Script Lock

Latest Episodes:

Janina Gavankar & Sarah Elmaleh Apr 23, 2018

Show notes

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

Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry

Tony Gilroy 4/3/18

Theforum.games

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

Alex Neonakis & Olly Moss Jan 18, 2018

Show notes

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

Alex's Twitter and Website.

Olly's Twitter, Garfield Repository, and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

Alex's Young Drake designs

Olly's Harry Potter book covers

Garfield Minus Garfield

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

Show notes

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

Mosaic

Steven Soderbergh on Filmmaking, the Weinstein Scandal, and Why You Shouldn’t Call Mosaic a Video Game by Matt Zoller Seitz

The Three Levels of Dialogue

Woodcutters from Fiery Ships

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

Samantha Wallschlaeger & Brooke Maggs Nov 20, 2017

Show notes

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.

Brooke's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

HULK PRESENTS CHARACTER TREES by Film Crit Hulk

The Gardens Between

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

Show notes

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.

Laura's Twitter and Website.

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

Thimbleweed Park

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

Ashly Burch & Kate Dollarhyde Aug 28, 2017

Show notes

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.

Kate's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

The Science and Entertainment Exchange

Hey Ash Whatcha Playin?

Codex Writers' Group

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

Show notes

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

Kim's Twitter and Podcast.

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

Show notes

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

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

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

Show notes

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

Sean's Twitter and Website.

Jesse's Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

The Grey

The Art of Fiction #6: Greg Kasavin by Sean Vanaman

Zoom

Campo Santo Quarterly

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

Aleissia Laidacker & Rob Morgan Mar 27, 2017

Show notes

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.

Rob's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

Moment Factory

Sleep No More

Nesta

Punchdrunk and Media Molecule - Where Dreams Collide

Escaping the Holodeck: Storytelling and Convergence in VR/AR

The Speakeasy

Zombie LARP

The Void