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Moving on from our GDC episodes, we're back with Jaclyn (Writer at Respawn Entertainment on Apex Legends, instructor & student mentor at Vancouver Film School. Previously a Writer on RPG Puzzle Legends and Merge Tales for Microfun) and Christal Rose (previously a Writer at Respawn Entertainment on Apex Legends and an Associate Writer on Hogwarts Legacy at Avalanche)! Together we discuss writing fanfiction, doing work you’re proud of without getting too attached, finding a way into a character, being funny on demand, self-imposed rules, whether their writing styles have changed over the years, writing with constraints, worldbuilding pet peeves, most overused words, what practice would they standardize across the industry, and common themes in their writing.
Our Guests on the Internet
Jaclyn's Twitter, Website, and Lore Trailer for Alter.
Christal Rose's Twitter, Website, and Lore Trailer for Conduit.
Stuff We Talked About
Jaclyn and Christal Rose's GDC talk: Creating Diverse Characters: Writing What you Know and Don't
The Gasoline Baby NPC Convo in Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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Hey hey! We're back with our second episode that we recorded at this year's GDC, and it's a doozy! In a switch from how we normally do things, we brought a grab bag of simple questions to the conference and hit up people who were free, and so y'all get to see how everyone's answers differed. In our first group, we had Ben Starr (actor, Final Fantasy XVI), Alexa Ray Corriea (senior writer at Cliffhanger Games on Black Panther), Kait Tremblay (narrative director at Soft Rains), and Kelsey Beachum (writer / narrative designer). In our second group (starting at 35:21) we had Adam Dolin (writer), Kate Dollarhyde (senior narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment), and Kelsie Mhoon (senior narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment on The Outer Worlds 2). Our third group (starting at 1:19:39) had Emma Kidwell (writer at Firaxis), Nessa Cannon (game writer), and Calliope Ryder (lead producer Weta Workshop on Tales of the Shire). And we closed things out (at 1:47:33) with Chandana Ekanayake (co-founder / creative director of Outerloop Games, and director of Thirsty Suitors). Topics include: hobbies that aren't related to game development, current game of the year, favorite villains / antagonists, a time you messed up and what you learned from it, how you stay positive, games you keep returning to, favorite choice you've ever made in a game, people in this industry who did something nice for you, favorite NPCs, games you're always referencing that nobody else has ever heard of, games that made you think differently about something, first game you played where the story really affected you, what you'd force devs to change during production, games you wish you'd gotten to work on, how to get team members to read documentation, something in your process that saves a ton of time, advice for people wanting to get into game narrative, and so SO much more it's kinda insane!!!
Our Guests on the Internet
Group 1: Ben Starr, Alexa Ray Corriea, Kait Tremblay, Kelsey Beachum
Group 2: Adam Dolin, Kate Dollarhyde (wants you to play Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire), Kelsie Mhoon (wants you to play Jak 2)
Group 3: Emma Kidwell (wants you to play Hindsight and Midnight Suns), Nessa Cannon (wants you to wishlist Star Trucker), Calliope Ryder (wants you to wishlist Tales of the Shire)
Group 4: Chandana Ekanayake (wants you to play Thirsty Suitors)
Stuff We Talked About
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Dave the Diver
Chants of Senaar
Garden Galaxy
Advent Rising
Prey - Mooncrash
Pyre Original Soundtrack
Lonely Rolling Star - Katamari Damacy
Aquatic Ambiance - Donkey Kong Country
Liberi Fatali - Final Fantasy VIII
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 credits
Anna Megill's Game Writing Guides
Adam's LLVTR game writing class is no longer being offered otherwise we'd link it :'[
Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment
Dredge
Growth
Nina Freeman's Games
Full Throttle
Bellatro
A Short Hike
Long Live the Queen
Game Dev Story
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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Coming to you NOT LIVE from GDC, we've got a special episode of the podcast covering SAG-AFTRA's negotiations with game studios! Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator for SAG-AFTRA) and Sarah Elmaleh (Chair of the SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media (IMA) Negotiating Committee, as well as actor in titles like Helldivers 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Halo Infinite, Gears 5, Afterparty, and Gone Home, and VO Director for titles like Goodbye Volcano High, The Wreck, and Fortnite) join us to discuss the overall situation as regards to the potential strike, the issue of Artificial Intelligence, studios trying to exempt certain types of performances from AI protections, dealing with the convenience bargaining group (aka the studios), their experiences at GDC, the ways devs can support SAG's members, if there's been anything they learned at the conference this week that surprised them, how people can get more involved in organizing, whether the negotiations for this year are different than the ones for last year, next steps, how they keep themselves relaxed during these stressful times, and much more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Duncan on Twitter
Sarah on Twitter, and you should listen to Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games Podcast
Stuff We Talked About
SAG-AFTRA 2024 Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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First ep of 2024! We've got Stephen (scriptwriter and narrative designer, currently Narrative Director on Motive's untitled Iron Man project in collaboration with Marvel Games. Previously a Senior Writer on Vampyr and Greedfall, Associate Narrative Director/Lead Narrative Designer on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Lead Narrative Designer/Senior Story Designer on Call of Duty: Vanguard, Lead Scriptwriter on Immortals Fenyx Rising, Senior Scriptwriter on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and more) and Danny (lead writer at Respawn Entertainment where he’s worked on Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Previously a lead writer on Borderlands 3, its dlc, and Borderlands 2, as well as Battleborn and one of its story operation DLCs. He was also a narrative design consultant for Eko, a story consultant for Unbound Creations, lead writer for Ansimuz Games’ Elliot Quest, and writer for My Evil Twin Gaming Corp, Trendy Entertainment, and TRU Darknet) in to talk about the UT Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, accountability in writing, having the spine of the story figured out in pre-production, communicating changes that affect other departments, being custodians of story, soft skills, unlearning bad habits, getting better at pitching, building teams, their most used words, staying open to new ideas without losing sight of the vision, taking and prioritizing feedback, and letting go of your projects after they’re released.
Our Guests on the Internet
Stephen's Twitter.
Danny's Website and Substack.
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock
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Happy Holidays! We're closing out this year with the absolutely amazing Alexa Ray Corriea (Writer and narrative designer currently working on Black Panther in partnership with Marvel Games and EA, serving as both a writer and systems designer. Previously she worked on Aztech: Forgotten Cods, Call of Duty: Vanguard and the Call of Duty: Warzone Pafcific live service game, Bugsnax, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. She’s also currently writing a book about the Kingdom Hearts series under Limited Run Games’ Press Run publishing division) and Ben Starr (Actor who has appeared in such games as Final Fantasy XVI as Clive Rosfield, Arknights as Sharp, Warframe: 1999 as Arthur, and has acted in shows like You, Trying, Jamestown, Dickensian and more), and they join us to discuss their favorite game performances growing up, working in games being like the wild west, being kind in this industry, looking at the jobs you don’t get/obstacles you face in another light, skills that are unique to games, banned words in scripts, being given the opportunity to add your ingredients to projects, the themes and kinds of stories that Alexa keeps returning to in her writing, the way games portray intimacy, IP white whales, stuff they do for their storytelling to help develop it, how they stay open-minded to unexpected ideas without losing shape of their visions, and a tonnnnnnnnnn more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Alexa's Twitter, and check out Black Panther
Ben's Twitter, and check out Warframe: 1999
Stuff We Talked About
Final Fantasy XVI
Die-Hardman's Confession from Death Stranding
Ben's official audition to play Mario
A Thorough Look at Mass Effect by Noah Caldwell-Gervais
Chained Echoes
Kingdom Hearts
The Worst Person in the World
Mass Effect 2
Legacy of Kain
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
People, Places and Things
Luthen Rael's Monologue from Andor
Severance
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock
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We've got Ally (producer at The Voxel Agents, game director at Lemonade Games on Mystiques, Production Director at League of Geeks on Solium Infernum and the recent Jumplight Odyssey. Previously was a senior producer and development manager at Mighty Kingdom, expert product manager at Wargaming, and gamerunner on Rumu at Robot House) and Natalie (producer at Half Mermaid, most recently on Immortality. Previously a producer, host, and writer at Vice's Waypoint, a Content and Experience Manager at Play By We, and currently can be heard on the Star Wars podcast "A More Civilized Age") in to talk all things PRODUCTION, including how the definition of a producer is different at every studio, the Triple Diamond technique, transcendental meditation, productivity software, best practices for outlining/facilitating interactive narratives, producing Immortality, the organizing monster, documentation and getting people to read it, the most useful soft skills, setting expectations with teams on a producer’s role, what they would tell their starting-out-self based on what they know now, how much of what they produce includes a part of themselves, and skittles.
Our Guests on the Internet
For Ally: Mystiques, and Solium Infernum
For Natalie: Her Twitter, and A More Civilized Age's Patreon
Stuff We Talked About
The Triple Diamond technique
Transcendental Meditation
GanttPRO
Notion
Immortality
Solium Infernum
One of Ally's surveys for setting expectations on how a producer can help their team
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more here.
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Everyone said it’d be impossible, but we managed to find another pair of twins to come onto this podcast. That’s right. The incredible Jennifer Hale (Has acted in the original Mass Effect trilogy, the Metal Gear Solid series, Overwatch, Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic, Bioshock Infinite, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and many many many more) and Debra Wilson (Acted in the Wolfenstein series, The Outer Worlds, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and its sequel Jedi Survivor, Destiny 2, God of War: Ragnarok, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and many many many more) have joined us to talk about improv, how they manage to stay positive and not become cynical in this industry, the kinds of direction they enjoy most, favorite/least favorite piece of direction they’ve ever gotten, what acting jobs they learned the most from, are there any roles they’ve never done or want to do more of, and oh man you should just listen to this.
Our Guests on the Internet
For Jennifer: Acting.skillshub.life
For Debra: Her Cameo (If you just wanna talk with her, you don’t have to buy a cameo. Just send her a message!)
Stuff We Talked About
The Apollo Comedy Hour
The Game
Kris Zimmerman-Salter
Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen
My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor TED Talk
Mickey Mouse Funhouse
Baby Shark's Big Show!
Zodiac Waze
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock
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Apologies for the wait, but we're back! We don't often do episodes focused around one specific thing, but we're making an exception to talk about Netflix's newest interactive special: We Lost Our Human, and we're joined by its two co-creators, Chris and Rikke! (They also co-created the Nickelodeon series Pinky Malinky, and both have worked on many, many other animated projects, with Chris working as showrunner, producer, writer, art director, storyboarder, character designer and more. As for Rikke, she’s also been a showrunner, producer, voice director, animator, animation director, storyboard artist, and more.)
Together they talk about how they broke into animation and got into interactive narrative, what they thought the hardest part of making We Lost Our Human would be, getting advice from the Bandersnatch folks, making media for kids vs adults, whether it was difficult for the actors to keep the branching story in their heads, unexpected learnings, the new production pipeline they had to build, Netflix’s branch manager tool, James Baxter, whether they had to adjust WLOH based on Netflix data, and what advice they’d give to someone making an interactive special now.
Our Guests on the Internet
Chris' Instagram, and Twitter.
Rikke's Instagram.
Stuff We Talked About
We Lost Our Human
Pinky Malinky
Bandersnatch
Heroes of Might and Magic
THE NEWZEALAND STORY
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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It's the end of the year, which means it's time for us to put out a new episode and feel guilty for not releasing more this year! (We were busy, but we got lots more planned for next year!) Our guests this month are George Lockett (Senior Writer at Failbetter Games and a Narrative Consultant, Writer, and Designer at Bear Wolf Narrative. Previously the Narrative Lead on The Last Clockwinder, the Scriptwriter and Interactive Designer for BBC Earth - Micro Kingdoms: Senses, and a Contributing Writer to Where the Water Tastes Like Wine) and Mary Goodden (Senior Narrative Designer at Maze Theory currently working on Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom. Previously a Writer and Editor on Zombies, Run!, a Writer and Narrative Designer at Failbetter Games on Sunless Skies and Fallen London, a Writer on Inkle’s Pendragon, and co-created Funicular Simulator 2021), and they join us to discuss how their marketing backgrounds have helped with their writing, how to make a writer’s room work, advice for thinking in terms of design, what's helped maintain their writing output, what they’ve learned from the other writers they’ve worked with, giving feedback, tips for writing themselves out of problems, the best ways we can diversify the voices in the industry, how they approach working with other departments to get their needs taken care of, what their favorite narrative tools are, favorite thesauruses, what their ghosts are, and more, more, MORE!
Our Guests on the Internet
George's Twitter, Website, and you should wishlist/check out Mask of the Rose when it comes out next year
Mary's Twitter, Website, and you should wishlist/check out Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom when it comes out next year
Stuff We Talked About
Zombies, Run!
Twine
Inkjam
Writing for Games by Hannah Nicklin
The “Reverse of the Spielberg Gaze”: Jordan Peele, Rian Johnson, Tony Kushner and More Talk Shop on THR’s Writers Roundtable
Miro
Micorosft OneNote
Obsidian (the notes app)
Webster's 1913
Power Thesaurus
WordHippo
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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We've got a unionization-heavy episode for y'all as we've got Rob (additional writer on Indivisible for Lab Zero Games, writer on Spider-Man 2 for Insomniac Games, and current co-chair of the WGAW's LGBTQ+ Writers Committee) and Andrew (writer, narrative designer, narrative director, story consultant, and more on games like Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Call of the Mountain, Watch Dogs Legion, The Division, Prince of Persia, Fable Legends, and more) in to talk about fate meeting preparation with getting that first job, finding your voice as a writer, changing your voice for the market and work-for-hire, living in fear of “no notes,” likable characters, taking notes, the Writer’s Guild (of America & Great Britain), the differences between the two with representing game writing, the similarities to the struggles of the Animation Guild writers, the growing appetite for unions in the west, why unions are necessary, favorite side characters, and creative authenticity.
Our Guests on the Internet
Rob's Twitter and Instagram.
Andrew's Twitter and website.
Stuff We Talked About
The Writer's Guild of Great Britain Videogame Guidelines
The Writers by Miranda Banks
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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Somehow we're over halfway through the year, but this podcast is still going! Our guests this month are Sarah Baylus (Principal Writer at Larian Studios where she’s currently working on Baldur’s Gate III, and previously she wrote on Divinity: Original Sin, and its sequel Divinity: Original Sin II) and Mike Laidlaw (Chief Creative Officer at Yellow Brick Games working on an unannounced title, and previously was a creative director at Ubisoft, a Senior Creative Director on the Dragon Age franchise as well as a Lead Designer, and was the Lead Writer on Jade Empire), and they join us to discuss why Dragon Age’s storytelling has struck such a chord with people (especially in game development), what they look for in a creative director, what makes a good game writer, the best ways to keep teams updated on a game’s ever-evolving story, favorite software for collaboration, what’s one thing they wished games delved into more often, whether their definitions of good writing and narrative design have changed over time, common mistakes they see writers making these days, favorite game writing/design experiences they’ve had, writing/directing nightmares, localization notes, resources they go back to a lot, things they would've changed to their favorite game narratives, the most effective narrative-based techniques they like to see being used in games to immerse the audience, and more more MORE!
Our Guests on the Internet
Sarah has an Inactive Twitter, but Larian Studios has Baldurs Gate 3 on Early Access right now, and Larian's hiring!
Mike's Twitter, and Yellow Brick Games is hiring!
Stuff We Talked About
The Dragon Age franchise
Google Docs
Miro
Jam Board
Citizen Sleeper
The Stillness of the Wind
An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope
Jade Empire
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Understanding Show, Don’t Tell: And Really Getting It by Janice Hardy
The ending of Transistor
The last hour of Finaly Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
Star Control II
Moon Hunters
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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Back in the throes of summer, we've got Corey (lead narrative designer at Silver Rain Games, writer and narrative designer on WindRush Tales, editor and social media manager of Butterfly Books, and a journalist, critic and content producer for companies such as PlayStation, Yahoo! and the Eurogamer Network) and Kelsie (narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment on Outer Worlds 2, narrative lead for Dangers in the Motor Vortex, lead writer for Death Carnival, creator of It Girl, and was also a content designer at Jam City and a writer at Pixelberry Studios) here to talk about writing tests, barriers, common motifs & themes in their writing, games they wish they wrote, unexpected pieces of media that inspired them, games where they felt the most invested in the player characters, silent protagonists, things they wished game narratives delved into more often, character tropes, building characters from scratch, and more!
*The views and opinions expressed by Corey do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Silver Rain Games*
Our Guests on the Internet
Corey's Twitter and Website.
Kelsie's Twitter and Linkedin.
Stuff We Talked About
Jax & Daxter series
Hades
90 Day Fiance
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Return of the Obra Dinn
What Remains of Edith Finch
Dragon Age: Origins
The Activision Blizzard Diversity Space Tool
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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It’s time to get MEDIEVAL with our guests Zoe (currently an Associate Narrative Designer at Obsidian Games working on unannounced projects, and she is also the cohost of the Maniculum Podcast) and Franciska (currently the Narrative Lead on Around for Primal Game Studios, and also the Senior Narrative Designer on Ayna: Shattered Truth for Designmatic. And previously she was a Game Writer on Ori and the Will of the Wisps for Moon Studios, as well as a Narrative Designer on their unannounced ARPG)! They join us to talk about ousting J.R.R. Tolkien as the top fantasy writer of all time, untapped medieval stories that people in games should be thinking about, parallels between medievalism and game design, manuscript culture, how you balance between explaining things for players and letting them fill in the blanks themselves, would they rather tell stories with dialogue or without, are there any books or talks or resources they go back to a lot when working on a game, how to give good criticism and best piece of feedback they’ve gotten, how they think of the player’s active role in the story when they’re writing, what sort of imagery do they find most evocative in horror and medieval literature, and MORE! MUCH MORE!
Our Guests on the Internet
Zoe has no twitter, but check out The Maniculum Podcast!
Franciska's Twitch, Twitter, and check out Around!
Stuff We Talked About
The Maniculum Podcast
The Witcher 3
Franciska's Undergrad and Postgrad Theses
Táin Bó Cúailnge
The Metrical Charms
The Last of Us Part II
Outer Wilds
Return of the Obra Dinn
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon: Forbidden West
Hades
GOBELINS Youtube Channel
Like Stories of Old Youtube Channel
How to be a Great DM Youtube Channel
Game Maker’s Toolkit Youtube Channel
Middle English Compendium
The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinary Literate by Eugene Ehrlich
Master Lists - The Maniculum Podcast
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.
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We celebrate spooky season all year round here, which is why we've brought back Ashley (Character Art Director at Bad Robot Games, previously Character Art Director at Naughty Dog, Lead Character Concept Artist on The Last of Us Part II, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and a concept artist on The Last of Us: Left Behind) and Graham (Writer, Director, and Sound Designer. Writer on Supermassive Games' Until Dawn, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, Hidden Agenda, The Inpatient, and The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan) to talk all things horror! Together they chat with us about what attracts them to horror, whether horror is a genre or a tool, the sublime of horror, the power of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, cross-pollination between film and TV, video game adaptations, how to pace horror games when players control the pacing, horror games following different rules from other horror media, first-person horror, how horror changes the art-making process, what non-horror games could take from horror games, the calcification of genres, horror games showing too much, dream crews, guilty pleasures, and Pyramid Head.
Our Guests on the Internet
Ashley's Twitter (but don't follow her) and Instagram
Graham's Twitter, Instagram, and check out his sound design work in the upcoming X!
Stuff We Talked About
The Crypt Keeper
The Prince of Darkness
Resident Evil franchise
Silent Hill franchise
Until Dawn
Blair Witch by Bloober Team
P.T.
Soma
Ashley’s Silent Hill Mondo covers
Masuhiro Ito
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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We’re BACK! AGAIN! And we swear we’re gonna post more episodes this year than we did last year! Alyssa (writer of fiction, comics, and games. Winner of the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award, finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards. Comics credits include Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and Adventure Time, and she’s also written for Overwatch, and Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment) and Lauren (Senior Writer at Insomniac Games where she is currently working on Spider-Man 2, and was previously Lead Writer on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Before Insomniac she was a writer at Telltale Game where she worked on The Walking Dead: The Final Season and Batman The Enemy Within) joined us to talk about how a theater studies degree is useful in games, shipping characters, writing hours, how hot Emperor Nefarious is, interacting with actors, writing characters and situations you hate, what draws them to horror storytelling, sexy monsters, what they need to nail down first in a story, what makes a good villain, worldbuilding, types of stories they don’t often see in games that they’d love to write, and a whole lot more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Alyssa's Twitter, and you should check out Doctor Aphra and Iron Fist!
Lauren's Twitter, and you should check out Spider-Man 2 when it comes out!
Stuff We Talked About
John Carpenter liked Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Paragon
Alyssa’s first tweet about Emperor Nefarious
Unpacking
Fears to Fathom
Devotion
The Walking Dead: The Final Season
The Boys
Starbound
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Disco Elysium
Dragon Age: Inquisition
What You Left Behind by Alyssa Wong (the Overwatch short story about Baptiste)
Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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We're back with a new, Returnal-focused episode! Joining us are Gregory (Narrative & Cinematic Director at Housemarque on Returnal. Also the co-founder, CEO, and Director of Convict Games, where he's made Stone and the upcoming Burn. Previously was a Senior Narrative Designer at Remedy Entertainment on Control and a narrative designer on Quantum Break) and Eevi (Senior Narrative Designer at Housemarque on Returnal, and was previously a narrative designer on Control, Quantum Break, and CrossfireX at Remedy Entertainment, and a Product Manager on Kingsbridge at Wooga) to talk about the differences in how narrative design is defined at Remedy vs Housemarque, growing pains at Housemarque with making a story-driven game like Returnal, navigating the line between challenging players too much vs not enough, telling ambiguous stories, haunting players, the relationship between narrative and sound, negotiating how much to tell players about the story, how to not re-traumatize yourself when writing something painful, and how can you make main characters as likable as your side characters.
Our Guests on the Internet
Gregory’s Twitter and Website for Convict Games
Eevi's Twitter
Stuff We Talked About
Returnal
Stone
Burn
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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How are we almost done with May already?! It's bananas, and you know what else is bananas? Our guests for today's episode! Bahiyya (game designer, writer, and filmmaker who’s currently doing her masters in film, and is most well-known for her IGF award-winning game After Hours that will be released soon) and Son (writer who's currently the studio director and co-founder of Perfect Garbage, and director and co-founder of Chimeric Animation. They’re also a narrative designer at Silver Rain Games, and will be publishing their debut graphic novel soon, Thief of the Heights) join us to talk about writing processes, where they start when they’re creating a character, how often their stories change from what they originally planned, story structure, their greatest tools for storytelling, how they figure out their beginnings, when do they let other people see their work, whether they’re ever dissuaded by feedback, storytelling moments in games that they thought were special, silent protagonists, storytelling advice, major influences, what they’re reading/watching these days that isn’t video games, and way way more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Bahiyya’s Twitter and Itch.io page
Son Twitter and Website, and you should check out the short film Death’s Diner, Thief of the Heights (when it's published by Harper Collins in 2022), and Love Shore
Stuff We Talked About
Rain White Noise Generator
Daria
Butterfly Soup
Possessor
Bloodborne
Limbo
Fran Bow
Dishonored
Guy Ritchie
Cain by José Saramango
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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Spring is here and so are Leslee (Design Producer on Marvel Strike Force at Scopely, previously a writer and development manager at Riot, and held a variety of narrative design and production roles at 2K and Dorian) and Cassandra (award-winning game & fiction writer who’s worked on such games as Sunless Skies, Wasteland 3, and Falcon Age)! They join us to talk about being stubborn, knowing when to stop pushing for something, writing barks, overlapping dialogue, where they start when creating characters, whether they’re plotters or pantsers, what their writing habits are, how to force yourself to start writing, how COVID has changed their habits, navigating bureaucracy, knowing when to leave your environment for a better one, dealing with people overstepping their boundaries, and more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Leslee's Twitter and Tiktok
Cassandra's Twitter and her three upcoming books are Walk Among Us, The All-Consuming World, and Nothing But Blackened Teeth
Stuff We Talked About
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Life is Strange 2
The Least of My Scars by Stephen Graham Jones
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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Happy New Year one and all! To celebrate yet another new beginning, we've brought back old guests Greg (Creative Director of Supergiant Games, and writer of Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and Hades) and Kate (Narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, all of its DLC, the Outer Worlds, and was a narrative co-lead on The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon) to chat with us about working from home during COVID, work/life balance, Early Access, the keys to writing memorable shopkeepers, the beauty of em dashes, themes that they gravitate towards, working with ensemble casts, what kept them up at night the most on the last game they worked on, murder hobos, games being adapted into film/TV, collaborating with other disciplines more closely, and more, more, more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Greg's Twitter
Kate's Twitter and Instagram
Stuff We Talked About
Hades
The Outer Worlds (and its DLC: Peril on Gorgon)
Pyre
Transistor
Bastion
Resident Evil 4 (specifically this guy)
Ultima
Netflix's Castlevania show
Annihilation (book and movie)
Inside
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Elric of Melnibone
Big Dead Place by Nicholas Johnson
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (specifically the story: The Tower of Babylon)
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang (specifically the story: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate)
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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Are those sleigh bells in the air? NO, IT'S A NEW EPISODE OF SCRIPT LOCK! After trudging through the hellacious year that was 2020, we're back with Cissy (actress whose voice you may have heard in such games as The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Firewatch - for which she won a BAFTA - Horizon: Zero Dawn, and most recently Half-Life: Alyx and Call of the Sea) and Erika (actress, host, and producer whom you may have heard in such games as Dream Daddy, Destiny, 2, Fallout 76, Fortnite, Marvel's Avengers, and Cyberpunk 2077) to talk whether you need to live in Hollywood to be a VO actor, being recast, voice matching, auditions, secrecy around characters you’re auditioning for, the luxury of getting scripts before a session, how they like to receive direction, best and worst pieces of direction, vocal health and more!
Our Guests on the Internet
Cissy Twitter and Instagram
Erika Twitter and Instagram
Stuff We Talked About
Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Voice Cast Got Their Scripts As They Were Recording
Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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