Script Lock

We've got another art-focused episode for you this month as we're joined by Ryan (environment artist on Hunted: The Demon's Forge, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Sunset Overdrive, Ratchet and Clank, and the senior environment artist on Marvel's Spider-Man. He's also one of the hosts of the Environment Art Podcast) and Ellen (currently a lighting artist at Supermassive Games, previously a 3D artist at Sony’s London Studio, a 3D Environment Artist at Little Wolf Studio Ltd, and a VR developer at Yelo Architects) to talk about whether degrees are necessary anymore to find work, where do you start when making an environment, style guides, navigating creative disagreements, environmental storytelling, the overabundance of sci-fi hallways, narrative/visual techniques that games still haven’t tried much, soft cardboard boxes, starting with the blank page, the difference between making a twentysomething-year-old’s apartment vs Peter Parker’s apartment, what can’t you tweak when you’re building an environment that everyone knows, breaking walls that were not meant to break, readability, accessibility, and know that not everything you make needs to be at 11. Our Guests on the Internet Ryan on Twitter. Ellen on Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Artstation Marvel's Spider-Man Hunted: The Demon's Forge Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

We're taking a big ol' swan dive into character design and concept art on this week's episode, and so we're SUPER lucky to have Ashley (formerly a Concept Artist on The Last of Us: Left Behind, and since then she's worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End as Lead Character Concept Artist, as well as the upcoming The Last of Us Part II) and Claire (formerly an Artist and Associate Production Designer for Microsoft Studios, where she worked on a bunch of Kinect games, Fable Legends, Sunset Overdrive, Powerstar Golf, and more. She also was the Production Designer for Westworld VR, and currently works as the Art Director on In the Valley of Gods for Campo Santo/Valve) joining us to talk about the misconceptions around what a concept artist does, how they each approach character design, what they want from the writers/creative director when they're starting out with designing one, working for the project instead of yourself, how they know when they're done, the importance of taking breaks and having personal projects, how to achieve good storytelling and character work through costuming, how "real" you can push things before it becomes so novel for players that they're distracted by it, cloth sims: the final frontier of video game character design, making art for VR, major influences, how to create characters that are lifelike and not superficial, the secret to navigating creative disagreements successfully, the importance of failing and making mistakes, which game stories they've responded to recently, and MORE! Our Guests on the Internet Ashley on Twitter and Instagram. Claire on Twitter and her Website. Stuff We Talked About James Gurney In the Valley of the Gods Mary Zophres The Order: 1886 Isao Oishi Layers of Fear Hilda Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland Horizon Zero Dawn Night in the Woods Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Puns are OUTLAWED on this episode as we talk with Ben (Creator of Donut County, and also a game designer, level designer, sound designer, artist, programmer, writer, and more, with credits on Brooklyn Trash King, Bubsy3d: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Tattletail. Also a co-founder of Glitch City LA and Arcane Kids) and Andrew (pretty much the one-man developer behind Tunic, which he’s been working on full time since leaving Silverback Games in 2015) about skulls near toilets and environmental storytelling, designing a story where the player doesn't fully understand what's happening in the world, when to start thinking about theme, garbage chic, coming up with a game to match a specific feeling, freedom being a terrible thing for an artist, the emotional expense of investing yourself in someone else's project, the danger of snacks and working from home, when you know you’re done with something, games dictating their length, naming your game, keeping a good work/life balance when your boss is you, secrets decisions, and how to Twitter well. Our Guests on the Internet Andrew's Twitter and Tunic's Twitter. Ben's Twitter, Website, and Donut County's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Emily Short's Blog Post About Donut County Donut County is a Game About Swallowing Los Angeles and Realizing You're an Asshole by Laura Hudson Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Freelancing! Blessing or curse? Today Laura (writer and editor of such games as Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Swan Hill, You Got This, Brutadon!, The Brigand’s Story, and more, and is currently an editor at Riot Games.) and Cat (writer and narrative designer of video games and narrative fiction, who's worked on titles such as Invasion, Pathologic 2, What Isn't Saved (Will Be Lost), Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and the forthcoming Leader of the Pack) join us to talk about that independent life with topics like how to find work, what to look for in contracts, rates, renegotiating, the importance of maintaining a social media presence, whether you should go to festivals, why you maybe shouldn't go to the Write Zone at GDC, and non-freelancer stuff like how to match another writer's voice, reflective choices and how to make strong ones, how to give a player the feeling that their decisions have an impact on a story (especially when the story isn't actually changing at all), writing mistakes, the importance of editing, getting feedback, and I dunno, a few more things. Our Guests on the Internet Laura's Twitter and Website Cat's Twitter and Website Stuff We Talked About The parser game scene from the Tom Hanks movie Big Slug-In-Hand Tavern Twitter Bot The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Videogames Guidelines DoContract Game Writers Facebook Group Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Successful Reflective Choices in Interactive Narrative by Cat Manning Planescape Torment With Those We Love Alive Invasion Sub-Q American Vandal Brendan Patrick Hennessy Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Summer is here and so is a new episode! Today we're talking with Marc (author, game writer, designer, and previously worked at Valve on Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 & 2, and Dota) and Chris (narrative director at Failbetter Games, previously a staff writer and head writer, and has written on Fallen London, The Last Court, Sunless Skies, and Sunless Seas) about storytelling transmedia synergy in 1990s Japan, what makes a good narrative director, planning a career as a writer, core skills writers should have, getting into writing with a team too early in your career, keys to good worldbuilding, creating the illusion of depth, the poop caves of Nottingham, having end goals in mind as a team, trusting your teammates, avoiding your first thoughts in writing, how expectations of more dialogue can put the wrong weight on characters, big failures, changes in writing processes, and player literacy. Our Guests on the Internet Marc's Twitter and Website. Chris' Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Which Legend of Zelda Game Was Inspired By Twin Peaks? by Michael McWhertor Woodcutters from Fiery Ships Machine Cares The Clarion Workshop Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Going from game journalism to game writing isn't something you see too often, but today Mitch Dyer (former editor at IGN, freelance writer for Gamespot, ArsTechnica, The Escapist, Gamesrader, and more, and current writer at EA Motive where he recently finished working on Star Wars Battlefront 2) and Demian Linn (former executive producer at Ziff Davis Media, 1UP.com, and GameVideos, co-founder of BitMob Media, and current game writer at Ubisoft San Francisco, where he just finished working on South Park: the Fractured But Whole) join us to talk about their experiences doing just that, as well freelance life, assumptions they had about game writing that ended up being incorrect, aspects of games we all wish fans and/or the media understood better, the biggest storytelling mistakes they've learned from, writing tests, how to stay objective about your writing, the approval process on big IPs, writing processes, toolsets, what takes them out of games, what to do when you're struggling with a writing problem, what's inspiring them lately, why comedy in video games is so hard to pull off, what they struggle most with with writing and how they conquer it, storytelling trends over the last decade, when we're going to see a AAA studio make a game with no combat, verbs they'd like to see more, and -- wow, this sentence is just going on forever, huh. Our Guests on the Internet Mitch's Twitter. Demian's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Trey Parker and Matt Stone: 'This happened, and then this happened, and then this happens -- that’s not a movie, that’s not a story' Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Spring is here, and so are Charlene (writer at Larian Studios on Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2) and Jana (game writer and narrative designer on Battlestar Galactica: Squadrons, Assassin's Creed Origins, and currently at Guerilla Games where she just finished working on Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds)! They join us to talk about what makes a good bark, writing a good tooltip, finding inspiration in others, doing different types of writing at different times of day, solving a writing problem by articulating it to someone else, working with different team sizes, best practices for breaking through creative ruts, honing your judgment, the need for simplicity and clarity in game writing, the craving for more narration through items, and never retiring a tool in the storytelling toolbox. Our Guests on the Internet Charlene's Twitter. Jana's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Hag-Seed: A Novel by Margaret Atwood Borne: A Novel by Jeff VanderMeer The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron Caves of Qud Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

GET IN, LISTENERS! WE'RE GOING TO ACTING CLASS! And joining us on this fantastically illuminating trip are Janina Gavankar (actor, musician, writer, and most recently seen in Star Wars Battlefront II, Far Cry 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the forthcoming Afterparty for Night School Studio) and returning guest Sarah Elmaleh (actor and voiceover artist on such projects as Gone Home, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Pyre, Read Only Memories, Masquerada, Final Fantasy XV, For Honor, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and the BBC Radio drama Game Over)! We chat about letting actors become collaborators (and why it doesn't always happen), rehearsals, falling in love with Don Johnson, the audition process, what makes a good director, the worst piece of direction they've ever gotten, what takes us out of game stories, the kinds of roles and characters they'd like to see more of, the era of the antihero and its end, knowing the medium, not making decisions out of fear, if it's ever possible to know too much about a character you're playing, the film industry chasing the games industry, and so much more you don't even KNOW. Our Guests on the Internet Janina's Twitter Sarah's Twitter Stuff We Talked About Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry Tony Gilroy 4/3/18 Theforum.games Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

A NEW YEAR means NEW GUESTS! Alex (former UI designer and current character concept artist at Naughty Dog, as well as a freelance children’s book author. Her credits include The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and NBA Live 09) and Olly (Art Director on Firewatch, and graphic designer best known for his work w/ Mondo, Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Academy Awards, and much more) join us to talk about growing up on message boards, NBA Live 09 and the UI of sports games, whether knowledge limits your creativity, communicating a feeling through art, being critical of your own work, creating Garfields for fun, experimentation, UI in a background role, creating spaces in Firewatch that felt natural and not meticulously designed, how to lead the player without being too obtuse or explicit, creating Drake's Journal in Uncharted 4, misconceptions about work, why Breath of the Wild is great, and Tom Bombadil. Our Guests on the Internet Alex's Twitter and Website. Olly's Twitter, Garfield Repository, and Website. Stuff We Talked About Alex's Young Drake designs Olly's Harry Potter book covers Garfield Minus Garfield That millennial SNL skit Alex mentioned Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse trailer How We Made The Last of Us's Interface Work So Well by Alex Neonakis Drake's Journal by Alex Neonakis In the Valley of Gods by Campo Santo Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

2017's coming to a close and who better to spend it with than Halley (writer, actress, currently co-writing The Last of Us: Part II, and has written on the TV shows Banshee, Westworld, and Emerald City) and Graham (writer, director, sound designer, currently writing and directing Rapid Eye, and has co-written Until Dawn, Until Dawn Rush of Blood, and Hidden Agenda)! They join us to talk moving from TV to games, writing solo vs with a partner, staring at the ceiling being work, pacing for the player's time, garbage passes, Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic and his thoughts on video games, what makes something a game vs an interactive experience, how everyone is gaming literate now, lining up performances in a modular narrative, writing and recording out of order, trusting your actors and going easy on those parentheticals (unless you’re making a modular narrative), fan expectations, fan fiction, getting the audience to trust you, writing exposition, story burritos, characters saying their feelings, and challenging your audience. Note: This episode has spoilers for Inside. Halley said she played a Game Gear game called Gems, but she wants you to know that she actually meant to say Columns. Halley was right about Playwright’s Horizons. Our Guests on the Internet Halley's Twitter. Graham's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Mosaic Steven Soderbergh on Filmmaking, the Weinstein Scandal, and Why You Shouldn’t Call Mosaic a Video Game by Matt Zoller Seitz The Three Levels of Dialogue Woodcutters from Fiery Ships Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.