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Walt Williams & Mary Kenney Dec 23, 2019

Show notes

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

Spec Ops: The Line

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

We Are Not Heroes: Contextualizing Violence Through Narrative GDC Talk by Walt Williams

The Walking Dead: The Final Season

Disco Elysium

When the Streaming Platform Dies, What Happens to its Shows?

What Remains of Edith Finch

Spider-Man

Night in the Woods

Star Wars Battlefront II

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

Show notes

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

Claire’s Twitter and Website.

Heli’s Website and Artstation.

Stuff We Talked About

Marvelous Designer

LA Noire

The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Bayonetta

Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Nicole Martinez & Megan Starks Nov 18, 2019

Show notes

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

The Wolf Among Us

Bioshock

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Untitled Goose Game

The Walking Dead Season 1

The Outer Worlds

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

Luigi's Mansion 3

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

Schitt's Creek

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

Show notes

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

Kelsey's Twitter and Website.

Olivia's Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Outer Wilds

Twine

GDC 2019: Technical Tools for Authoring Branching Dialogue by Carrie Patel and Szymczyk

Steven Universe

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Richard's Twitter and Website

Stuff We Talked About
Ep 45: Molly Maloney & Eric Stirpe

Mass Effect 2

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

The Doves Type® Revival

Doom (2016)

Mario is Missing!

The Trust Equation

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 Sims 2

Alien: Isolation

The Curse of Monkey Island

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

The Secret of Monkey Island

Van Cliburn

Portal 2

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen

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

Red Dead Redemption 2

The Walking Dead Season 1

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

Until Dawn

Westworld VR Experience

Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Olivia Wood & Jessica Krause May 27, 2019

Show notes

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

Heaven’s Vault

Gris

Transistor

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

Show notes

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

Return of the Obra Dinn

Brawl Stars

Mortal Kombat 11

Spider-Man

Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission

God of War

Detroit: Become Human

Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Kim Allom & Kate Gray Mar 31, 2019

Show notes

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.

Kate's Twitter and column.

Stuff We Talked About

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

One Night Stand

Mirror