Script Lock

Mel (writer and Director of Narrative Design at Ubisoft Quebec, and has worked on such games as Far Cry 4, Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate) and Ann (writer and narrative designer on such games as Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Mass Effect: Andromeda, and is a co-writer of the book The Game Narrative Toolbox) are here to talk about whether going to university is necessary for becoming a game writer, being a salesperson to other departments, Ubisoft internships, the length of game stories, being a narrative director, one thing they wish all departments knew about narrative to start with, dealing with players who don't care about story, how narrative is everything, the possibility of AAA studios making smaller open world games, being scientifically accurate in Mass Effect and historically accurate in Assassin's Creed, coming onto a franchise that has already started, fan fiction, how to acknowledge every possible action of the player without diluting the story you want to tell, whether we should be concerned about side content overshadowing the main narrative, the hardest and easiest characters to write, the importance of communication, and jeez, so much more! Our Guests on the Internet Mel's Twitter and Website. Ann's Twitter and Book. Stuff We Talked About Civilization VI Why Most People Don't Finish Video Games Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Thomas Grip (co-founder and Creative Director of Frictional Games, makers of the Penumbra series, the Amnesia series, and SOMA) and JT Petty (writer on such games as the first three Splinter Cell titles, Batman Begins, Outlast 1 & 2, and The Walking Dead: Season 2) join us to discuss the Four Layers of Narrative Design, mistaking plot for story, how controllers affect the narrative, goals of storytelling, VR skepticism, the relation between narrative systems and emotional impact, Silent Hill, what a lack of combat can do for you, the lessons developers can learn from horror, and much more! Our Guests on the Internet Thomas' Twitter. JT's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Frictional Games' Blog Games Telling Stories? by Jesper Juul The Aesthetic of Play by Brian Upton To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Writings & Lectures on Game Design by Richard Rouse III Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover Why VR Will Not Replace Movies by David Pogue Spec Ops: The Line Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Uncharted 4 spoilers abound as we've got Josh (former Cinematics Animation Lead at Naughty Dog on the Jak and Daxter series as well as Uncharted 1 through 3, followed by co-writer on Uncharted 4) and Sarah (actor and voiceover artist, heard in such games as Gone Home, Codename Cygnus, Skulls of the Shogun, Galak-Z, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Uncharted 4) in to talk performance, can you know too much about a character, the writing process at Naughty Dog, what you accomplish in level dialogue vs cutscene dialogue, why there isn’t an open world Uncharted, was Sam ever Samantha, structure, taking the time to develop characters in-game and spend time with them, where do you start when creating mysteries/puzzles, serious pirate history, making the main character an asshole, ghost pirates, and can you enjoy the games you’ve worked on. Again, SPOILERS FOR UNCHARTED 4 IN THIS EPISODE. Our Guests on the Internet Josh's Twitter. Sarah's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About Babycastles The Uncharted comic series on Comixology A Second Chance at Sarah by Neil Druckmann Nate's journal illustrations by Alex Neonakis A General History of the Pyrates by Capt. Charles Johnson Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

The wait is over! Laura (writer and game designer on such projects as the escape room Spark of Resistance, Dysforgiveness, and Cuppa Quest) and Ian (writer, narrative designer, and programmer, and has worked on Soma, the Lego games, and the Little Big Planet series) join us this week to talk about moment-driven story design, designing escape rooms and narrative live action experiences, relying on people's subconscious' to do the heavy lifting, Punchdrunk's immersive theatre, environmental storytelling, breaking games, how to write for experiences where you can't control what the player will do, puzzle design, VR shorthands, and much more! Our Guests on the Internet Laura's Twitter, Website, and Escape Room. Ian's Twitter, Talespinners' Website, and Frictional Games' Website. Stuff We Talked About Puzzled Pint Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, Part Three by Alexis Kennedy Punchdrunk The Room by Fireproof Games Bossfight Books' Spleunky by Derek Yu Sisters by Otherworld Budget Cuts by Neat Corporation The Foo Show featuring Will Smith Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Talking all about design this week with Jolie (cinematic artist & game designer at Telltale Games on The Walking Dead: 400 Days, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands and more, and currently a level designer at Ubisoft San Francisco on South Park: The Fracture But Whole) and Teddy (writer and game designer, worked on Shove Pro, The Moonlighters, and Hyper Light Drifter, and currently a creative director at Square Enix Montreal). We also chat about the story and lack of text in Hyper Light Drifter, games being different based on what department heads the studio, breaking design down into systems/levels/narratives, narrative puzzle design, iteration, having intimate conversations with developers by playing their game, giving players choice when they don’t expect it, the balance of showing how much a game is listening to players, subtlety in design, storytelling through level design, games withholding their payoffs for too long, and the need to not be precious with your work. Our Guests on the Internet Jolie's Twitter. Teddy's Twitter, Podcast, and Hyper Light Drifter. Stuff We Talked About The Moonlighters Catherine Jolie’s GDC 2016 talk - Solving Puzzle Design Teddy’s Lost Levels talk Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques by Joseph V. Mascelli Alias Prison Break Sleep No More (again) Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Drew (Design Analyst on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Writer and Designer on The Banner Saga, and Lead Writer on The Banner Saga 2) and Greg (Creative Director of Supergiant Games and Writer of Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre) call in to talk with us about the importance of being involved with the development process when you're a writer, worldbuilding, the writing process on Banner Saga 1 & 2, subtlety in games, how Supergiant decides on which game they're gonna make, writing as the most disposable of the creative disciplines, the divide between thinking something is good and what ends up shipping, storytelling structures, revising and never being comfortable in knowing how close you are from the finish line, the phrase 'We made the game we wanna play,' dealing with branching narratives, and the storytelling potential in fighting games. Our Guests on the Internet Drew's Twitter and Stoic's Twitter. Greg's Twitter and Supergiant's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Brandon Sanderson The Banner Saga Puzzle Quest Raid on Rise: Narrative Creation on 'Rise of The Tomb Raider' Pyre Bastion Greg Kasavin Reads the Introduction of Samurai Showdown 2 Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

NPCs! VR! AR! Rob (game writer, narrative designer, voice director, and writer on Wonderbook, Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and The Assembly) and Emily (game designer specializing in interactive narrative, dialogue, and social interaction modeling, and writer of Galatea, First Draft of the Revolution, Alabaster, Counterfeit Monkey, and more) are here to talk about the importance of streamlining the implementation of your script, looting silos of information and the problem of them not being widely accessible, the value of knowing programming, the storytelling possibilities of VR and who you “are,” disempowered experiences in VR, interactive theater’s influence on games, different solutions for offering branching narratives to players, writing for augmented reality, and the lack of games about maintaining relationships. Our Guests on the Internet Rob's Twitter and Website. Emily's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About Punchdrunk Sleep No More Beyond Branching: Quality-Based, Salience-Based, and Waypoint Narrative Structures by Emily Short Firewatch Wonderbook: Book of Spells Love Stories for High-XP Characters by Emily Short The Novelist In Your Arms Tonight VideoBrains Youtube Channel Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Ian (Design Director at E-Line Media and has worked on Gamestar Mechanic, Gamestar Mechanic Jr, and Never Alone) and Anna (Senior Gameplay Programmer at Double Fine and has worked on such games as Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Broken Age, and Headlander, and was the lead on Dear Leader during Amnesia Fortnight 2014) join us to discuss falling into the industry, the benefits of an education that doesn't just focus on programming/computer science, the work involved with implementing dialogue, planning for localization, Never Alone's development, cultural expression in games, dialogue systems, why text to speech isn't the future (for now), the costs of voiced dynamic dialogue, authored vs simulationist vs player-centric approaches to story in games, and a couple of other rad topics! Our Guests on the Internet Ian's Twitter. Anna's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Never Alone Amnesia Fortnight 2014 Dialogue Systems in Double Fine Games Molyjam: How Twitter Jokes Can Save Video Games Making the World of Firewatch Netrunner Crusader Kings 2 Dwarf Fortress' Creator on How He's 42% Towards Simulating Existence Practice 2015: Anna Kipnis The Novelist by Kent Hudson 7 Grand Steps Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges Viriconium by M. John Harrison The Yawhg by Emily Carroll & Damian Sommer Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

Matthew (writer, composer, and game developer on titles including the Call of Duty and Halo series, Destiny, The Infinifactory, The Arboretum, The Writer Will Do Something, and TIS-100) and Carrie (narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity, writer of The Buried Life and Cities and Thrones) join us this week to talk about maintaining your writing momentum, outlining, the writing process at Obsidian, Large Teams and the Problems they Cause, creating a Total Work of Art in video games, offering decisions that lead to chokepoints, motivating players with different play styles, the negative space that defines players’ experiences, how The Writer Will Do Something came about, that part of the meeting when everybody turns to look at you, when gameplay doesn't trump story, the linearity of relationship portrayals in games today, and should creators ever be involved in the post-release discussion. Our Guests on the Internet Matthew's Twitter and Website. Carrie's Twitter and Website. Stuff We Talked About The Writer Will Do Something Gesamtkunstwerk The Expanse by James S. A. Corey My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante The Moth St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell Perdido Street Station by China Mieville Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

This week's coming in hot with Karla Zimonja (researcher and sound tech person on Bioshock 2, narrative and 2D art on Minerva's Den, story editor and 2D artist on Gone Home, and currently working on Tacoma) and Eric Stirpe (writer on The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode) joining us to talk about writing and editing processes, writing at Telltale and working with design, player trust, gaming literacy, the importance of Minecraft, trying to balance giving the player an experience that feels unique and tailored to them with the desire to tell a coherent story, ludonarrative dissonance, whether there's a place for cutscenes, how to handle pacing, things you can and can't do with a first person narrative, and so much more! Our Guests on the Internet Karla's Twitter and Tumblr. Eric's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Double Fine Adventure! Darmok "Playdate" (Chris Ware's story about playing Minecraft with his daughter) VIDEO GAMES CAN NEVER BE ART by Roger Ebert The Witness Firewatch Growing up Weightless by John M. Ford Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson Hail, Caesar! Frontier | Youth in Decline Learnt Until Dawn Tearaway Roommates The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling Kaptara The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.