selling espionage thriller and humorous fiction novel on Amazon US.

Haris has contributed chapters to two books put out by the International Game Developer’s Association. Writing for Video Game Genres and Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing were both published by A.K. Peters.