Script Lock

Hope you're all staying safe out there! This month's fantastic episode has Rex (co-founder and creative director of Foam Sword Ltd, which recently released its first game Knights and Bikes. He was also the creative lead of Tearaway, a production designer on LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2, and the senior graphic designer on The Movies) and Daniel (composer of such games as The Movies, LittleBigPlanet 1 & 2, Knights and Bikes, and has also composed for film & TV on titles including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Steve Jobs, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and more) joining us to talk about running into Peter Molyneux in the toilet at a conference in Spain, Guildford being the Hollywood of the games industry, whether their collaborative process has changed over the years, how early they started working together on Knights and Bikes, what they wanted to accomplish with the music, throwing stuff away, if people undervalue the storytelling potential of music in games, memorable pieces of nonverbal storytelling, the best and worst they've ever been treated on a job, not knowing what you're doing, and a whole lot more!

Our Guests on the Internet

Rex's Twitter, and here's the official site for Knights and Bikes

Daniel's Twitter

Stuff We Talked About

Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods

I Wanna Ride My Bike (From the Videogame 'Knights And Bikes') by the Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra

We Are the Best!

Daniel Pemberton Interview

Control

Once Upon a Time in the West

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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

Podcasting safely from home, we're back with Alix (actor in such games as Assasin’s Creed: Origins, Dragon Age Inquisition, Origins, and Awakenings, Mass Effect 3, The Last Story, Deponia I, II, and II) and Erin (actor in games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, Oxenfree, Firewatch, 2064: Read Only Memories, Afterparty, and the upcoming Wolf Among Us 2) to talk about working during a pandemic, where do they start when creating a character, how to support a fellow actor well, rehearsals, the audition process, receiving direction, what makes a good/bad director, trusting your actors, the best/worst direction they’ve ever gotten, intimacy on the motion capture stage, having more morally gray female characters, whether AAA games should keep learning from Hollywood, and more!

Our Guests on the Internet

Alix's Twitter and Instagram

Erin's Twitter and Instagram

Stuff We Talked About

Tales from the Borderlands

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Vermintide

Ozark

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A Taxi Driver 

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

Today we've got Jo (writer of games and short stories, and has written on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and is currently at EA working on an unannounced project) and Paula (writing lead and story editor on Neo Cab. She's also adapted Let’s Play from Webtoon into an animated series and has had her fiction and essays featured in outlets like Salon, the Austin Film Festival, and more) talking with us about masters degrees, delivering criticism, the most helpful piece of feedback they've ever received, how they like to collaborate with others, things they've appreciated in games that might go generally unnoticed, keeping track of branching stories and how to maintain consistency and pacing, when to stop writing, parody games, writing tests that best represent their skills, whether games are too focused on learning from Hollywood blockbusters, the last story that surprised them, and more!

Our Guests on the Internet

Jo's Twitter

Paula's Twitter and Website

Stuff We Talked About

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Neo Cab

Doom (2016)

Portal 2

Tacoma

The Pomodoro Technique

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Dance Dance Revolution

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

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

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

Duncan's Website and Twitter.

Jon's Twitter, Inkle's Website and Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Idle Thumbs

Centralia, PA

Leliana's Song DLC

Rameses by Stephen Bond

Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin

Pyst

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

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.

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.

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

Pyre

God of War

Transistor

Brave Fencer Musashi

Apex Legends

Dota 2

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Oxenfree

Super Mario Odyssey

Civilization VI

Ico

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

Joanna Newsom

mewithoutYou

Samuel R. Delany

Jeff VanderMeer

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

Yakuza 0

Undertale

Firewatch

Mother 3

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.

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

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

Another Case Solved

Guildmaster Story

Alto's Odyssey

Celeste

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

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

Lyst Summit

Heartbeat Symposium

Ladykiller in a Bind

Cibele

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

One Night Stand

Mirror

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

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

Jurassic Park Trespasser

What Remains of Edith Finch

Florence

Brie Code

Return of the Obra Dinn

Gris

Inside

Farming Simular 19

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

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.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters

Until Dawn

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

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

Kitfox Games

Writing for Videogames - Writers' Guild of Great Britain

Game Workers Unite UK

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

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

Artstation

Marvel's Spider-Man

Hunted: The Demon's Forge

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

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

James Gurney

In the Valley of the Gods

Mary Zophres

The Order: 1886

Isao Oishi

Layers of Fear

Hilda

Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland

Horizon Zero Dawn

Night in the Woods

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

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.

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

Laura's Twitter and Website

Cat's Twitter and Website

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

DoContract

Game Writers Facebook Group

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

Successful Reflective Choices in Interactive Narrative by Cat Manning

Planescape Torment

With Those We Love Alive

Invasion

Sub-Q

American Vandal

Brendan Patrick Hennessy

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

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

Marc's Twitter and Website.

Chris' Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Which Legend of Zelda Game Was Inspired By Twin Peaks? by Michael McWhertor

Woodcutters from Fiery Ships

Machine Cares

The Clarion Workshop

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

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

Trey Parker and Matt Stone: 'This happened, and then this happened, and then this happens -- that’s not a movie, that’s not a story'

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

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

Caves of Qud

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

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.

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.

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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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.

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.

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

Turing Tantrums: AI Devs Rant!!

GCAP 2016: Systems Are Everywhere... Right, Elon Musk? - Aleissia Laidacker

Life is Strange

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.

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

Emilie's Twitter and Website.

Brie's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon

This War of Mine

iThrive

Eco

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

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

Emily's Twitter and Tumblr.

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

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Fallout 3

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

Assassin's Creed: Unity

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

Batman - The Telltale Series

Gears of War 4

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Until Dawn

Life is Strange

World of Warcraft

Mystic Messenger

MR. ROBOT:1.51EXFILTRATI0N

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

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

Tim's Twitter and Website.

Jake's Twitter and Website.

Cara's Website and Book.

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

Thirty Flights of Loving

Virginia

Here and There Along the Echo

Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin

Emily Short’s blog

Sunless Sea

Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Rules

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 (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

Mel's Twitter and Website.

Ann's Twitter and Book.

Stuff We Talked About

Civilization VI

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 (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

Frictional Games' Blog

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

Spec Ops: The Line

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

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.

Sarah's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

Babycastles

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.

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

Puzzled Pint

Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, Part Three by Alexis Kennedy

Punchdrunk

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.

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

The Moonlighters

Catherine

Jolie’s GDC 2016 talk - Solving Puzzle Design

Teddy’s Lost Levels talk

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques by Joseph V. Mascelli

Alias

Prison Break

Sleep No More (again)

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

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

Brandon Sanderson

The Banner Saga

Puzzle Quest

Raid on Rise: Narrative Creation on 'Rise of The Tomb Raider'

Pyre

Bastion

Greg Kasavin Reads the Introduction of Samurai Showdown 2

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

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

Rob's Twitter and Website.

Emily's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

Punchdrunk

Sleep No More

Beyond Branching: Quality-Based, Salience-Based, and Waypoint Narrative Structures by Emily Short

Firewatch

Wonderbook: Book of Spells

Love Stories for High-XP Characters by Emily Short

The Novelist

In Your Arms Tonight

VideoBrains Youtube Channel

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

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

Never Alone

Amnesia Fortnight 2014

Dialogue Systems in Double Fine Games

Molyjam: How Twitter Jokes Can Save Video Games

Making the World of Firewatch

Netrunner

Crusader Kings 2

Dwarf Fortress' Creator on How He's 42% Towards Simulating Existence

Practice 2015: Anna Kipnis

The Novelist by Kent Hudson

7 Grand Steps

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 (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.

Carrie's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

The Writer Will Do Something

Gesamtkunstwerk

The Expanse by James S. A. Corey

My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

The Moth

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.

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

Karla's Twitter and Tumblr.

Eric's Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Double Fine Adventure!

Darmok

"Playdate" (Chris Ware's story about playing Minecraft with his daughter)

VIDEO GAMES CAN NEVER BE ART by Roger Ebert

The Witness

Firewatch

Growing up Weightless by John M. Ford

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson

Hail, Caesar!

Frontier | Youth in Decline

Learnt

Until Dawn

Tearaway

Roommates

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Kaptara

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

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

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

The Masque of the Red Death

Sleep No More

The Meadow

EA_Spouse

Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing

Meg's GDC 2015 talk - Leading Players Astray : 80 Days & Unexpected Stories

Dogme 95

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

The Year of the Crush: How the Radically Unfair Candy Crush Saga Took Over Our Lives by Tevis Thompson

Donkeyspace by Frank Lantz

Towards a Steampunk Without Steam by Amal El-Mohtar

Wheels of Aurelia

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

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

Jerry's Twitter and Website

Stuff We Talked About

Mitu's GDC Talk - Thinking About People: Designing Games for Social Simulation

ELIZA and The ELIZA Effect

Loved by Alexander Ocias

The Immersive Fallacy (excerpted from Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals) by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Lygia Clark

Redshirt

Notary Bear by Lisa Brown

Chris Crawford's Dragon Speech

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

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

Time Machine VR

The Good Wife

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

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

Clint Hocking's Blog

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

Jessica Jones on Netflix

Fargo on Hulu

Fiasco

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

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

RTX: Red Rock

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

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

C.J.'s Twitter

Liz's Website and Twitter

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

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

Khris' Twitter

Brad's Twitter

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.

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

Robin's Twitter

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-

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

Tanya's Website and Twitter

Rob's Twitter

Stuff We Talked About

Moon Hunters on Steam

ALFA-ARKIV app

itch.io

Chatscript

Versu

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.

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.

Diandra's Twitter.

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

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

Brendon's Website and Twitter

Brie's Website and Twitter

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.