Explore every episode of the podcast Script Lock
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courtney Woods & Ari Martinez | 09 Jun 2026 | 01:17:58 | |
We've returned with a more focused episode on the Ghost of Yotei, and we're joined by Courtney (Senior Writer on Yotei, previously a Lead Writer & Narrative Director on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake for Aspyr Media, and a Writer on Bioware's Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Descent, and Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire) and Ari (Senior Writer on Yotei, and previously a Narrative Director at Postcard Game Studio, Writer on Guerilla's Horizon Forbidden West, Narrative Designer at Capcom, and teacher of game writing at Vancouver Film School) to discuss the relationship between theme parks and game design, Ghost of Yotei’s open world design, the narrative tool developed for the game, exposition rules, their relationship with design, making weapon tutorials more resonant, what makes ideas worthy for games as opposed to other mediums, not getting lost in the details of a game, and some of their favorite people they’ve worked with.
Stuff We Talked About GDC 2026: Flipping the Script: Overhauling Sucker Punch's Writing Pipeline for 'Ghost of Yotei' (GDC vault members only) Sucker Punch's other talks from GDC 2026
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita | |||
| Yuri Lowenthal & Nhi Do | 22 Dec 2025 | 01:22:26 | |
Happy holidays!!! We have returned from the crisp winter cold of work deadlines with a brand new episode containing Yuri Lowenthal (Actor on such games as Marvel’s Spider-Man, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Persona 3 and 4, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, Helldivers 2, and more, not to mention his work in cartoons and anime. He also co-wrote the book Voice-Over Voice Actor with his wife Tara) AND Nhi Do (Actress and producer of the stage and screen, and voiced the lead character in the Peadbody-winning 1000xResist. Her other recent projects include Invasion, The Irrational, Sight Unseen, Spread, Door Mouse, and more)! They join us to discuss coming from theater, crazy requests they’ve made in the booth, how they’ve managed to develop deep relationships were certain studios, not knowing where your character is going in a story, how they prefer to receive direction, favorite/least favorite pieces of direction, do they ever push back when they see a line that doesn’t feel right for the characters, has the way they’ve handled auditions changed over the years, what it’s like being married to actors, how often they make discoveries with a character after they’ve started recording, is there a game or character they’ve wished they worked on, and so much more! Our Guests Yuri Lowenthal, and his new acting class: Voice-Over Voice Actor: The Course Nhi Do, and her upcoming film: Sawtooth Mountain Stuff We Talked About Remy Siu's GDC talk is in the vault still, but here's a version of the talk he gave at Full Indie Summit: Controlled Chaos in the Writer's Room of 1000xRESIST Voice-Over Voice Actor by Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita | |||
| Karrie Shao & Ros Dachtler | 21 Jul 2025 | 01:31:52 | |
We're over halfway through 2025 and we've got Karrie (Lead Writer and Lead Narrative Designer of Pacific Drive, previously wrote and designed on League of Legends for Riot Games, Totemic for Collage Games, and Not Tonight 2 for Panic Barn. Also worked as a Director of Marketing at Strangely Compelling Multimedia, a Producer at tinyBuild Games, a Lead Narrative Designer at The Exit Game, and was a BAFTA Breakthrough talent for 2024) and Ros (Senior Mission Designer on the upcoming game Last Sentinel, previously Senior Narrative Designer on Clockwork Revolution, Narrative Designer on Deathloop, Narrative Designer and Audio Lead on Battlefield V, and an audio designer on Star Wars Battlefront X-Wing VR, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Battlefield One) in to talk about breaking into games via Craigslist, what Ros has been up to since working on Battlefield 1, who/what taught them the most about storytelling, changing a game in response to fans, how Karrie’s experience making escape rooms and working in marketing influenced her narrative work, handholding players too much, rules they adhere to for getting exposition across successfully to players, how to make a good opening, how they feel about games that get “good” after a certain amount of time, favorite openings, favorite and least favorite tools for storytelling, strategies for breaking through creative blocks, things they’ve had to unlearn in their work, the rule of cool, how do you tell when something is funny enough, and how open you should be with artistic intent after releasing something. Our Guests Ros' Website Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita | |||
| Brendon Chung & Laura Michet | 27 May 2025 | 01:17:58 | |
Hello hello! We're back with returning guests Brendon Chung (founder of Blendo Games and creator of such games as Gravity Bone, Flotilla, Atom Zombie Smasher, Thirty Flights of Loving, Quadrilateral Cowboy, and the recently released Skin Deep) and Laura Michet (writer and editor who's worked on such games as Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Swan Hill, You Got This, Brutadon!, The Brigand’s Story, and more. She was a Principal Writer and Editor at Riot Games, was the Narrative Director on Skin Deep, and is currently a Narrative Director at Heart Machine) to talk about the recently-released Skin Deep as well as Brendon working with VO for the first time, the goals that came out of deciding Skin Deep would be a comedy game, earnestness in storytelling, making a comedy game with multiple writers, documentation, their process working together as a married couple, the narrative challenges of working on a sim game, what they think makes a good game opening, advice for people wanting to get better at writing dialogue, their processes for writing down ideas, how they power through blocks, what they’re playing and watching these days that gets them excited, how they toe the line between creative expression and making a living, explaining and over-explaining things, how do they not overwrite outlines while providing openings for design, deranged subreddits, and a whole lot more! Our Guests Brendon Chung and Laura Michet would love it if you played Skin Deep and left a review on Steam! Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita | |||
| The GDC 2025 Grab Bag Episode | 07 Apr 2025 | 01:08:41 | |
We return with another grab bag episode for GDC 2025! Like last year, we brought a bunch of simple questions to ask folks, and in these three groups you get to hear how their answers differed. In our first group we had Chase Dodge (NYU student), Ruari Root (NYU student), Calliope Ryder (prev Lead Producer on Tales of the Shire at Weta Workshop), Chandana Ekanayake (Co-Founder and Creative Director of Outerloop Games), Hudson Janow (NYU student, Gay Gaming Professionals scholar), Apollo Umbra (Northwestern student, Gay Gaming Professionals scholar). Our second group had Lis Moberly (Lead Game Designer at Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Games), Vincent Perea (Senior Art Director at Disney Experiences), Lola Shiraishi (Co-Founder of Stellium Studios), and Meghan Thornton (Story Manger at Insomniac Games). And our last group had Emma Kidwell (Writer at Firaxis Games), Natalie Checo (PR Consultant at Future Friends Games, Journalist, and Game Writer/Editor), Sam Low (Global Communications Exec at Neon Noroshi, and SEA Brand Development Manager for Critical Reflex), Nessa Cannon (Game Writer and Narrative Designer), and Bria Davis (Community Director at Young Horses) Topics included: favorite people they’ve worked with, hobbies that have paid off the most in their work, underrated game faves, ideas and mechanics that they are keen to put in their next games, what to do when you’re feeling drained and in need of inspiration, most recent games they’ve been playing, someone in the industry who did something nice for them, games they keep returning to, if they could force developers to do one thing what would it be, times they’ve messed up and what they learned from it, game character crushes, something they do as their process that saves time, what they would have on their ideal writing/narrative design test, how they creatively rejuvenate themselves, and more! Our Guests Group 1: Chase Dodge, Ruari Root, Calliope Ryder, Chandana Ekanayake, Hudson Janow, Apollo Umbra Group 2: Lis Moberly, Vincent Perea, Lola Shiraishi, Meghan Thornton Group 3: Emma Kidwell, Nessa Cannon, Natalie Checo, Sam Low, Bria Davis Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Adam Dolin & Jolie Menzel | 03 Feb 2025 | 01:35:14 | |
It’s been an embarrassingly long time but we are BACK! Again!!! And this time we’ve brought returning guests Adam Dolin and Jolie Menzel to discuss breaking in, how they define narrative design, the differences between creative directors who come from narrative versus other displiclines, the three c’s, can game writers exist without knowing narrative design, favorite narrative tools, what makes a good opening to a game, tutorials, letting players have choices where the results lead to them missing lots of content, bad habits they’ve noticed in younger writers/narrative designers, the future of the industry, pieces of media they go back to get reinvigorate/inspired, the themes they’re always writing into their stories, stuff they’re always editing out of their writing, how to write good dialogue, and maybe one or two other things. It’s great! Our Guests on the Internet Jolie's Linkedin. Adam's Linkedin and BlueSky, and his ELVTR class starts in April! Stuff We Discussed Larian Cinematics: A Top-Down Look at Our Bottom-Up Approach in 'Baldur's Gate 3' Jolie's 3C's of Game Design Presentation Highland 2 (FYI looks like a Highland 3 launch is imminent) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist by Brandon Keogh Hank confronts Walter in Breaking Bad The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr Game Narrative Summit: Building Rome in a Day: A Sociological Storytelling Primer Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Our Theme Music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. The vampire sucking noise was created by Robinhood76. | |||
| Jaclyn Seto & Christal Rose Hazelton | 20 Jun 2024 | 01:20:15 | |
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. | |||
| The GDC 2024 Grab Bag Episode | 06 May 2024 | 02:02:29 | |
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 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 Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Duncan Crabtree-Ireland & Sarah Elmaleh | 03 Apr 2024 | 00:41:54 | |
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. | |||
| Stephen Rhodes & Danny Homan | 21 Feb 2024 | 01:13:41 | |
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. 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 | |||
| Alexa Ray Corriea & Ben Starr | 18 Dec 2023 | 02:01:08 | |
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 Die-Hardman's Confession from Death Stranding Ben's official audition to play Mario A Thorough Look at Mass Effect by Noah Caldwell-Gervais The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Luthen Rael's Monologue from Andor 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 | |||
| Ally Hennessy & Natalie Watson | 30 Oct 2023 | 01:35:57 | |
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 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. | |||
| Jennifer Hale & Debra Wilson | 25 Jul 2023 | 01:21:18 | |
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 Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor TED Talk 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 | |||
| Chris Garbutt & Rikke Asbjoern | 01 May 2023 | 01:02:04 | |
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 Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita. | |||
| George Lockett & Mary Goodden | 07 Dec 2022 | 01:28:48 | |
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 Writing for Games by Hannah Nicklin Obsidian (the notes app) Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Rob Forman & Andrew Walsh | 19 Sep 2022 | 01:35:54 | |
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 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. | |||
| Sarah Baylus & Mike Laidlaw | 15 Aug 2022 | 01:26:23 | |
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 An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope Understanding Show, Don’t Tell: And Really Getting It by Janice Hardy The last hour of Finaly Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Corey Brotherson & Kelsie Mhoon | 05 Jul 2022 | 00:59:47 | |
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 Kelsie's Twitter and Linkedin. Stuff We Talked About The Activision Blizzard Diversity Space Tool Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Zoe Franznick & Franciska Csongrady | 25 Apr 2022 | 01:31:19 | |
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 Franciska's Undergrad and Postgrad Theses GOBELINS Youtube Channel Like Stories of Old Youtube Channel How to be a Great DM Youtube Channel Game Maker’s Toolkit Youtube Channel 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. | |||
| Ashley Swidowski & Graham Reznick | 11 Mar 2022 | 01:39:59 | |
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 Blair Witch by Bloober Team Ashley’s Silent Hill Mondo covers Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Alyssa Wong & Lauren Mee | 23 Feb 2022 | 01:53:24 | |
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 Alyssa’s first tweet about Emperor Nefarious The Walking Dead: The Final Season Dishonored: Death of the Outsider 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. | |||
| Gregory Louden & Eevi Korhonen | 28 Oct 2021 | 00:57:07 | |
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 Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Bahiyya Khan & Son M. | 24 May 2021 | 01:20:24 | |
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 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. | |||
| Leslee Sullivant & Cassandra Khaw | 19 Apr 2021 | 01:14:13 | |
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 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 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. | |||
| Greg Kasavin & Kate Dollarhyde | 11 Jan 2021 | 01:45:37 | |
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 Stuff We Talked About The Outer Worlds (and its DLC: Peril on Gorgon) Resident Evil 4 (specifically this guy) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski 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. | |||
| Cissy Jones & Erika Ishii | 24 Dec 2020 | 01:27:16 | |
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 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. | |||
| Rex Crowle & Daniel Pemberton | 15 Jun 2020 | 00:55:00 | |
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 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Alix Wilton Regan & Erin Yvette | 12 May 2020 | 01:20:15 | |
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 Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Jo Berry & Paula Rogers | 20 Apr 2020 | 00:51:15 | |
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 Stuff We Talked About The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Duncan Fyfe & Jon Ingold | 27 Jan 2020 | 01:21:19 | |
Happy New Year! This month we've got Duncan (writer on Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Neo Cab, In the Valley of Gods, and the co-creator and writer of the Something True podcast) and Jon (writer, narrative designer and co-founder of Inkle, and has worked on games including 80 Days, Sorcery!, Heaven’s Vault, and Over the Alps) in to talk about being a writer without a writing degree, blank canvas vs well-defined main characters, research, hot air balloons, Lovecraft forums, when to stop researching, underappreciated game moments, player agency, the sweet spot between satisfying and frustrating, the role of writers in pre-production, and more. Our Guests on the Internet Jon's Twitter, Inkle's Website and Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Rameses by Stephen Bond Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Walt Williams & Mary Kenney | 23 Dec 2019 | 01:59:02 | |
Happy holidays everyone! To close out the year we've got Walt (writer and creative director at New Game Plus, and has worked on games such as The Darkness, Bioshock 1 and 2, Spec Ops: The Line, and Star Wars Battlefront 2, and he’s also the author of the book Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art & Soul in Games) and Mary (currently writes at Insomniac Games, and has also written for Certain Affinity, Techland on Dying Light 2, and Telltale on the final season of The Walking Dead and Batman: The Enemy Within) joining us to talk Narrative QA, their most important collaborators, narrative band-aid experiences, storytelling that they appreciate in other games that may go unnoticed by players, making "good" and "bad" choices, emotion-oriented goals, violence-based games, not giving your characters more story than they can handle, narrative pet peeves, things they've learned by slipping up, overwriting, digital media shelf life, what game project(s) they wish they'd been a part of, how important costume design is to their writing process, writing tests, and a thing or two more that you'll just have to find out for yourself! Our Guests on the Internet Walt's Twitter, Instagram. and check out Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games Mary's Twitter, and check out Read Only memories #1 Stuff We Talked About We Are Not Heroes: Contextualizing Violence Through Narrative GDC Talk by Walt Williams The Walking Dead: The Final Season When the Streaming Platform Dies, What Happens to its Shows? Also Max and I worked on Neo Cab and Man of Medan, two great games that came out this year, and they're totally worth checking out! Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Heli Salomaa & Claire Hummel | 25 Nov 2019 | 01:07:16 | |
We're back again this month with Heli (theatre and performance costume designer, most recently a costume and character designer for Remedy’s Control and the upcoming Crossfire 2. Also worked on Mirages for Kroma Productions, and EGO CURE for Aalto University)and Claire (currently an art director at Valve, previously an artist and associate production designer for Microsoft Studios on a ton of Kinect games, Fable Legends, Sunset Overdrive, Powerstar Golf, and more. Also the production designer for Westworld VR) to talk about why costume design as a specialized role isn’t more common in games, the narrative features of costume design, differences with fashion design, research, building costumes for worlds less-based in reality, the problem of flowing clothes, working with the non-monetary budgets of video games (memory, processing power, etc), not holding back on your first draft, their most important collaborators, iteration, pitching ideas that may be too “out there,” the hardest costume they’ve designed (that they can talk about), knowing when something’s done, how non-costume designers can learn more about costume design, mundane costume design, work/life balance, and how can writers make costume designers’ lives easier. Our guests on the Internet Heli’s Website and Artstation. Stuff We Talked About The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff Our theme music was created by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Nicole Martinez & Megan Starks | 18 Nov 2019 | 01:19:29 | |
Apologies to all for the slight delay, but the wait has TOTALLY been worth it because today we've got Nicole (Senior Narrative Designer at Crystal Dynamics, and before that a Creative Director on the unreleased The Wolf Among Us: Season 2, and a writer on season 2 of Minecraft: Story Mode, Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman, The Walking Dead: Michonne, Game of Thrones: Season 1, and The Wolf Among Us: Season 1) and Megan (Senior Narrative Designer Team Lead and Senior Writer on the recently-released Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment, and before that she was a Senior Writer on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and Tyranny, and a Senior Game Designer and Content Zone Lead on Wildstar for Carbine Studios) joining us to talk writing/design tests, whether narrative design and game writing should be separate jobs, the hardest things to write and design, writers' rooms, rewriting processes, where they start with constructing branching narratives, what they look for in endings as creators and whether it's different than what they look for as consumers, meaningful choices, storytelling trends they'd like to see more of, NPCs, major influences, and a great deal more! Our guests on the Internet Nicole's Twitter. Megan's Twitter, Website, and check out House of Ash and Brimstone (Gatewalkers Book 1)! Stuff We Talked About Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton Sabriel by Garth Nix More than Quest Givers: Why Good Characters Matter Konsoll 2019 Talk by Molly Maloney and Eric Stirpe The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen The Twelve Dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Kelsey Beachum & Olivia Alexander | 27 Sep 2019 | 01:35:18 | |
We've got Kelsey (game writer and narrative designer on Outer Wilds with Mobius Digital, along with Stormland for Insomniac, and wrote the unreleased Tales from the Minus Lab for USC’s Interactive Media & Games Division) and Olivia (script writer and narrative designer at Ubisoft Montreal on Far Cry 5 and Far Cry: New Dawn, and previously a scriptwriter at Ubisoft Quebec on Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and its DLC) in this month to talk about the hardest parts of working with nonlinear storytelling, stress, taking feedback, nonlinear murder mysteries, quantifying values that are hard to quantify, assuming that players are smart, tracking all the permutations in branching narratives, player assumptions when it comes to knowledge of the story and vice versa, letting players pull in information instead of pushing it on them, what makes a good opening and ending, DnD, and more. Our Guests on the Internet Olivia's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About GDC 2019: Technical Tools for Authoring Branching Dialogue by Carrie Patel and Szymczyk Overqualified by Joey Comeau Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
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| Kait Tremblay & Sam Maggs | 29 Aug 2019 | 01:27:31 | |
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 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 Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Lola Shiraishi & Scott Strichart | 22 Jul 2019 | 01:19:10 | |
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 Scott's Twitter Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| The Big One | 10 Jun 2019 | 03:55:18 | |
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 Carrie's Twitter, and you should check out The Outer Worlds Tyler's Twitter Stuff We Talked About Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton ROUND TWO (begins at 49:35) Our guests on the Internet Sarah's Twitter, and you should check out Afterparty and GamDev.World Jon's Twitter Brendon's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Skin Deep Cat's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Pathologic 2 Stuff We Talked About The menu from Medal of Honor (1999) Honeysuckle by Cat Manning Collaborative Approaches to Getting Great VO Performances (if you have GDC vault access, you can find it there!) Where the Water Tastes Like Wine ROUND THREE (begins at 1:42:12) Our guests on the Internet Eric's Twitter Janina's Twitter, and you should check out Stucco Kate's Twitter Ben's Twitter, Website, and you should check out Donut County Stuff We Talked About ROUND FOUR (begins at 2:36:27) Our guests on the Internet Ryan's Twitter, and you should check out The Environment Art Podcast Claire's Twitter, Website, and you should check out In the Valley of the Gods Molly's Twitter, and you should check out Yakuza 0 and Return of the Obra Dinn Graham's Twitter, and you should check out Deadwax and Visitations with Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah Stuff We Talked About Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Olivia Wood & Jessica Krause | 27 May 2019 | 01:16:55 | |
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 Jessica's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh The Chrestomanci Series by Diana Wynne Jones Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita | |||
| Rosa Dachtler & Ben Arfmann | 30 Apr 2019 | 01:29:29 | |
NARRATIVE DESIGN! WHAT IS IT? Today we're super lucky to have Rosa (narrative designer at Criterion Games, previously an audio designer there, and her credits include Battlefield 1, Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Battlefield 5's Firestorm mode) and Ben (writer at Insomniac Games, where he worked on last year's Spider-Man, and he's also a writer and director of film and TV) joining us to answer answer one of the most perplexing questions of our times, plus chat about going from audio to narrative design, building narrative teams, enthusiasm being undervalued, how to sustain yourself through dark periods, how to nail the voices of established characters/IPs, the greatness of Yuri Lowenthal, methods for getting the best possible performances from your actors, whether directing has impacted their storytelling processes, storytelling quagmires they've found themselves in, how do you know when you're done with something (especially when you don't have a deadline), do they feel obligated to play other games to stay up to date with the state of storytelling, games that impressed them recently, stuff that takes them out of a game's story, things they want changed in game development, and one or two more things! Our Guests on the Internet Rosa's Twitter. Ben's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Kim Allom & Kate Gray | 31 Mar 2019 | 01:43:40 | |
This episode is NSFW as we've got Kim (studio manager at Defiant Development, where she’s worked on Hand of Fate, Hand of Fate 2, and Ski Safari: Adventure time. Also the co-founder of Blushbox Collective, a group of game developers exploring and promoting love and sexuality in video games, and the Heartbeat conference and game jam) and Kate (currently the narrative director at KO_OP and writer of the sex games column for Kotaku, previously a games journalist, video producer, on-camera host, scriptwriter, streamer, and community manager at companies ranging from Gamespot to Xbox) in to talk about sex, intimacy, and how they're used in game stories. Other topics include why it’s important to talk about sex now, becoming a stronger communicator, sexual values being good life values, exploring taboo subjects in games, how sex is portrayed in indie games vs big budget games, wanting better consensual content, the lack of funding for intimate interactive experiences, whether there are any aspects of relationships that are hard to translate to gameplay, VR porn, win states in sex games, how to make interactive relationships engaging, and the sexiest games. Our Guests on the Internet Kim's Twitter and Blush Box's website. Stuff We Talked About Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Jon Paquette & Mel MacCoubrey | 18 Feb 2019 | 01:27:46 | |
Awards season has ARRIVED, and to mark the occasion we've invited two writers representing two of the games nominated by the WGA this year for Best Game Writing : Jon Paquette (Lead Writer on Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, and Resistance 3, and formerly a Creative Director at EA, writer on Medal of Honor, and Medal of Honor: Airborne, and QA Lead on Jurassic Park: Trespasser) and returning guest Mel MacCoubrey (Narrative Director on Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and formerly the Assistant Director of Narrative Design on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, scriptwriter on Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry, and scriptwriting intern on Far Cry 4)! Incredible topics discussed include Jurassic Park Trespasser, writing internships at Ubisoft and Insomniac, whether the core pillars of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Spider-Man stayed consistent throughout development, scoping challenges, game length, making big changes to the story once you have a playable build, preventing problems before they happen, always putting your best ideas forward, hardest part about writing for an open world, the worst professional advice they've ever gotten, maintaining a healthy work/life balance, underrated people working with game narratives, the value of voice actors, if there's anything they would change about game development, AAA games that don't have combat as main mechanic, the importance of Farming Simulator 19 as an esport, and moreeeeeeeeee. Our Guests on the Internet Jon's Twitter. Mel's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Molly Maloney & Eric Stirpe | 01 Feb 2019 | 01:26:26 | |
It's 2019 and we've got Molly (Lead Narrative Designer at Bad Robot Games, and previously Lead Gameplay Designer at Telltale on Guardians fo the Galaxy, Minecraft: Story Mode, Walking Dead: Season 3, Tales from the Borderlands) and Eric (Writer on Fortnite, interactive consultant for Eko, and previously a staff writer for Netflix's Trash Truck, and a writer at Telltale on Walking Dead: Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode seasons 1 & 2, and Batman: The Telltale Series) here to talk about how choose your own adventure is the dominant influence on interactive narrative at the moment, choice timers, the marriage of writing and narrative design, working relationships, players forgiving bad writing more than bad narrative design, what made Telltale work, finishing a project and feeling like you just spent a lot of time making an asset for somebody else, Bandersnatch (SPOILERS), the problem of having “good” and “bad” endings in branching narratives, fail states, making people feel like their choices matter, obfuscating branches from players, and what makes a good choice. Our Guests on the Internet Molly's Twitter. Eric's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney Still The Smartest Guy On The Hill 30 Years After Sex, Lies & Videotape: Steven Soderbergh Unravels Hollywood Chaos by Mike Fleming Jr. Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Rhianna Pratchett, Jill Murray, and Cara Ellison | 24 Dec 2018 | 01:27:11 | |
Happy holidays! We're sneaking in right before Christmas to give all of you the very special gift of Rhianna Pratchett (game writer, narrative designer, comic book writer, and former journalist. She's written on such titles as Heavenly Sword, the Overlord series, Mirror's Edge, the Mirror’s Edge comic series, the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, the sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and the Tomb Raider: The Beginning comic series) AND Jill Murray (Lead Writer and Narrative Designer for AAA games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Liberation, and AC Freedom Cry, winner of the WGA award for game writing in 2013, and previously published two YA novels with Random House of Canada. She is currently the Narrative Director for an unannounced indie project, as well as working on Boyfriend Dungeon with Kitfox Games, and writing an episode of Later Daters for Bloom Digital) AND Cara Ellison (former games journalist and current game writer, narrative designer, and screenwriter. She served as a narrative consultant on Dishonored 2, produced and designed the TV show Last Commanders for CBBC, and is currently a narrative designer on Media Molecule's Dreams, and Void Bastards by BlueManchu Games), who've joined us to talk prime writing hours, freelancing advice, how to network (and how NOT to), game writing agents, negotiating for yourself, being a narrative paramedic, red flags to watch out for on potential jobs, what they wish more people knew about the kind of work they do, skills to have that are unique for working in AAA, how to handle when people are constantly telling you that your work isn't good, being aware of studio politics, writing mistakes/failures that they've learned from, the state of the industry, worldbuilding, and a few other things that you'll just have to find out yourself! Our Guests on the Internet Rhianna's Twitter and Website. Jill's Twitter, Website, and Instagram. Cara's Twitter, Facebook, and Website. Stuff We Talked About Writing for Videogames - Writers' Guild of Great Britain Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Ryan Benno & Ellen Shelley | 26 Nov 2018 | 01:19:08 | |
We've got another art-focused episode for you this month as we're joined by Ryan (environment artist on Hunted: The Demon's Forge, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Sunset Overdrive, Ratchet and Clank, and the senior environment artist on Marvel's Spider-Man. He's also one of the hosts of the Environment Art Podcast) and Ellen (currently a lighting artist at Supermassive Games, previously a 3D artist at Sony’s London Studio, a 3D Environment Artist at Little Wolf Studio Ltd, and a VR developer at Yelo Architects) to talk about whether degrees are necessary anymore to find work, where do you start when making an environment, style guides, navigating creative disagreements, environmental storytelling, the overabundance of sci-fi hallways, narrative/visual techniques that games still haven’t tried much, soft cardboard boxes, starting with the blank page, the difference between making a twentysomething-year-old’s apartment vs Peter Parker’s apartment, what can’t you tweak when you’re building an environment that everyone knows, breaking walls that were not meant to break, readability, accessibility, and know that not everything you make needs to be at 11. Our Guests on the Internet Ryan on Twitter. Ellen on Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Ashley Swidowski & Claire Hummel | 13 Nov 2018 | 01:40:23 | |
We're taking a big ol' swan dive into character design and concept art on this week's episode, and so we're SUPER lucky to have Ashley (formerly a Concept Artist on The Last of Us: Left Behind, and since then she's worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End as Lead Character Concept Artist, as well as the upcoming The Last of Us Part II) and Claire (formerly an Artist and Associate Production Designer for Microsoft Studios, where she worked on a bunch of Kinect games, Fable Legends, Sunset Overdrive, Powerstar Golf, and more. She also was the Production Designer for Westworld VR, and currently works as the Art Director on In the Valley of Gods for Campo Santo/Valve) joining us to talk about the misconceptions around what a concept artist does, how they each approach character design, what they want from the writers/creative director when they're starting out with designing one, working for the project instead of yourself, how they know when they're done, the importance of taking breaks and having personal projects, how to achieve good storytelling and character work through costuming, how "real" you can push things before it becomes so novel for players that they're distracted by it, cloth sims: the final frontier of video game character design, making art for VR, major influences, how to create characters that are lifelike and not superficial, the secret to navigating creative disagreements successfully, the importance of failing and making mistakes, which game stories they've responded to recently, and MORE! Our Guests on the Internet Ashley on Twitter and Instagram. Claire on Twitter and her Website. Stuff We Talked About Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Ben Esposito & Andrew Shouldice | 29 Sep 2018 | 01:24:56 | |
Puns are OUTLAWED on this episode as we talk with Ben (Creator of Donut County, and also a game designer, level designer, sound designer, artist, programmer, writer, and more, with credits on Brooklyn Trash King, Bubsy3d: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Tattletail. Also a co-founder of Glitch City LA and Arcane Kids) and Andrew (pretty much the one-man developer behind Tunic, which he’s been working on full time since leaving Silverback Games in 2015) about skulls near toilets and environmental storytelling, designing a story where the player doesn't fully understand what's happening in the world, when to start thinking about theme, garbage chic, coming up with a game to match a specific feeling, freedom being a terrible thing for an artist, the emotional expense of investing yourself in someone else's project, the danger of snacks and working from home, when you know you’re done with something, games dictating their length, naming your game, keeping a good work/life balance when your boss is you, secrets decisions, and how to Twitter well. Our Guests on the Internet Andrew's Twitter and Tunic's Twitter. Ben's Twitter, Website, and Donut County's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Emily Short's Blog Post About Donut County Donut County is a Game About Swallowing Los Angeles and Realizing You're an Asshole by Laura Hudson Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Laura Michet & Cat Manning | 23 Sep 2018 | 01:17:40 | |
Freelancing! Blessing or curse? Today Laura (writer and editor of such games as Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Swan Hill, You Got This, Brutadon!, The Brigand’s Story, and more, and is currently an editor at Riot Games.) and Cat (writer and narrative designer of video games and narrative fiction, who's worked on titles such as Invasion, Pathologic 2, What Isn't Saved (Will Be Lost), Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and the forthcoming Leader of the Pack) join us to talk about that independent life with topics like how to find work, what to look for in contracts, rates, renegotiating, the importance of maintaining a social media presence, whether you should go to festivals, why you maybe shouldn't go to the Write Zone at GDC, and non-freelancer stuff like how to match another writer's voice, reflective choices and how to make strong ones, how to give a player the feeling that their decisions have an impact on a story (especially when the story isn't actually changing at all), writing mistakes, the importance of editing, getting feedback, and I dunno, a few more things. Our Guests on the Internet Stuff We Talked About The parser game scene from the Tom Hanks movie Big Slug-In-Hand Tavern Twitter Bot The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Videogames Guidelines Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Successful Reflective Choices in Interactive Narrative by Cat Manning Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Marc Laidlaw & Chris Gardiner | 30 Jul 2018 | 01:20:31 | |
Summer is here and so is a new episode! Today we're talking with Marc (author, game writer, designer, and previously worked at Valve on Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 & 2, and Dota) and Chris (narrative director at Failbetter Games, previously a staff writer and head writer, and has written on Fallen London, The Last Court, Sunless Skies, and Sunless Seas) about storytelling transmedia synergy in 1990s Japan, what makes a good narrative director, planning a career as a writer, core skills writers should have, getting into writing with a team too early in your career, keys to good worldbuilding, creating the illusion of depth, the poop caves of Nottingham, having end goals in mind as a team, trusting your teammates, avoiding your first thoughts in writing, how expectations of more dialogue can put the wrong weight on characters, big failures, changes in writing processes, and player literacy. Our Guests on the Internet Chris' Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Which Legend of Zelda Game Was Inspired By Twin Peaks? by Michael McWhertor Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Mitch Dyer & Demian Linn | 25 Jun 2018 | 01:25:24 | |
Going from game journalism to game writing isn't something you see too often, but today Mitch Dyer (former editor at IGN, freelance writer for Gamespot, ArsTechnica, The Escapist, Gamesrader, and more, and current writer at EA Motive where he recently finished working on Star Wars Battlefront 2) and Demian Linn (former executive producer at Ziff Davis Media, 1UP.com, and GameVideos, co-founder of BitMob Media, and current game writer at Ubisoft San Francisco, where he just finished working on South Park: the Fractured But Whole) join us to talk about their experiences doing just that, as well freelance life, assumptions they had about game writing that ended up being incorrect, aspects of games we all wish fans and/or the media understood better, the biggest storytelling mistakes they've learned from, writing tests, how to stay objective about your writing, the approval process on big IPs, writing processes, toolsets, what takes them out of games, what to do when you're struggling with a writing problem, what's inspiring them lately, why comedy in video games is so hard to pull off, what they struggle most with with writing and how they conquer it, storytelling trends over the last decade, when we're going to see a AAA studio make a game with no combat, verbs they'd like to see more, and -- wow, this sentence is just going on forever, huh. Our Guests on the Internet Mitch's Twitter. Demian's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||
| Charlene Putney & Jana Sloan van Geest | 14 May 2018 | 00:57:47 | |
Spring is here, and so are Charlene (writer at Larian Studios on Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2) and Jana (game writer and narrative designer on Battlestar Galactica: Squadrons, Assassin's Creed Origins, and currently at Guerilla Games where she just finished working on Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds)! They join us to talk about what makes a good bark, writing a good tooltip, finding inspiration in others, doing different types of writing at different times of day, solving a writing problem by articulating it to someone else, working with different team sizes, best practices for breaking through creative ruts, honing your judgment, the need for simplicity and clarity in game writing, the craving for more narration through items, and never retiring a tool in the storytelling toolbox. Our Guests on the Internet Charlene's Twitter. Jana's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Hag-Seed: A Novel by Margaret Atwood Borne: A Novel by Jeff VanderMeer The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita. | |||