When people ask Paul Chadwick what he's been working on, it's a tough question to answer. Chadwick, creator of the well-regarded and nuanced "Concrete" comic-book series, is also a scriptwriter — but for a videogame, "The Matrix Online," releasing March 31.

Like Hemingway in Hollywood, making the shift from "real" writing to videogame writing has been tricky for Chadwick. The challenge is even greater when dealing with the philosophical — some would say rambling — themes of the "Matrix" franchise.

Chadwick says his game blueprint follows that of the films. "The Matrix is a virtual world that's being collectively dreamed by people in fluid-filled pods, who believe the Matrix is reality," he said in an interview at his home here. "But they actually haven't awakened to the fact that it's an illusion. We call those Blue Pills."