Writers Max and Nick Folkman sit down with other writers and developers to discuss storytelling in video games.
Advertise on this Podcast: Click Here
Here's the Latest Episode from Script Lock:
Duncan Fyfe & Jon Ingold
Jan 27, 2020
Happy New Year! This month we've got Duncan (writer on Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Neo Cab, In the Valley of Gods, and the co-creator and writer of the Something True podcast) and Jon (writer, narrative designer and co-founder of Inkle, and has worked on games including 80 Days, Sorcery!, Heaven’s Vault, and Over the Alps) in to talk about being a writer without a writing degree, blank canvas vs well-defined main characters, research, hot air balloons, Lovecraft forums, when to stop researching, underappreciated game moments, player agency, the sweet spot between satisfying and frustrating, the role of writers in pre-production, and more.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jon's Twitter, Inkle's Website and Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Rameses by Stephen Bond
Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Walt Williams & Mary Kenney
Dec 23, 2019
Happy holidays everyone! To close out the year we've got Walt (writer and creative director at New Game Plus, and has worked on games such as The Darkness, Bioshock 1 and 2, Spec Ops: The Line, and Star Wars Battlefront 2, and he’s also the author of the book Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art & Soul in Games) and Mary (currently writes at Insomniac Games, and has also written for Certain Affinity, Techland on Dying Light 2, and Telltale on the final season of The Walking Dead and Batman: The Enemy Within) joining us to talk Narrative QA, their most important collaborators, narrative band-aid experiences, storytelling that they appreciate in other games that may go unnoticed by players, making "good" and "bad" choices, emotion-oriented goals, violence-based games, not giving your characters more story than they can handle, narrative pet peeves, things they've learned by slipping up, overwriting, digital media shelf life, what game project(s) they wish they'd been a part of, how important costume design is to their writing process, writing tests, and a thing or two more that you'll just have to find out for yourself!
Our Guests on the Internet
Walt's Twitter, Instagram. and check out Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
Mary's Twitter, and check out Read Only memories #1
Stuff We Talked About
We Are Not Heroes: Contextualizing Violence Through Narrative GDC Talk by Walt Williams
The Walking Dead: The Final Season
When the Streaming Platform Dies, What Happens to its Shows?
Also Max and I worked on Neo Cab and Man of Medan, two great games that came out this year, and they're totally worth checking out!
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Heli Salomaa & Claire Hummel
Nov 25, 2019
We're back again this month with Heli (theatre and performance costume designer, most recently a costume and character designer for Remedy’s Control and the upcoming Crossfire 2. Also worked on Mirages for Kroma Productions, and EGO CURE for Aalto University)and Claire (currently an art director at Valve, previously an artist and associate production designer for Microsoft Studios on a ton of Kinect games, Fable Legends, Sunset Overdrive, Powerstar Golf, and more. Also the production designer for Westworld VR) to talk about why costume design as a specialized role isn’t more common in games, the narrative features of costume design, differences with fashion design, research, building costumes for worlds less-based in reality, the problem of flowing clothes, working with the non-monetary budgets of video games (memory, processing power, etc), not holding back on your first draft, their most important collaborators, iteration, pitching ideas that may be too “out there,” the hardest costume they’ve designed (that they can talk about), knowing when something’s done, how non-costume designers can learn more about costume design, mundane costume design, work/life balance, and how can writers make costume designers’ lives easier.
Our guests on the Internet
Heli’s Website and Artstation.
Stuff We Talked About
The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Nicole Martinez & Megan Starks
Nov 18, 2019
Apologies to all for the slight delay, but the wait has TOTALLY been worth it because today we've got Nicole (Senior Narrative Designer at Crystal Dynamics, and before that a Creative Director on the unreleased The Wolf Among Us: Season 2, and a writer on season 2 of Minecraft: Story Mode, Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman, The Walking Dead: Michonne, Game of Thrones: Season 1, and The Wolf Among Us: Season 1) and Megan (Senior Narrative Designer Team Lead and Senior Writer on the recently-released Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment, and before that she was a Senior Writer on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and Tyranny, and a Senior Game Designer and Content Zone Lead on Wildstar for Carbine Studios) joining us to talk writing/design tests, whether narrative design and game writing should be separate jobs, the hardest things to write and design, writers' rooms, rewriting processes, where they start with constructing branching narratives, what they look for in endings as creators and whether it's different than what they look for as consumers, meaningful choices, storytelling trends they'd like to see more of, NPCs, major influences, and a great deal more!
Our guests on the Internet
Nicole's Twitter.
Megan's Twitter, Website, and check out House of Ash and Brimstone (Gatewalkers Book 1)!
Stuff We Talked About
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton
Sabriel by Garth Nix
More than Quest Givers: Why Good Characters Matter Konsoll 2019 Talk by Molly Maloney and Eric Stirpe
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Kelsey Beachum & Olivia Alexander
Sep 27, 2019
We've got Kelsey (game writer and narrative designer on Outer Wilds with Mobius Digital, along with Stormland for Insomniac, and wrote the unreleased Tales from the Minus Lab for USC’s Interactive Media & Games Division) and Olivia (script writer and narrative designer at Ubisoft Montreal on Far Cry 5 and Far Cry: New Dawn, and previously a scriptwriter at Ubisoft Quebec on Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and its DLC) in this month to talk about the hardest parts of working with nonlinear storytelling, stress, taking feedback, nonlinear murder mysteries, quantifying values that are hard to quantify, assuming that players are smart, tracking all the permutations in branching narratives, player assumptions when it comes to knowledge of the story and vice versa, letting players pull in information instead of pushing it on them, what makes a good opening and ending, DnD, and more.
Our Guests on the Internet
Olivia's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
GDC 2019: Technical Tools for Authoring Branching Dialogue by Carrie Patel and Szymczyk
Overqualified by Joey Comeau
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Kait Tremblay & Sam Maggs
Aug 29, 2019
Calling in from the far reaches of Los Angeles AND Toronto, Kait (currently the Team Lead Narrative Designer on Watch Dogs: Legion at Ubisoft Toronto, and formerly the Lead Writer on A Mortician’s Tale for Laundry Bear Games. She’s also written the book Ain’t No Place for a Hero: Borderlands, and is the co-director of Dames Making Games) and Sam (currently a Senior Writer at Insomniac Games, where she recently worked on the Turf Wars DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man, and formerly an Associate Writer at Bioware on Anthem. She’s also an author of books like Girl Squads and Wonder Women, and has written for comics like Captain Marvel, Star Trek, and Jem & the Holograms) join us to talk writing tests, how to give good feedback, important soft skills to have, writing processes and "muses," staying organized, things that tap and sap their creativity, what makes a good video game opening/ending, NPCs, storytelling quagmires, diverse dev teams, whether there's anything in their work that takes forever that people wouldn't expect, work/life balances, what they're consuming that isn't video games, why writing WWE fanfiction can be helpful for your game writing, major influences, and MOREEEEE!
Our Guests on the Internet
Kait's Twitter and Instagram, and you should follow all of the rad Watch Dogs: Legion writers and narrative designers on twitter!
Sam's Twitter, Instagram, and Website, and you should check out Captain Marvel and preorder The Unstoppable Wasp. Also you should follow all of the good folks at Insomniac Games on twitter!
Stuff We Talked About
ASMR Hair Treatment | Mic ON Brush | Oils & Crinkle Cap
What Makes a Good Video Game Ending? by Kait Tremblay
Mass Effect 2
Borderlands
Portal 2
God of War
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Bioshock
Hellblade
Observation
Dames Making Games
The 18-month fence hop, the six-day chair, and why video games are so hard to make by Blake Hester
Chernobyl
Fleabag
The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss
Stargate SG-1
Cleopatra 2525
Farscape
Andromeda
seaquest DSV
Star Trek: Voyager
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Lola Shiraishi & Scott Strichart
Jul 22, 2019
It's localization month, baby, and we've got Lola (producer at SEGA where she’s worked on Sonic Mania, and Sonic Mania Plus. She’s also a gaming consultant and has previously worked in development support at Kojima Productions LA on Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, PR at Square Enix on games including Sleeping Dogs, Final Fantasy 13, and Kingdom Hearts, and has also worked in localization and QA at Activision Blizzard) and Scott (Localization Producer at SEGA of America, where he just finished working on Judgement, and before that worked on Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6. Was also an Associate Producer on Yakuza 0, a Senior Copyrighter and Associate Product Manager at Square Enix, a Product Manager at Level 5, and Project Lead and Editor at ATLUS) in to talk about why localization is not another word for translation, balancing standards/concepts that exist in one culture that don’t really exist in the other, mahjong, localizing tropes and archetypes that have no analogue in Western media, tone shifting differences in the East vs West, deviating from the script, the difference between a good localization and a great one, dialects, lip flaps, why your localization team should be integrated early in the process, work/life balance, and using editors in addition to translators.
Our Guests on the Internet
Lola's Twitter
Scott's Twitter
Stuff We Talked About
The bizarre, true story of Metal Gear Solid's English translation by Jeremy Blaustein
The Yakuza series
Judgment
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
The Big One
Jun 10, 2019
And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. SPIKES FOOTBALL That's right! We made it to FIFTY episodes, and to help celebrate such a monumental achievement in podcasting, we snuck a couple of past guests in through the back door for a victory lap. Which guests, you ask? How about takes a somewhat deep breath, Carrie Patel, Tyler J. Hutchison, Laura Michet, Richard Lemarchand, Sarah Elmaleh, Jon Paquette, Brendon Chung, Cat Manning, Kate Dollarhyde, Eric Stirpe, Janina Gavankar, Ben Esposito, Claire Hummel, Graham Reznick, Ryan Benno, AND Molly Maloney? So what, you say? Well, what if I told you we talked with them about the main things students should know about interactive storytelling, how it's OK to be silly, storytelling confessions, extreme programming, whether game stories can be apolitical, what the differences between a good collaborator and a great one are (and how to work with a bad one), favorite underappreciated bits in games, anything they'd do differently with their past work, things you might not need to worry about with your storytelling, major influences, the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, auteurism in games, the greatness of Yakuza 0, stuff they've worked on that they wish people appreciated more, and so! Much! More! I mean, do you see how long this episode is?!
ROUND ONE
Our guests on the Internet
Laura's Twitter and Website, and you should check out Pathologic 2
Carrie's Twitter, and you should check out The Outer Worlds
Tyler's Twitter
Stuff We Talked About
Ep 45: Molly Maloney & Eric Stirpe
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
ROUND TWO (begins at 49:35)
Our guests on the Internet
Sarah's Twitter, and you should check out Afterparty and GamDev.World
Jon's Twitter
Brendon's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Skin Deep
Cat's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Pathologic 2
Stuff We Talked About
The menu from Medal of Honor (1999)
Honeysuckle by Cat Manning
Collaborative Approaches to Getting Great VO Performances (if you have GDC vault access, you can find it there!)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
ROUND THREE (begins at 1:42:12)
Our guests on the Internet
Eric's Twitter
Janina's Twitter, and you should check out Stucco
Kate's Twitter
Ben's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Donut County
Stuff We Talked About
ROUND FOUR (begins at 2:36:27)
Our guests on the Internet
Ryan's Twitter, and you should check out The Environment Art Podcast
Claire's Twitter, Website, and you should check out In the Valley of the Gods
Molly's Twitter, and you should check out Yakuza 0 and Return of the Obra Dinn
Graham's Twitter, and you should check out Deadwax and Visitations with Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah
Stuff We Talked About
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Olivia Wood & Jessica Krause
May 27, 2019
We're all avoiding our deadlines to bring you this episode with Olivia (writer, narrative designer, and editor and currently works at Failbetter Games where she’s worked on Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Sea: Zubmariner, and Sunless Skies. She’s also worked on Lethophobia, The Mystery of Kalkomey Isle, Cheaper Than Therapy, and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine) and Jessica (former Lead Writer at Telltale Games where she worked on Batman, The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Wolf Among Us: Season 2, and since then has written for WB Games San Francisco, and is currently working with Bad Robot Studios and Google Stadia), who are here to talk about writing meaningful choices, their personal favorite choices in games, what makes a good NPC, what takes you out of a game’s story, storytelling quagmires, getting through rewrite fatigue, when do you know you’re done with a script (apart from deadlines), maintaining a healthy work/life balance, time management, and what’s inspiring them outside of games.
Our Guests on the Internet
Olivia's Twitter.
Jessica's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh
The Chrestomanci Series by Diana Wynne Jones
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald
The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita
Rosa Dachtler & Ben Arfmann
Apr 30, 2019
NARRATIVE DESIGN! WHAT IS IT? Today we're super lucky to have Rosa (narrative designer at Criterion Games, previously an audio designer there, and her credits include Battlefield 1, Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Battlefield 5's Firestorm mode) and Ben (writer at Insomniac Games, where he worked on last year's Spider-Man, and he's also a writer and director of film and TV) joining us to answer answer one of the most perplexing questions of our times, plus chat about going from audio to narrative design, building narrative teams, enthusiasm being undervalued, how to sustain yourself through dark periods, how to nail the voices of established characters/IPs, the greatness of Yuri Lowenthal, methods for getting the best possible performances from your actors, whether directing has impacted their storytelling processes, storytelling quagmires they've found themselves in, how do you know when you're done with something (especially when you don't have a deadline), do they feel obligated to play other games to stay up to date with the state of storytelling, games that impressed them recently, stuff that takes them out of a game's story, things they want changed in game development, and one or two more things!
Our Guests on the Internet
Rosa's Twitter.
Ben's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney
Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Kim Allom & Kate Gray
Mar 31, 2019
This episode is NSFW as we've got Kim (studio manager at Defiant Development, where she’s worked on Hand of Fate, Hand of Fate 2, and Ski Safari: Adventure time. Also the co-founder of Blushbox Collective, a group of game developers exploring and promoting love and sexuality in video games, and the Heartbeat conference and game jam) and Kate (currently the narrative director at KO_OP and writer of the sex games column for Kotaku, previously a games journalist, video producer, on-camera host, scriptwriter, streamer, and community manager at companies ranging from Gamespot to Xbox) in to talk about sex, intimacy, and how they're used in game stories. Other topics include why it’s important to talk about sex now, becoming a stronger communicator, sexual values being good life values, exploring taboo subjects in games, how sex is portrayed in indie games vs big budget games, wanting better consensual content, the lack of funding for intimate interactive experiences, whether there are any aspects of relationships that are hard to translate to gameplay, VR porn, win states in sex games, how to make interactive relationships engaging, and the sexiest games.
Our Guests on the Internet
Kim's Twitter and Blush Box's website.
Stuff We Talked About
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Jon Paquette & Mel MacCoubrey
Feb 18, 2019
Awards season has ARRIVED, and to mark the occasion we've invited two writers representing two of the games nominated by the WGA this year for Best Game Writing : Jon Paquette (Lead Writer on Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, and Resistance 3, and formerly a Creative Director at EA, writer on Medal of Honor, and Medal of Honor: Airborne, and QA Lead on Jurassic Park: Trespasser) and returning guest Mel MacCoubrey (Narrative Director on Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and formerly the Assistant Director of Narrative Design on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, scriptwriter on Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry, and scriptwriting intern on Far Cry 4)! Incredible topics discussed include Jurassic Park Trespasser, writing internships at Ubisoft and Insomniac, whether the core pillars of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Spider-Man stayed consistent throughout development, scoping challenges, game length, making big changes to the story once you have a playable build, preventing problems before they happen, always putting your best ideas forward, hardest part about writing for an open world, the worst professional advice they've ever gotten, maintaining a healthy work/life balance, underrated people working with game narratives, the value of voice actors, if there's anything they would change about game development, AAA games that don't have combat as main mechanic, the importance of Farming Simulator 19 as an esport, and moreeeeeeeeee.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jon's Twitter.
Mel's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Molly Maloney & Eric Stirpe
Feb 01, 2019
It's 2019 and we've got Molly (Lead Narrative Designer at Bad Robot Games, and previously Lead Gameplay Designer at Telltale on Guardians fo the Galaxy, Minecraft: Story Mode, Walking Dead: Season 3, Tales from the Borderlands) and Eric (Writer on Fortnite, interactive consultant for Eko, and previously a staff writer for Netflix's Trash Truck, and a writer at Telltale on Walking Dead: Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode seasons 1 & 2, and Batman: The Telltale Series) here to talk about how choose your own adventure is the dominant influence on interactive narrative at the moment, choice timers, the marriage of writing and narrative design, working relationships, players forgiving bad writing more than bad narrative design, what made Telltale work, finishing a project and feeling like you just spent a lot of time making an asset for somebody else, Bandersnatch (SPOILERS), the problem of having “good” and “bad” endings in branching narratives, fail states, making people feel like their choices matter, obfuscating branches from players, and what makes a good choice.
Our Guests on the Internet
Molly's Twitter.
Eric's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney
Still The Smartest Guy On The Hill 30 Years After Sex, Lies & Videotape: Steven Soderbergh Unravels Hollywood Chaos by Mike Fleming Jr.
Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Rhianna Pratchett, Jill Murray, and Cara Ellison
Dec 24, 2018
Happy holidays! We're sneaking in right before Christmas to give all of you the very special gift of Rhianna Pratchett (game writer, narrative designer, comic book writer, and former journalist. She's written on such titles as Heavenly Sword, the Overlord series, Mirror's Edge, the Mirror’s Edge comic series, the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, the sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and the Tomb Raider: The Beginning comic series) AND Jill Murray (Lead Writer and Narrative Designer for AAA games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Liberation, and AC Freedom Cry, winner of the WGA award for game writing in 2013, and previously published two YA novels with Random House of Canada. She is currently the Narrative Director for an unannounced indie project, as well as working on Boyfriend Dungeon with Kitfox Games, and writing an episode of Later Daters for Bloom Digital) AND Cara Ellison (former games journalist and current game writer, narrative designer, and screenwriter. She served as a narrative consultant on Dishonored 2, produced and designed the TV show Last Commanders for CBBC, and is currently a narrative designer on Media Molecule's Dreams, and Void Bastards by BlueManchu Games), who've joined us to talk prime writing hours, freelancing advice, how to network (and how NOT to), game writing agents, negotiating for yourself, being a narrative paramedic, red flags to watch out for on potential jobs, what they wish more people knew about the kind of work they do, skills to have that are unique for working in AAA, how to handle when people are constantly telling you that your work isn't good, being aware of studio politics, writing mistakes/failures that they've learned from, the state of the industry, worldbuilding, and a few other things that you'll just have to find out yourself!
Our Guests on the Internet
Rhianna's Twitter and Website.
Jill's Twitter, Website, and Instagram.
Cara's Twitter, Facebook, and Website.
Stuff We Talked About
Writing for Videogames - Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Ryan Benno & Ellen Shelley
Nov 26, 2018
We've got another art-focused episode for you this month as we're joined by Ryan (environment artist on Hunted: The Demon's Forge, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Sunset Overdrive, Ratchet and Clank, and the senior environment artist on Marvel's Spider-Man. He's also one of the hosts of the Environment Art Podcast) and Ellen (currently a lighting artist at Supermassive Games, previously a 3D artist at Sony’s London Studio, a 3D Environment Artist at Little Wolf Studio Ltd, and a VR developer at Yelo Architects) to talk about whether degrees are necessary anymore to find work, where do you start when making an environment, style guides, navigating creative disagreements, environmental storytelling, the overabundance of sci-fi hallways, narrative/visual techniques that games still haven’t tried much, soft cardboard boxes, starting with the blank page, the difference between making a twentysomething-year-old’s apartment vs Peter Parker’s apartment, what can’t you tweak when you’re building an environment that everyone knows, breaking walls that were not meant to break, readability, accessibility, and know that not everything you make needs to be at 11.
Our Guests on the Internet
Ryan on Twitter.
Ellen on Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Ashley Swidowski & Claire Hummel
Nov 13, 2018
We're taking a big ol' swan dive into character design and concept art on this week's episode, and so we're SUPER lucky to have Ashley (formerly a Concept Artist on The Last of Us: Left Behind, and since then she's worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End as Lead Character Concept Artist, as well as the upcoming The Last of Us Part II) and Claire (formerly an Artist and Associate Production Designer for Microsoft Studios, where she worked on a bunch of Kinect games, Fable Legends, Sunset Overdrive, Powerstar Golf, and more. She also was the Production Designer for Westworld VR, and currently works as the Art Director on In the Valley of Gods for Campo Santo/Valve) joining us to talk about the misconceptions around what a concept artist does, how they each approach character design, what they want from the writers/creative director when they're starting out with designing one, working for the project instead of yourself, how they know when they're done, the importance of taking breaks and having personal projects, how to achieve good storytelling and character work through costuming, how "real" you can push things before it becomes so novel for players that they're distracted by it, cloth sims: the final frontier of video game character design, making art for VR, major influences, how to create characters that are lifelike and not superficial, the secret to navigating creative disagreements successfully, the importance of failing and making mistakes, which game stories they've responded to recently, and MORE!
Our Guests on the Internet
Ashley on Twitter and Instagram.
Claire on Twitter and her Website.
Stuff We Talked About
Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Ben Esposito & Andrew Shouldice
Sep 29, 2018
Puns are OUTLAWED on this episode as we talk with Ben (Creator of Donut County, and also a game designer, level designer, sound designer, artist, programmer, writer, and more, with credits on Brooklyn Trash King, Bubsy3d: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Tattletail. Also a co-founder of Glitch City LA and Arcane Kids) and Andrew (pretty much the one-man developer behind Tunic, which he’s been working on full time since leaving Silverback Games in 2015) about skulls near toilets and environmental storytelling, designing a story where the player doesn't fully understand what's happening in the world, when to start thinking about theme, garbage chic, coming up with a game to match a specific feeling, freedom being a terrible thing for an artist, the emotional expense of investing yourself in someone else's project, the danger of snacks and working from home, when you know you’re done with something, games dictating their length, naming your game, keeping a good work/life balance when your boss is you, secrets decisions, and how to Twitter well.
Our Guests on the Internet
Andrew's Twitter and Tunic's Twitter.
Ben's Twitter, Website, and Donut County's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Emily Short's Blog Post About Donut County
Donut County is a Game About Swallowing Los Angeles and Realizing You're an Asshole by Laura Hudson
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Laura Michet & Cat Manning
Sep 23, 2018
Freelancing! Blessing or curse? Today Laura (writer and editor of such games as Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Swan Hill, You Got This, Brutadon!, The Brigand’s Story, and more, and is currently an editor at Riot Games.) and Cat (writer and narrative designer of video games and narrative fiction, who's worked on titles such as Invasion, Pathologic 2, What Isn't Saved (Will Be Lost), Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and the forthcoming Leader of the Pack) join us to talk about that independent life with topics like how to find work, what to look for in contracts, rates, renegotiating, the importance of maintaining a social media presence, whether you should go to festivals, why you maybe shouldn't go to the Write Zone at GDC, and non-freelancer stuff like how to match another writer's voice, reflective choices and how to make strong ones, how to give a player the feeling that their decisions have an impact on a story (especially when the story isn't actually changing at all), writing mistakes, the importance of editing, getting feedback, and I dunno, a few more things.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
The parser game scene from the Tom Hanks movie Big
Slug-In-Hand Tavern Twitter Bot
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Videogames Guidelines
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Successful Reflective Choices in Interactive Narrative by Cat Manning
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Marc Laidlaw & Chris Gardiner
Jul 30, 2018
Summer is here and so is a new episode! Today we're talking with Marc (author, game writer, designer, and previously worked at Valve on Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 & 2, and Dota) and Chris (narrative director at Failbetter Games, previously a staff writer and head writer, and has written on Fallen London, The Last Court, Sunless Skies, and Sunless Seas) about storytelling transmedia synergy in 1990s Japan, what makes a good narrative director, planning a career as a writer, core skills writers should have, getting into writing with a team too early in your career, keys to good worldbuilding, creating the illusion of depth, the poop caves of Nottingham, having end goals in mind as a team, trusting your teammates, avoiding your first thoughts in writing, how expectations of more dialogue can put the wrong weight on characters, big failures, changes in writing processes, and player literacy.
Our Guests on the Internet
Chris' Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Which Legend of Zelda Game Was Inspired By Twin Peaks? by Michael McWhertor
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Mitch Dyer & Demian Linn
Jun 25, 2018
Going from game journalism to game writing isn't something you see too often, but today Mitch Dyer (former editor at IGN, freelance writer for Gamespot, ArsTechnica, The Escapist, Gamesrader, and more, and current writer at EA Motive where he recently finished working on Star Wars Battlefront 2) and Demian Linn (former executive producer at Ziff Davis Media, 1UP.com, and GameVideos, co-founder of BitMob Media, and current game writer at Ubisoft San Francisco, where he just finished working on South Park: the Fractured But Whole) join us to talk about their experiences doing just that, as well freelance life, assumptions they had about game writing that ended up being incorrect, aspects of games we all wish fans and/or the media understood better, the biggest storytelling mistakes they've learned from, writing tests, how to stay objective about your writing, the approval process on big IPs, writing processes, toolsets, what takes them out of games, what to do when you're struggling with a writing problem, what's inspiring them lately, why comedy in video games is so hard to pull off, what they struggle most with with writing and how they conquer it, storytelling trends over the last decade, when we're going to see a AAA studio make a game with no combat, verbs they'd like to see more, and -- wow, this sentence is just going on forever, huh.
Our Guests on the Internet
Mitch's Twitter.
Demian's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Charlene Putney & Jana Sloan van Geest
May 14, 2018
Spring is here, and so are Charlene (writer at Larian Studios on Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2) and Jana (game writer and narrative designer on Battlestar Galactica: Squadrons, Assassin's Creed Origins, and currently at Guerilla Games where she just finished working on Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds)! They join us to talk about what makes a good bark, writing a good tooltip, finding inspiration in others, doing different types of writing at different times of day, solving a writing problem by articulating it to someone else, working with different team sizes, best practices for breaking through creative ruts, honing your judgment, the need for simplicity and clarity in game writing, the craving for more narration through items, and never retiring a tool in the storytelling toolbox.
Our Guests on the Internet
Charlene's Twitter.
Jana's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Hag-Seed: A Novel by Margaret Atwood
Borne: A Novel by Jeff VanderMeer
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Janina Gavankar & Sarah Elmaleh
Apr 23, 2018
GET IN, LISTENERS! WE'RE GOING TO ACTING CLASS! And joining us on this fantastically illuminating trip are Janina Gavankar (actor, musician, writer, and most recently seen in Star Wars Battlefront II, Far Cry 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the forthcoming Afterparty for Night School Studio) and returning guest Sarah Elmaleh (actor and voiceover artist on such projects as Gone Home, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Pyre, Read Only Memories, Masquerada, Final Fantasy XV, For Honor, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and the BBC Radio drama Game Over)! We chat about letting actors become collaborators (and why it doesn't always happen), rehearsals, falling in love with Don Johnson, the audition process, what makes a good director, the worst piece of direction they've ever gotten, what takes us out of game stories, the kinds of roles and characters they'd like to see more of, the era of the antihero and its end, knowing the medium, not making decisions out of fear, if it's ever possible to know too much about a character you're playing, the film industry chasing the games industry, and so much more you don't even KNOW.
Our Guests on the Internet
Janina's Twitter
Sarah's Twitter
Stuff We Talked About
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Alex Neonakis & Olly Moss
Jan 18, 2018
A NEW YEAR means NEW GUESTS! Alex (former UI designer and current character concept artist at Naughty Dog, as well as a freelance children’s book author. Her credits include The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and NBA Live 09) and Olly (Art Director on Firewatch, and graphic designer best known for his work w/ Mondo, Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Academy Awards, and much more) join us to talk about growing up on message boards, NBA Live 09 and the UI of sports games, whether knowledge limits your creativity, communicating a feeling through art, being critical of your own work, creating Garfields for fun, experimentation, UI in a background role, creating spaces in Firewatch that felt natural and not meticulously designed, how to lead the player without being too obtuse or explicit, creating Drake's Journal in Uncharted 4, misconceptions about work, why Breath of the Wild is great, and Tom Bombadil.
Our Guests on the Internet
Olly's Twitter, Garfield Repository, and Website.
Stuff We Talked About
Olly's Harry Potter book covers
That millennial SNL skit Alex mentioned
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse trailer
How We Made The Last of Us's Interface Work So Well by Alex Neonakis
Drake's Journal by Alex Neonakis
In the Valley of Gods by Campo Santo
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Halley Gross & Graham Reznick
Dec 12, 2017
2017's coming to a close and who better to spend it with than Halley (writer, actress, currently co-writing The Last of Us: Part II, and has written on the TV shows Banshee, Westworld, and Emerald City) and Graham (writer, director, sound designer, currently writing and directing Rapid Eye, and has co-written Until Dawn, Until Dawn Rush of Blood, and Hidden Agenda)! They join us to talk moving from TV to games, writing solo vs with a partner, staring at the ceiling being work, pacing for the player's time, garbage passes, Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic and his thoughts on video games, what makes something a game vs an interactive experience, how everyone is gaming literate now, lining up performances in a modular narrative, writing and recording out of order, trusting your actors and going easy on those parentheticals (unless you’re making a modular narrative), fan expectations, fan fiction, getting the audience to trust you, writing exposition, story burritos, characters saying their feelings, and challenging your audience.
Note:
- This episode has spoilers for Inside.
- Halley said she played a Game Gear game called Gems, but she wants you to know that she actually meant to say Columns.
- Halley was right about Playwright’s Horizons.
Our Guests on the Internet
Halley's Twitter.
Graham's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Steven Soderbergh on Filmmaking, the Weinstein Scandal, and Why You Shouldn’t Call Mosaic a Video Game by Matt Zoller Seitz
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Samantha Wallschlaeger & Brooke Maggs
Nov 20, 2017
Samantha (narrative designer at ArenaNet, and previously a writer and narrative designer on titles such as SumoBoy, Fallout: Lonestar, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Mass Effect Andromeda) and Brooke (writer and narrative designer on The Gardens Between, Paperback and Florence) call in to talk about breaking into the industry, binging the Mass Effect trilogy, writing processes, why character should be the plot, trying to get a story across without using text or speech, creating well-rounded characters, transitioning from a literary writer to a narrative designer, writing for MMOs and the writing process working on The Old Republic, episodic and 100+ hour narratives, special difficulty modes for people who just want to experience the story in a game, NOT being able to kiss Nick Valentine in Fallout 4, different approaches to storytelling within Bioware, career advice and tips for breaking into the industry, and oh man so much more it's crazy.
Our Guests on the Internet
Samantha's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
HULK PRESENTS CHARACTER TREES by Film Crit Hulk
The Writer Between: Thieving Literary Plot to Design Game Narrative by Brooke Maggs
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Michael Choung & Laura Jacqmin
Oct 31, 2017
Michael (writer at Night School Studio, and previously a lead writer at Telltale Games on The Walking Dead - A New Frontier, Batman, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Tales from the Borderlands) and Laura (playwright, TV writer, and game writer, winner of several awards for her plays, including the Wasserstein Prize, writer on Get Shorty, Grace and Frankie, Season 3 of Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Minecraft: Story Mode) join us to talk about moving between theatre, TV, and video games, switching fonts and other strategies when you're narratively stuck, the best times to write, jumping from selling shoes to Telltale, player agency, approaching storytelling differently for different IP, Night School’s storytelling philosophy, story being an endlessly renewable resource, work-life balance, giving the illusion of choice to players, making choices feel big, responding to players while making episodic content, and the need for more character moments in AAA.
Our Guests on the Internet
Michael's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Dental Society Midwinter Meeting by Laura Jacqmin
Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them by Jason Schreier
Tales from the Borderlands: The Oral History by Duncan Fyfe
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Ashly Burch & Kate Dollarhyde
Aug 28, 2017
Ashly (actress, writer, and singer, who's acted in such games as Borderlands 2, Mortal Kombat X, Life is Strange, and Horizon Zero Dawn, and has written for Rocket Jump, Adventure Time, and Glitch Techs) and Kate (writer of speculative fiction, with her stories appearing in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Gamut, and Lamplight, and currently the co-Editor in Chief of the online magazine Strange Horizons as well as a narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment working on Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire) are here to talk fan fiction, writing processes, letting your work breathe vs brute forcing it, whether games need their stories to be great or not, dealing with bad notes, voice acting and having too much or too little info to work with when you go into the booth, staying true to an IPs voice while also bringing your own, writing as a fan, ways to handle the problem of crafting stories when players might not be paying attention to/remembering key information, making players feel helpless, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Ashly's Twitter, Website, and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
Stuff We Talked About
The Science and Entertainment Exchange
Fueling the 'Pyre' With Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin
Epistle 3 Jam (Half-Life 3 Game Jam)
Epistle 3 by Marc Laidlaw
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Kim Belair & Harrison G. Pink
Jul 17, 2017
Kim (scriptwriter at Ubisoft, co-author of the novel "Pure Steele", and co-host of the weekly podcast, "The Sexiest Podcast") and Harrison ( game designer at Telltale on seasons 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: 400 Days, and co-creator of Tales from the Borderlands. Recently a world designer at Hangar 13 on Mafia 3) are here to talk about whether modern games leave enough to the player’s imagination, introducing a New Game Minus feature, if you have a lot of money, you can’t afford faith (from a corporate level), the weirdness of Earthbound, feeling obligated to share lore because you have it instead of holding it back, studios valuing plot logic over emotional logic between characters, open world design problems, giving players more verbs, being able to ask for help more in games, making choices explicit to players, too many twists, and the need for lower stakes.
Our Guests on the Internet
Harrison's Twitter and Podcast.
Stuff We Talked About
Pure Steele by Kim Belair and Ariadne MacGillivray
Imagination vs Immersion by Kim Belair
List of games that support Tourism compiled by JP LeBreton
Arms' lore just gets weirder and weirder by Allegra Frank
The Door Problem by Liz England
Prey vs. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: why one intro works and the other doesn't by Tom Francis
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Josh Mosqueira & Darby McDevitt
Jun 26, 2017
Josh (designer on Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, writer and designer on over a dozen tabletop RPGs for White Wolf, Dream Pod 9, and Steve Jackson games, lead designer on Company of Heroes and Homeworld 2, initial creative director on Far Cry 3, game director on Diablo 3, and current design/game master in residence at Bonfire Studios) and Darby (Writer on several Game Boy Advance and DS games like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Sims 2, but most recently has been a writer on the Assassin’s Creed series and was the lead writer on Revelations and Black Flag) call in to discuss tabletop gaming, the benefits of an english degree, being a game director at Blizzard, the business realities of game development, the relationship between narrative design and game design, the importance of the player's story, the problem with plot in video games and how to deal with it, the storytelling of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, whether games will ever be remembered for their stories, bad writing, working with established franchises, dealing with the expectations of players, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Josh's Twitter and Bonfire Studios's website.
Darby's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Pandemic by Matt Leacock
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Best Detective Game Ever Made - Extra Credits
Abel Gance's Napoléon
Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Sean Vanaman & Jesse Stern
Apr 17, 2017
We've got Sean (co-project leader and lead writer on season one of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, and Puzzle Agent 2. Writer on Tales of Monkey Island and a designer on Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Co-founder of Campo Santo, and writer on their first game, Firewatch) and Jesse (writer on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 4, and Titanfall 1 & 2) in to talk about joining the industry with no preconceived notions, the importance of having somebody with strong storytelling sensibilities in a senior leadership role, how building scenes first and then finding a writer NEVER works, generating trust with your team, trusting the process, the skills you improve over making games, staying usefully ignorant of the process, the hardest scene to write in games being two people talking to each other, maintaining a professional curiosity, when is the right time to share ideas with your team, the problem of people mortgaging fun and entertainment for subtlety, and Sean’s experience working on Mickey Epic.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jesse's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
The Art of Fiction #6: Greg Kasavin by Sean Vanaman
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Aleissia Laidacker & Rob Morgan
Mar 27, 2017
Straight outta GDC, Aleissia (gameplay programmer on Lost: Via Domus, Behavior and AI Programmer on Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, and lead AI and game programmer on Assassin's Creed 3, Unity, and Unnanounced Project at Ubisoft Montreal) and Rob (game writer, narrative designer, voice director, and cofounder and creative director of Playlines. Writer on The Assembly, Imago, Fallen London, and Wonderbook: Book of Spells) join us to discuss augmented and mixed reality experiences, interactive immersive theater, how to get players to not break experiences, whether AI is the future for making games accessible or not, Sleep No More (as always), should players be aware of a narrative changing around them, managing the user experience, having stories where the player isn't the hero, participation through implication as a storytelling conceit, using AI tracking and Machine Learning to help systemic games, attuning players to treat the world around them as if it's not devoid of social consequences, the player's self-importance about their own experience, advancements in systemic design, our collective excitement at the prospect of a wrestling game using the nemesis system, parallels between wrestling and storytelling, how do you make a believable NPC, and sooooo much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Aleissia's Twitter and her podcast, DevJam.
Stuff We Talked About
Punchdrunk and Media Molecule - Where Dreams Collide
Escaping the Holodeck: Storytelling and Convergence in VR/AR
Turing Tantrums: AI Devs Rant!!
GCAP 2016: Systems Are Everywhere... Right, Elon Musk? - Aleissia Laidacker
Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of Eve Online by Andrew Groen
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
The Sexy, Scary Play That’s Influencing Google, Facebook, And Disney
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Émilie Poissenot & Brie Code
Feb 20, 2017
We're starting 2017 off right with our guests Émilie (co-director of Burning Glass Creative, led design team on The Sims FreePlay at EA Melbourne and on Drakensang at Bigpoint Games. Was game design director at Frima Studio and taught storytelling in games at Cégep Limoilou) and Brie (previously lead programmer at Ubisoft Montreal on the Assassin's Creed franchise and Child of Light, and currently the founder of Tru Luv Media). Topics include making games with people who don't like video games, modular narratives, integrating positive psychology into game design, story emerging from systems, the storytelling challenges of being free to play, updating a game every three weeks and the challenges therein, emotional triggers that create engagement, player ownership in games, the importance of giving space to the audience, and games as a personal growth tool.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon
*Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.*
Emily Grace Buck & Julie Marchiori
Dec 19, 2016
It's our last episode of the year! Emily Grace Buck (narrative designer at Telltale Games where she worked on The Walking Dead: Michonne and Batman - The Telltale Series, and previously designed and wrote educational games at Kognito) and Julie Marchiori (level designer, mission designer, and current Assistant Narrative Director at Ubisoft Montreal, and has worked on such games as the Army of Two franchise, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3, and Assassin's Creed Unity) drop in to talk about using agency to empower players to build their own stories, gameplay verbs, the narrative potential of systems, environmental storytelling, level design, the research phase, design processes, subtext in games, the importance of downtime with your characters and why it's difficult for studios, minority content, examining the choices of players, and a heck of a lot more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Julie's Blog about going from gamer geek to gamer geek mom, and her other Blog where she talks about things like her beef with gendered games.
Stuff We Talked About
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Tim Schafer, Jake Elliott, and Cara Ellison
Dec 05, 2016
We are JAM-PACKED with storymakin' knowledge as we talk with Tim (co-founder and creative director of Double Fine Productions, probably wrote/designed/programmed your favorite LucasArts games), Jake (co-founder of Cardboard Computer and writer on Kentucky Route Zero. Maker of artware, music, and games like A (Moth in Relay), We Were You, and The Penguins’ Dilemma), and SURPRISE RETURN GUEST Cara (writer, narrative designer, game critic, and wrote on the recently released Dishonored 2) about using Twine as a design tool, knowing the implementation of your writing, working the fat off your prose style, the hero’s journey being just one bag of tricks that works, the differing emotional states between pitching and working, thinking of structure like Brutalist architecture, the most over utilized/underutilized tools in the storytelling toolbox, the importance of having/not having voice over, fatigue from world-ending stakes, internal writing rules, deciding to use/not use puzzles in adventure games, and whether there’s too much pressure on conclusions.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder (Don’t buy this book)
Breakfast of Champions: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin
Jake's GDC 2013 talk - Designing for Mystery in Kentucky Route Zero
The Poetics of Space by Cara Ellison
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Mel MacCoubrey & Ann Lemay
Nov 21, 2016
Mel (writer and Director of Narrative Design at Ubisoft Quebec, and has worked on such games as Far Cry 4, Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate) and Ann (writer and narrative designer on such games as Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Mass Effect: Andromeda, and is a co-writer of the book The Game Narrative Toolbox) are here to talk about whether going to university is necessary for becoming a game writer, being a salesperson to other departments, Ubisoft internships, the length of game stories, being a narrative director, one thing they wish all departments knew about narrative to start with, dealing with players who don't care about story, how narrative is everything, the possibility of AAA studios making smaller open world games, being scientifically accurate in Mass Effect and historically accurate in Assassin's Creed, coming onto a franchise that has already started, fan fiction, how to acknowledge every possible action of the player without diluting the story you want to tell, whether we should be concerned about side content overshadowing the main narrative, the hardest and easiest characters to write, the importance of communication, and jeez, so much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
Why Most People Don't Finish Video Games
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Thomas Grip & JT Petty
Sep 12, 2016
Thomas Grip (co-founder and Creative Director of Frictional Games, makers of the Penumbra series, the Amnesia series, and SOMA) and JT Petty (writer on such games as the first three Splinter Cell titles, Batman Begins, Outlast 1 & 2, and The Walking Dead: Season 2) join us to discuss the Four Layers of Narrative Design, mistaking plot for story, how controllers affect the narrative, goals of storytelling, VR skepticism, the relation between narrative systems and emotional impact, Silent Hill, what a lack of combat can do for you, the lessons developers can learn from horror, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Thomas' Twitter.
JT's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Games Telling Stories? by Jesper Juul
The Aesthetic of Play by Brian Upton
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Writings & Lectures on Game Design by Richard Rouse III
Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover
Why VR Will Not Replace Movies by David Pogue
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Josh Scherr & Sarah Elmaleh
Aug 15, 2016
Uncharted 4 spoilers abound as we've got Josh (former Cinematics Animation Lead at Naughty Dog on the Jak and Daxter series as well as Uncharted 1 through 3, followed by co-writer on Uncharted 4) and Sarah (actor and voiceover artist, heard in such games as Gone Home, Codename Cygnus, Skulls of the Shogun, Galak-Z, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Uncharted 4) in to talk performance, can you know too much about a character, the writing process at Naughty Dog, what you accomplish in level dialogue vs cutscene dialogue, why there isn’t an open world Uncharted, was Sam ever Samantha, structure, taking the time to develop characters in-game and spend time with them, where do you start when creating mysteries/puzzles, serious pirate history, making the main character an asshole, ghost pirates, and can you enjoy the games you’ve worked on.
Again, SPOILERS FOR UNCHARTED 4 IN THIS EPISODE.
Our Guests on the Internet
Josh's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
The Uncharted comic series on Comixology
A Second Chance at Sarah by Neil Druckmann
Nate's journal illustrations by Alex Neonakis
A General History of the Pyrates by Capt. Charles Johnson
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Laura E. Hall & Ian Thomas
Aug 01, 2016
The wait is over! Laura (writer and game designer on such projects as the escape room Spark of Resistance, Dysforgiveness, and Cuppa Quest) and Ian (writer, narrative designer, and programmer, and has worked on Soma, the Lego games, and the Little Big Planet series) join us this week to talk about moment-driven story design, designing escape rooms and narrative live action experiences, relying on people's subconscious' to do the heavy lifting, Punchdrunk's immersive theatre, environmental storytelling, breaking games, how to write for experiences where you can't control what the player will do, puzzle design, VR shorthands, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Laura's Twitter, Website, and Escape Room.
Ian's Twitter, Talespinners' Website, and Frictional Games' Website.
Stuff We Talked About
Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, Part Three by Alexis Kennedy
The Room by Fireproof Games
Bossfight Books' Spleunky by Derek Yu
Sisters by Otherworld
Budget Cuts by Neat Corporation
The Foo Show featuring Will Smith
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Jolie Menzel & Teddy Diefenbach
May 16, 2016
Talking all about design this week with Jolie (cinematic artist & game designer at Telltale Games on The Walking Dead: 400 Days, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands and more, and currently a level designer at Ubisoft San Francisco on South Park: The Fracture But Whole) and Teddy (writer and game designer, worked on Shove Pro, The Moonlighters, and Hyper Light Drifter, and currently a creative director at Square Enix Montreal). We also chat about the story and lack of text in Hyper Light Drifter, games being different based on what department heads the studio, breaking design down into systems/levels/narratives, narrative puzzle design, iteration, having intimate conversations with developers by playing their game, giving players choice when they don’t expect it, the balance of showing how much a game is listening to players, subtlety in design, storytelling through level design, games withholding their payoffs for too long, and the need to not be precious with your work.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jolie's Twitter.
Teddy's Twitter, Podcast, and Hyper Light Drifter.
Stuff We Talked About
Jolie’s GDC 2016 talk - Solving Puzzle Design
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques by Joseph V. Mascelli
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Drew McGee & Greg Kasavin
May 02, 2016
Drew (Design Analyst on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Writer and Designer on The Banner Saga, and Lead Writer on The Banner Saga 2) and Greg (Creative Director of Supergiant Games and Writer of Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre) call in to talk with us about the importance of being involved with the development process when you're a writer, worldbuilding, the writing process on Banner Saga 1 & 2, subtlety in games, how Supergiant decides on which game they're gonna make, writing as the most disposable of the creative disciplines, the divide between thinking something is good and what ends up shipping, storytelling structures, revising and never being comfortable in knowing how close you are from the finish line, the phrase 'We made the game we wanna play,' dealing with branching narratives, and the storytelling potential in fighting games.
Our Guests on the Internet
Drew's Twitter and Stoic's Twitter.
Greg's Twitter and Supergiant's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Raid on Rise: Narrative Creation on 'Rise of The Tomb Raider'
Greg Kasavin Reads the Introduction of Samurai Showdown 2
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Rob Morgan & Emily Short
Apr 18, 2016
NPCs! VR! AR! Rob (game writer, narrative designer, voice director, and writer on Wonderbook, Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and The Assembly) and Emily (game designer specializing in interactive narrative, dialogue, and social interaction modeling, and writer of Galatea, First Draft of the Revolution, Alabaster, Counterfeit Monkey, and more) are here to talk about the importance of streamlining the implementation of your script, looting silos of information and the problem of them not being widely accessible, the value of knowing programming, the storytelling possibilities of VR and who you “are,” disempowered experiences in VR, interactive theater’s influence on games, different solutions for offering branching narratives to players, writing for augmented reality, and the lack of games about maintaining relationships.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
Beyond Branching: Quality-Based, Salience-Based, and Waypoint Narrative Structures by Emily Short
Love Stories for High-XP Characters by Emily Short
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Ian Gil & Anna Kipnis
Apr 04, 2016
Ian (Design Director at E-Line Media and has worked on Gamestar Mechanic, Gamestar Mechanic Jr, and Never Alone) and Anna (Senior Gameplay Programmer at Double Fine and has worked on such games as Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Broken Age, and Headlander, and was the lead on Dear Leader during Amnesia Fortnight 2014) join us to discuss falling into the industry, the benefits of an education that doesn't just focus on programming/computer science, the work involved with implementing dialogue, planning for localization, Never Alone's development, cultural expression in games, dialogue systems, why text to speech isn't the future (for now), the costs of voiced dynamic dialogue, authored vs simulationist vs player-centric approaches to story in games, and a couple of other rad topics!
Our Guests on the Internet
Ian's Twitter.
Anna's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
Dialogue Systems in Double Fine Games
Molyjam: How Twitter Jokes Can Save Video Games
Dwarf Fortress' Creator on How He's 42% Towards Simulating Existence
Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Viriconium by M. John Harrison
The Yawhg by Emily Carroll & Damian Sommer
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Matthew Burns & Carrie Patel
Mar 28, 2016
Matthew (writer, composer, and game developer on titles including the Call of Duty and Halo series, Destiny, The Infinifactory, The Arboretum, The Writer Will Do Something, and TIS-100) and Carrie (narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity, writer of The Buried Life and Cities and Thrones) join us this week to talk about maintaining your writing momentum, outlining, the writing process at Obsidian, Large Teams and the Problems they Cause, creating a Total Work of Art in video games, offering decisions that lead to chokepoints, motivating players with different play styles, the negative space that defines players’ experiences, how The Writer Will Do Something came about, that part of the meeting when everybody turns to look at you, when gameplay doesn't trump story, the linearity of relationship portrayals in games today, and should creators ever be involved in the post-release discussion.
Our Guests on the Internet
Matthew's Twitter and Website.
Stuff We Talked About
The Expanse by James S. A. Corey
My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Karla Zimonja & Eric Stirpe
Mar 04, 2016
This week's coming in hot with Karla Zimonja (researcher and sound tech person on Bioshock 2, narrative and 2D art on Minerva's Den, story editor and 2D artist on Gone Home, and currently working on Tacoma) and Eric Stirpe (writer on The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode) joining us to talk about writing and editing processes, writing at Telltale and working with design, player trust, gaming literacy, the importance of Minecraft, trying to balance giving the player an experience that feels unique and tailored to them with the desire to tell a coherent story, ludonarrative dissonance, whether there's a place for cutscenes, how to handle pacing, things you can and can't do with a first person narrative, and so much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Eric's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
"Playdate" (Chris Ware's story about playing Minecraft with his daughter)
VIDEO GAMES CAN NEVER BE ART by Roger Ebert
Growing up Weightless by John M. Ford
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson
The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Meg Jayanth & Richard Lemarchand
Feb 15, 2016
We're captivated by our guests this week, as Meg (creator of Samsara, lead writer on 80 Days, and contributor on Sunless Sea) and Richard (game designer on Gex, Pandemonium, the Soul Reaver series, lead game designer on Jak X and the first three Uncharted games, and Associate Professor in the Interactive Media and Games Division at USC) talk about the cultural influences of tabletop, LARPing and interactive theatre on games, the woes of being a freelance writer, finding work-life balance, the importance and need for editors, the propensity for systemic thinking, unfairness in games, following the rules of fiction vs the rules of games, systemizing choice, the structure of 80 Days, research giving safety to the player, whether genres are useful, the generic influences of The Velvet Underground and The Doors, games confident enough to not explode all over your face when you start them up, and taking responsibility for the stories and games we put out into the world.
Our Guests on the Internet
Meg's Twitter and Website.
Richard's Twitter and Website.
Stuff We Talked About
The Art of Fiction #2: Meg Jayanth by Duncan Fyfe
Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing
Meg's GDC 2015 talk - Leading Players Astray : 80 Days & Unexpected Stories
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
Cybernetics: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine by Norbert Wiener
Meg's PRACTICE 2015 talk on Unfairness in Games
Towards a Steampunk Without Steam by Amal El-Mohtar
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Mitu Khandaker & Jerry Belich
Feb 01, 2016
Social simulations and the storytelling potential of hardware-based games are the main topics in today's discussion with Mitu (Creator of Redshirt, PhD holder in Aesthetics of Interactivity in Video Games, and current Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Game Center) and Jerry (Game designer and developer behind Robo Mama’s Cooking Kitchen, MysteryPhone, Discourse, The Choosatron, and Afterglow)! We talk about the importance of player choice, The Witness and the dialogue that happens between a creator and the player, why freedom in games isn't always a good thing, how controllers and interfaces affect the way we think about games, why Animal Crossing is an amazing social simulator, how fleshing out a game's world can influence the design, the problems with making a social simulation, what happens to our engagement with games as interfaces become more mimetic, slaying Chris Crawford's Dragon, and man, that's just the stuff that's off the top of our heads!
Our Guests on the Internet
Mitu's Twitter and The Tiniest Shark
Stuff We Talked About
Mitu's GDC Talk - Thinking About People: Designing Games for Social Simulation
Chris Crawford's Dragon Speech
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Jill Murray & Corey May
Jan 18, 2016
2016 has been put on notice by our guests Jill (writer on Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and the Assassin’s Creed series, including Liberation, Black Flag, and Freedom Cry) and Corey (writer on Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, The Two Thrones, Batman: Arkham Origins, and lead writer on Assassin's Creed 1, 2, and 3), who are here to talk about how everything is writing even if nobody will believe you, staying creatively refreshed, the brain’s thirst for motor activities during procrastination, how one is never done writing a game even after shipping, the insularity of the games industry vs other mediums, the treatment of making games as software instead of entertainment, why it's so hard to get rid of the cutscene/gameplay/cutscene structure, how games have a lot to learn about nonverbal storytelling from dance, the need to embrace failure, how pressure does NOT make diamonds in game development, working with a nonexistent creative vision, being forced to make decisions and live with them as early as possible, not holding out for a better idea, and more things The Good Wife can teach us about narrative design.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jill's Twitter, Website, Discoglobe Interactive Inc., and Moon Hunters.
Corey's Twitter.
Stuff We Talked About
The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir by Staceyann Chin
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Cara Ellison & Jack de Quidt
Dec 21, 2015
Our last episode of the year is here and it's super writing-focused! Cara Ellison (Writer, game critic, narrative designer, creator of Sacrilege, and writer on Dishonored 2) and Jack de Quidt (Writer/composer of Castles in the Sky, and writer of Veracity & Purpose and Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist) join us to talk about their writing processes, working on a narrative when it's fractured across an entire team, why fetch quests occur even though everyone HATES them, the narrative design in The Witcher and Kentucky Route Zero, why a lot of studios are afraid of trusting the player, narrative problem-solving, the verbs that happen in games, navigating breaking the fourth wall, the portrayal of relationships in games, the importance of humor, how to handle pacing, required reading for people working in the industry that isn't about making games, and much, much more.
Our Guests on the Internet
Cara's Twitter, Website, Dishonored 2, Sacrilege, and you can buy Embed with Games here.
Jack's Twitter, Crows Crows Crows, and Friends at the Table.
Stuff We Talked About
On Pointlessness by Steve Gaynor
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (it's free!)
TO THE WRITERS OF THE UNIT by David Mamet
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin
Kentucky Route Zero and the Poetics of Space by Cara Ellison
Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Graham & Malena Annable
Dec 07, 2015
LucasArts is in the house with our guests Graham (animator on Full Throttle, The Dig, The Curse of Monkey Island, and more. Former creative director at Telltale, creator of Grickle and the Puzzle Agent series, and currently at Laika) and Malena (sound dept. at LucasArts, and later joined Double Fine as a producer, including VO and localization, on pretty much every game they've released). We cover RTX Red Rock, wearing many hats as a producer and creative director, Telltale’s first year, course correcting your game, localization vs translating, how writers can make producers’ lives easier, similarities between miniature set design and game development, and the unnerving speed of technological change in games.
Our Guests on the Internet
Graham's Twitter, Youtube, and Vine
Malena is NOWHERE, but you can donate to Psychonauts 2 here
Stuff We Talked About
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
C.J. Kershner & Liz Albl
Nov 23, 2015
Come for the discussions about writing on an open world game with C.J. (lead writer on Homefront, scriptwriter on Rainbox 6, Your Shape, Far Cry 4, Assassin's Creed, and currently senior narrative designer on Homefront: The Revolution,) and Liz (scriptwriter on Far Cry 4, Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yetis), stay for the talks on how to write a good bark, working with localization, pickled toes, writing Far Cry 4, exposition, maintaining urgency in an open word, catching players back up with the story, the importance of asking why manhole covers are round, and GTA 5 role-playing.
Our Guests on the Internet
Liz's Website and Twitter
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Khris Brown & Brad Muir
Nov 10, 2015
Two of the happiest people in games, Khris (VO/casting director and creative consultant for such places as LucasArts, Double Fine, EA, THQ, Ubisoft, and Telltale Games) and Brad (project lead of Iron Brigade, Brazen, and MASSIVE CHALICE) talk to us about pitching games to studios, working with the story for MASSIVE CHALICE, directing voice over, working with actors, how to deal with differences of opinion, the importance of staying positive, creating stories in games when you're not a "story person", narrative and gameplay dissonance, linearity of AAA game stories, the future of performances in games, and how we've evolved for hugging.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
Double Fine Adventure documentary
Amnesia Fortnight 2014 documentary
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Robin Hunicke
Nov 03, 2015
We dive deep into empathy with Robin (designer on The Sims 2: Open for Business, MySims, producer on Journey, Glitch, co-founder of Funomena where she's currently working on Wattam and Luna) this week. Other topics include Robin’s pitch for a Street Angel game, games being systems that run on the software of us, what producers actually do, how to design for and instill empathy in players, fostering a genuine non-adversarial connection between players, how to reward contemplative play, games that celebrate mistakes, why aren’t we making games about being loved, the future of AI and storytelling, and how to stave off creative starvation.
Our Guest on the Internet
Funomena's Website and Twitter
Stuff We Talked About
Street Angel: The Princess of Poverty Vol 1
The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Robin's GDC Indie Gamemaker Rant
Tales of Tales’ Cathedral in the Clouds Kickstarter
GDC Experimental Gameplay Workshop
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
-Also Sleep No More is Macbeth, not Hamlet, as Robin pointed out to us after recording this-
Tanya X. Short & Rob Auten
Oct 26, 2015
We're all about ARGs and procedural generation on this week's discussion with Tanya (designer on Age of Conan, Dungeons of Fayte, The Secret World, Shattered Planet and Moon Hunters) and Rob (writer on ALFA-ARKIV, Gears of War: Judgment, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Playmation, and Battlefield Hardline). Our sprawling conversation includes chatbots, transmedia narratives, creating mythologies, binary morality systems, pacing in a procedurally generated game, why haven't we moved past cutscenes in games, how procedural and systemic gameplay affects development and writing, and games based on information retrieval.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
The Fake 'Terrorist' Conspiracy Game That Fooled People For Years by Patricia Hernandez
GDC Talk: AI-driven Dynamic Dialog through Fuzzy Pattern Matching by Elan Ruskin
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Brian Kindregan & Diandra Lasrado
Oct 19, 2015
We've brought in Brian (who has a huge reel including: animator on Boogerman, storyboard artist for Warner Bros, writer on Jade Empire and Mass Effect 2, and lead writer on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3) and Diandra (editor formerly at Bioware, Riot, Snail Games, XSEED, and currently Carbine Studios) for discussions on Boogerman, working at Bioware, what being an editor in games is like, application processes for writers, writing born from constraint, why we haven't seen The Wire: The Game yet, and what RTS' can do with storytelling that no other genre can do.
Our Guests on the Internet
Brian's Website and Twitter.
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Brendon Chung & Brie Code
Oct 02, 2015
Brendon (creator of Barista, Gravity Bone, Flotilla, Air Forte, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Thirty Flights of Loving) and Brie (formerly of Ubisoft Montreal where she worked on the AI systems for the Assassin's Creed franchise and was lead programmer on Child of Light) join us on our very first episode to discuss narrative systems, whether or not cutscenes are evil, the systemic possibilities of a game based on The Good Wife, procedurally generated stories and level design, what an open world game without a main quest would be like, silent protagonists, if narrative is a game mechanic, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Stuff We Talked About
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander
'Narrative is not a game mechanic' by Raph Koster
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.