Script Lock

Samantha (narrative designer at ArenaNet, and previously a writer and narrative designer on titles such as SumoBoy, Fallout: Lonestar, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Mass Effect Andromeda) and Brooke (writer and narrative designer on The Gardens Between, Paperback and Florence) call in to talk about breaking into the industry, binging the Mass Effect trilogy, writing processes, why character should be the plot, trying to get a story across without using text or speech, creating well-rounded characters, transitioning from a literary writer to a narrative designer, writing for MMOs and the writing process working on The Old Republic, episodic and 100+ hour narratives, special difficulty modes for people who just want to experience the story in a game, NOT being able to kiss Nick Valentine in Fallout 4, different approaches to storytelling within Bioware, career advice and tips for breaking into the industry, and oh man so much more it's crazy. Our Guests on the Internet Samantha's Twitter. Brooke's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About HULK PRESENTS CHARACTER TREES by Film Crit Hulk The Gardens Between The Writer Between: Thieving Literary Plot to Design Game Narrative by Brooke Maggs Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Michael (writer at Night School Studio, and previously a lead writer at Telltale Games on The Walking Dead - A New Frontier, Batman, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Tales from the Borderlands) and Laura (playwright, TV writer, and game writer, winner of several awards for her plays, including the Wasserstein Prize, writer on Get Shorty, Grace and Frankie, Season 3 of Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Minecraft: Story Mode) join us to talk about moving between theatre, TV, and video games, switching fonts and other strategies when you're narratively stuck, the best times to write, jumping from selling shoes to Telltale, player agency, approaching storytelling differently for different IP, Night School’s storytelling philosophy, story being an endlessly renewable resource, work-life balance, giving the illusion of choice to players, making choices feel big, responding to players while making episodic content, and the need for more character moments in AAA. Our Guests on the Internet Michael's Twitter. Laura's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About Dental Society Midwinter Meeting by Laura Jacqmin Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them by Jason Schreier Tales from the Borderlands: The Oral History by Duncan Fyfe Thimbleweed Park Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Ashly (actress, writer, and singer, who's acted in such games as Borderlands 2, Mortal Kombat X, Life is Strange, and Horizon Zero Dawn, and has written for Rocket Jump, Adventure Time, and Glitch Techs) and Kate (writer of speculative fiction, with her stories appearing in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Gamut, and Lamplight, and currently the co-Editor in Chief of the online magazine Strange Horizons as well as a narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment working on Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire) are here to talk fan fiction, writing processes, letting your work breathe vs brute forcing it, whether games need their stories to be great or not, dealing with bad notes, voice acting and having too much or too little info to work with when you go into the booth, staying true to an IPs voice while also bringing your own, writing as a fan, ways to handle the problem of crafting stories when players might not be paying attention to/remembering key information, making players feel helpless, and much more! Our Guests on the Internet Ashly's Twitter, Website, and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. Kate's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About The Science and Entertainment Exchange Hey Ash Whatcha Playin? Codex Writers' Group Fueling the 'Pyre' With Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin Epistle 3 Jam (Half-Life 3 Game Jam) Epistle 3 by Marc Laidlaw Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Kim (scriptwriter at Ubisoft, co-author of the novel "Pure Steele", and co-host of the weekly podcast, "The Sexiest Podcast") and Harrison ( game designer at Telltale on seasons 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: 400 Days, and co-creator of Tales from the Borderlands. Recently a world designer at Hangar 13 on Mafia 3) are here to talk about whether modern games leave enough to the player’s imagination, introducing a New Game Minus feature, if you have a lot of money, you can’t afford faith (from a corporate level), the weirdness of Earthbound, feeling obligated to share lore because you have it instead of holding it back, studios valuing plot logic over emotional logic between characters, open world design problems, giving players more verbs, being able to ask for help more in games, making choices explicit to players, too many twists, and the need for lower stakes. Our Guests on the Internet Kim's Twitter and Podcast. Harrison's Twitter and Podcast. Stuff We Talked About Pure Steele by Kim Belair and Ariadne MacGillivray Imagination vs Immersion by Kim Belair List of games that support Tourism compiled by JP LeBreton Arms' lore just gets weirder and weirder by Allegra Frank The Door Problem by Liz England Prey vs. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: why one intro works and the other doesn't by Tom Francis Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Josh (designer on Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, writer and designer on over a dozen tabletop RPGs for White Wolf, Dream Pod 9, and Steve Jackson games, lead designer on Company of Heroes and Homeworld 2, initial creative director on Far Cry 3, game director on Diablo 3, and current design/game master in residence at Bonfire Studios) and Darby (Writer on several Game Boy Advance and DS games like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Sims 2, but most recently has been a writer on the Assassin’s Creed series and was the lead writer on Revelations and Black Flag) call in to discuss tabletop gaming, the benefits of an english degree, being a game director at Blizzard, the business realities of game development, the relationship between narrative design and game design, the importance of the player's story, the problem with plot in video games and how to deal with it, the storytelling of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, whether games will ever be remembered for their stories, bad writing, working with established franchises, dealing with the expectations of players, and much more! Our Guests on the Internet Josh's Twitter and Bonfire Studios's website. Darby's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Pandemic by Matt Leacock Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Best Detective Game Ever Made - Extra Credits Abel Gance's Napoléon Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

We've got Sean (co-project leader and lead writer on season one of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, and Puzzle Agent 2. Writer on Tales of Monkey Island and a designer on Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Co-founder of Campo Santo, and writer on their first game, Firewatch) and Jesse (writer on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 4, and Titanfall 1 & 2) in to talk about joining the industry with no preconceived notions, the importance of having somebody with strong storytelling sensibilities in a senior leadership role, how building scenes first and then finding a writer NEVER works, generating trust with your team, trusting the process, the skills you improve over making games, staying usefully ignorant of the process, the hardest scene to write in games being two people talking to each other, maintaining a professional curiosity, when is the right time to share ideas with your team, the problem of people mortgaging fun and entertainment for subtlety, and Sean’s experience working on Mickey Epic. Our Guests on the Internet Sean's Twitter and Website. Jesse's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About The Grey The Art of Fiction #6: Greg Kasavin by Sean Vanaman Zoom Campo Santo Quarterly Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Straight outta GDC, Aleissia (gameplay programmer on Lost: Via Domus, Behavior and AI Programmer on Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, and lead AI and game programmer on Assassin's Creed 3, Unity, and Unnanounced Project at Ubisoft Montreal) and Rob (game writer, narrative designer, voice director, and cofounder and creative director of Playlines. Writer on The Assembly, Imago, Fallen London, and Wonderbook: Book of Spells) join us to discuss augmented and mixed reality experiences, interactive immersive theater, how to get players to not break experiences, whether AI is the future for making games accessible or not, Sleep No More (as always), should players be aware of a narrative changing around them, managing the user experience, having stories where the player isn't the hero, participation through implication as a storytelling conceit, using AI tracking and Machine Learning to help systemic games, attuning players to treat the world around them as if it's not devoid of social consequences, the player's self-importance about their own experience, advancements in systemic design, our collective excitement at the prospect of a wrestling game using the nemesis system, parallels between wrestling and storytelling, how do you make a believable NPC, and sooooo much more! Our Guests on the Internet Aleissia's Twitter and her podcast, DevJam. Rob's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About Moment Factory Sleep No More Nesta Punchdrunk and Media Molecule - Where Dreams Collide Escaping the Holodeck: Storytelling and Convergence in VR/AR The Speakeasy Zombie LARP The Void Turing Tantrums: AI Devs Rant!! GCAP 2016: Systems Are Everywhere... Right, Elon Musk? - Aleissia Laidacker Life is Strange Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of Eve Online by Andrew Groen Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor The Sexy, Scary Play That’s Influencing Google, Facebook, And Disney Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

We're starting 2017 off right with our guests Émilie (co-director of Burning Glass Creative, led design team on The Sims FreePlay at EA Melbourne and on Drakensang at Bigpoint Games. Was game design director at Frima Studio and taught storytelling in games at Cégep Limoilou) and Brie (previously lead programmer at Ubisoft Montreal on the Assassin's Creed franchise and Child of Light, and currently the founder of Tru Luv Media). Topics include making games with people who don't like video games, modular narratives, integrating positive psychology into game design, story emerging from systems, the storytelling challenges of being free to play, updating a game every three weeks and the challenges therein, emotional triggers that create engagement, player ownership in games, the importance of giving space to the audience, and games as a personal growth tool. Our Guests on the Internet Emilie's Twitter and Website. Brie's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon This War of Mine iThrive Eco *Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.*

It's our last episode of the year! Emily Grace Buck (narrative designer at Telltale Games where she worked on The Walking Dead: Michonne and Batman - The Telltale Series, and previously designed and wrote educational games at Kognito) and Julie Marchiori (level designer, mission designer, and current Assistant Narrative Director at Ubisoft Montreal, and has worked on such games as the Army of Two franchise, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3, and Assassin's Creed Unity) drop in to talk about using agency to empower players to build their own stories, gameplay verbs, the narrative potential of systems, environmental storytelling, level design, the research phase, design processes, subtext in games, the importance of downtime with your characters and why it's difficult for studios, minority content, examining the choices of players, and a heck of a lot more! Our Guests on the Internet Emily's Twitter and Tumblr. Julie's Blog about going from gamer geek to gamer geek mom, and her other Blog where she talks about things like her beef with gendered games. Stuff We Talked About Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Dragon Age: Inquisition Fallout 3 Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard Assassin's Creed: Unity Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Batman - The Telltale Series Gears of War 4 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Until Dawn Life is Strange World of Warcraft Mystic Messenger MR. ROBOT:1.51EXFILTRATI0N Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

We are JAM-PACKED with storymakin' knowledge as we talk with Tim (co-founder and creative director of Double Fine Productions, probably wrote/designed/programmed your favorite LucasArts games), Jake (co-founder of Cardboard Computer and writer on Kentucky Route Zero. Maker of artware, music, and games like A (Moth in Relay), We Were You, and The Penguins’ Dilemma), and SURPRISE RETURN GUEST Cara (writer, narrative designer, game critic, and wrote on the recently released Dishonored 2) about using Twine as a design tool, knowing the implementation of your writing, working the fat off your prose style, the hero’s journey being just one bag of tricks that works, the differing emotional states between pitching and working, thinking of structure like Brutalist architecture, the most over utilized/underutilized tools in the storytelling toolbox, the importance of having/not having voice over, fatigue from world-ending stakes, internal writing rules, deciding to use/not use puzzles in adventure games, and whether there’s too much pressure on conclusions. Our Guests on the Internet Tim's Twitter and Website. Jake's Twitter and Website. Cara's Website and Book. Stuff We Talked About Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field Save the Cat by Blake Snyder (Don’t buy this book) Breakfast of Champions: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King Thirty Flights of Loving Virginia Here and There Along the Echo Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin Emily Short’s blog Sunless Sea Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Rules Jake's GDC 2013 talk - Designing for Mystery in Kentucky Route Zero The Poetics of Space by Cara Ellison Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.