Hey hey! We're back with our second episode that we recorded at this year's GDC, and it's a doozy! In a switch from how we normally do things, we brought a grab bag of simple questions to the conference and hit up people who were free, and so y'all get to see how everyone's answers differed. In our first group, we had Ben Starr (actor, Final Fantasy XVI), Alexa Ray Corriea (senior writer at Cliffhanger Games on Black Panther), Kait Tremblay (narrative director at Soft Rains), and Kelsey Beachum (writer / narrative designer). In our second group (starting at 35:21) we had Adam Dolin (writer), Kate Dollarhyde (senior narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment), and Kelsie Mhoon (senior narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment on The Outer Worlds 2). Our third group (starting at 1:19:39) had Emma Kidwell (writer at Firaxis), Nessa Cannon (game writer), and Calliope Ryder (lead producer Weta Workshop on Tales of the Shire). And we closed things out (at 1:47:33) with Chandana Ekanayake (co-founder / creative director of Outerloop Games, and director of Thirsty Suitors). Topics include: hobbies that aren't related to game development, current game of the year, favorite villains / antagonists, a time you messed up and what you learned from it, how you stay positive, games you keep returning to, favorite choice you've ever made in a game, people in this industry who did something nice for you, favorite NPCs, games you're always referencing that nobody else has ever heard of, games that made you think differently about something, first game you played where the story really affected you, what you'd force devs to change during production, games you wish you'd gotten to work on, how to get team members to read documentation, something in your process that saves a ton of time, advice for people wanting to get into game narrative,  and so SO much more it's kinda insane!!!

Our Guests on the Internet

Group 1: Ben Starr, Alexa Ray Corriea, Kait Tremblay, Kelsey Beachum

Group 2: Adam Dolin, Kate Dollarhyde (wants you to play Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire), Kelsie Mhoon (wants you to play Jak 2)

Group 3: Emma Kidwell (wants you to play Hindsight and Midnight Suns), Nessa Cannon (wants you to wishlist Star Trucker), Calliope Ryder (wants you to wishlist Tales of the Shire)

Group 4: Chandana Ekanayake (wants you to play Thirsty Suitors)

Stuff We Talked About

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Dave the Diver

Chants of Senaar

Garden Galaxy

Advent Rising

Prey - Mooncrash

Pyre Original Soundtrack

Lonely Rolling Star - Katamari Damacy

Aquatic Ambiance - Donkey Kong Country

Liberi Fatali - Final Fantasy VIII

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 credits

Anna Megill's Game Writing Guides

Adam's LLVTR game writing class is no longer being offered otherwise we'd link it :'[

Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment

Dredge

Growth

Nina Freeman's Games

Full Throttle

Bellatro

A Short Hike

Long Live the Queen

Game Dev Story

Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

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.

First ep of 2024! We've got Stephen (scriptwriter and narrative designer, currently Narrative Director on Motive's untitled Iron Man project in collaboration with Marvel Games. Previously a Senior Writer on Vampyr and Greedfall, Associate Narrative Director/Lead Narrative Designer on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Lead Narrative Designer/Senior Story Designer on Call of Duty: Vanguard, Lead Scriptwriter on Immortals Fenyx Rising, Senior Scriptwriter on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and more) and Danny (lead writer at Respawn Entertainment where he’s worked on Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Previously a lead writer on Borderlands 3, its dlc, and Borderlands 2, as well as Battleborn and one of its story operation DLCs. He was also a narrative design consultant for Eko, a story consultant for Unbound Creations, lead writer for Ansimuz Games’ Elliot Quest, and writer for My Evil Twin Gaming Corp, Trendy Entertainment, and TRU Darknet) in to talk about the UT Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, accountability in writing, having the spine of the story figured out in pre-production, communicating changes that affect other departments, being custodians of story, soft skills, unlearning bad habits, getting better at pitching, building teams, their most used words, staying open to new ideas without losing sight of the vision, taking and prioritizing feedback, and letting go of your projects after they’re released.

Our Guests on the Internet

Stephen's Twitter.

Danny's Website and Substack.

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock

Happy Holidays! We're closing out this year with the absolutely amazing Alexa Ray Corriea (Writer and narrative designer currently working on Black Panther in partnership with Marvel Games and EA, serving as both a writer and systems designer. Previously she worked on Aztech: Forgotten Cods, Call of Duty: Vanguard and the Call of Duty: Warzone Pafcific live service game, Bugsnax, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. She’s also currently writing a book about the Kingdom Hearts series under Limited Run Games’ Press Run publishing division) and Ben Starr (Actor who has appeared in such games as Final Fantasy XVI as Clive Rosfield, Arknights as Sharp, Warframe: 1999 as Arthur, and has acted in shows like You, Trying, Jamestown, Dickensian and more), and they join us to discuss their favorite game performances growing up, working in games being like the wild west, being kind in this industry, looking at the jobs you don’t get/obstacles you face in another light, skills that are unique to games, banned words in scripts, being given the opportunity to add your ingredients to projects, the themes and kinds of stories that Alexa keeps returning to in her writing, the way games portray intimacy, IP white whales, stuff they do for their storytelling to help develop it, how they stay open-minded to unexpected ideas without losing shape of their visions, and a tonnnnnnnnnn more!

Our Guests on the Internet

Alexa's Twitter, and check out Black Panther

Ben's Twitter, and check out Warframe: 1999

Stuff We Talked About

Final Fantasy XVI

Die-Hardman's Confession from Death Stranding

Ben's official audition to play Mario

A Thorough Look at Mass Effect by Noah Caldwell-Gervais

Chained Echoes

Kingdom Hearts

The Worst Person in the World

Mass Effect 2

Legacy of Kain

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

People, Places and Things

Luthen Rael's Monologue from Andor

Severance

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock

We've got Ally (producer at The Voxel Agents, game director at Lemonade Games on Mystiques, Production Director at League of Geeks on Solium Infernum and the recent Jumplight Odyssey. Previously was a senior producer and development manager at Mighty Kingdom, expert product manager at Wargaming, and gamerunner on Rumu at Robot House) and Natalie (producer at Half Mermaid, most recently on Immortality. Previously a producer, host, and writer at Vice's Waypoint, a Content and Experience Manager at Play By We, and currently can be heard on the Star Wars podcast "A More Civilized Age") in to talk all things PRODUCTION, including how the definition of a producer is different at every studio, the Triple Diamond technique, transcendental meditation, productivity software, best practices for outlining/facilitating interactive narratives, producing Immortality, the organizing monster, documentation and getting people to read it, the most useful soft skills, setting expectations with teams on a producer’s role, what they would tell their starting-out-self based on what they know now, how much of what they produce includes a part of themselves, and skittles.

Our Guests on the Internet

For Ally: Mystiques, and Solium Infernum

For Natalie: Her Twitter, and A More Civilized Age's Patreon

Stuff We Talked About

The Triple Diamond technique

Transcendental Meditation

GanttPRO

Notion

Immortality

Solium Infernum

One of Ally's surveys for setting expectations on how a producer can help their team

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more here. 

Everyone said it’d be impossible, but we managed to find another pair of twins to come onto this podcast. That’s right. The incredible Jennifer Hale (Has acted in the original Mass Effect trilogy, the Metal Gear Solid series, Overwatch, Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic, Bioshock Infinite, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and many many many more) and Debra Wilson (Acted in the Wolfenstein series, The Outer Worlds, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and its sequel Jedi Survivor, Destiny 2, God of War: Ragnarok, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and many many many more) have joined us to talk about improv, how they manage to stay positive and not become cynical in this industry, the kinds of direction they enjoy most, favorite/least favorite piece of direction they’ve ever gotten, what acting jobs they learned the most from, are there any roles they’ve never done or want to do more of, and oh man you should just listen to this.

Our Guests on the Internet

For Jennifer: Acting.skillshub.life

For Debra: Her Cameo (If you just wanna talk with her, you don’t have to buy a cameo. Just send her a message!)

Stuff We Talked About

The Apollo Comedy Hour

The Game

Kris Zimmerman-Salter

Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen

My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor TED Talk

Mickey Mouse Funhouse

Baby Shark's Big Show!

Zodiac Waze

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

This episode was brought to you by Backlight Gem. If you're a narrative designer or writer in the world of video games, Gem is a powerful tool that empowers you to bring your stories to life by streamlining the narrative design process from ideation to release. Learn more at https://bit.ly/Gem-Script-Lock

Apologies for the wait, but we're back! We don't often do episodes focused around one specific thing, but we're making an exception to talk about Netflix's newest interactive special: We Lost Our Human, and we're joined by its two co-creators, Chris and Rikke! (They also co-created the Nickelodeon series Pinky Malinky, and both have worked on many, many other animated projects, with Chris working as showrunner, producer, writer, art director, storyboarder, character designer and more. As for Rikke, she’s also been a showrunner, producer, voice director, animator, animation director, storyboard artist, and more.)

Together they talk about how they broke into animation and got into interactive narrative, what they thought the hardest part of making We Lost Our Human would be, getting advice from the Bandersnatch folks, making media for kids vs adults, whether it was difficult for the actors to keep the branching story in their heads, unexpected learnings, the new production pipeline they had to build, Netflix’s branch manager tool, James Baxter, whether they had to adjust WLOH based on Netflix data, and what advice they’d give to someone making an interactive special now.

Our Guests on the Internet

Chris' Instagram, and Twitter.

Rikke's Instagram.

Stuff We Talked About

We Lost Our Human

Pinky Malinky

Bandersnatch

Heroes of Might and Magic

THE NEWZEALAND STORY

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for us to put out a new episode and feel guilty for not releasing more this year! (We were busy, but we got lots more planned for next year!) Our guests this month are George Lockett (Senior Writer at Failbetter Games and a Narrative Consultant, Writer, and Designer at Bear Wolf Narrative. Previously the Narrative Lead on The Last Clockwinder, the Scriptwriter and Interactive Designer for BBC Earth - Micro Kingdoms: Senses, and a Contributing Writer to Where the Water Tastes Like Wine) and Mary Goodden (Senior Narrative Designer at Maze Theory currently working on Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom. Previously a Writer and Editor on Zombies, Run!, a Writer and Narrative Designer at Failbetter Games on Sunless Skies and Fallen London, a Writer on Inkle’s Pendragon, and co-created Funicular Simulator 2021), and they join us to discuss how their marketing backgrounds have helped with their writing, how to make a writer’s room work, advice for thinking in terms of design, what's helped maintain their writing output, what they’ve learned from the other writers they’ve worked with, giving feedback, tips for writing themselves out of problems, the best ways we can diversify the voices in the industry, how they approach working with other departments to get their needs taken care of, what their favorite narrative tools are, favorite thesauruses, what their ghosts are, and more, more, MORE!

Our Guests on the Internet

George's Twitter, Website, and you should wishlist/check out Mask of the Rose when it comes out next year

Mary's Twitter, Website, and you should wishlist/check out Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom when it comes out next year

Stuff We Talked About

Zombies, Run!

Twine

Inkjam

Writing for Games by Hannah Nicklin

The “Reverse of the Spielberg Gaze”: Jordan Peele, Rian Johnson, Tony Kushner and More Talk Shop on THR’s Writers Roundtable

Miro

Micorosft OneNote

Obsidian (the notes app)

Webster's 1913 

Power Thesaurus

WordHippo

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

We've got a unionization-heavy episode for y'all as we've got Rob (additional writer on Indivisible for Lab Zero Games, writer on Spider-Man 2 for Insomniac Games, and current co-chair of the WGAW's LGBTQ+ Writers Committee) and Andrew (writer, narrative designer, narrative director, story consultant, and more on games like Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Call of the Mountain, Watch Dogs Legion, The Division, Prince of Persia, Fable Legends, and more) in to talk about fate meeting preparation with getting that first job, finding your voice as a writer, changing your voice for the market and work-for-hire, living in fear of “no notes,” likable characters, taking notes, the Writer’s Guild (of America & Great Britain), the differences between the two with representing game writing, the similarities to the struggles of the Animation Guild writers, the growing appetite for unions in the west, why unions are necessary, favorite side characters, and creative authenticity.

Our Guests on the Internet

Rob's Twitter and Instagram.

Andrew's Twitter and website.

Stuff We Talked About

The Writer's Guild of Great Britain Videogame Guidelines

The Writers by Miranda Banks

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

Somehow we're over halfway through the year, but this podcast is still going! Our guests this month are Sarah Baylus (Principal Writer at Larian Studios where she’s currently working on Baldur’s Gate III, and previously she wrote on Divinity: Original Sin, and its sequel Divinity: Original Sin II) and Mike Laidlaw (Chief Creative Officer at Yellow Brick Games working on an unannounced title, and previously was a creative director at Ubisoft, a Senior Creative Director on the Dragon Age franchise as well as a Lead Designer, and was the Lead Writer on Jade Empire), and they join us to discuss why Dragon Age’s storytelling has struck such a chord with people (especially in game development), what they look for in a creative director, what makes a good game writer, the best ways to keep teams updated on a game’s ever-evolving story, favorite software for collaboration, what’s one thing they wished games delved into more often, whether their definitions of good writing and narrative design have changed over time, common mistakes they see writers making these days, favorite game writing/design experiences they’ve had, writing/directing nightmares, localization notes, resources they go back to a lot, things they would've changed to their favorite game narratives, the most effective narrative-based techniques they like to see being used in games to immerse the audience, and more more MORE!

Our Guests on the Internet

Sarah has an Inactive Twitter, but Larian Studios has Baldurs Gate 3 on Early Access right now, and Larian's hiring!

Mike's Twitter, and Yellow Brick Games is hiring! 

Stuff We Talked About

The Dragon Age franchise

Google Docs

Miro

Jam Board

Citizen Sleeper

The Stillness of the Wind

An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope

Jade Empire

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Understanding Show, Don’t Tell: And Really Getting It by Janice Hardy

The ending of Transistor

The last hour of Finaly Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Star Control II

Moon Hunters

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.

Back in the throes of summer, we've got Corey (lead narrative designer at Silver Rain Games, writer and narrative designer on WindRush Tales, editor and social media manager of Butterfly Books, and a journalist, critic and content producer for companies such as PlayStation, Yahoo! and the Eurogamer Network) and Kelsie (narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment on Outer Worlds 2,  narrative lead for Dangers in the Motor Vortex,  lead writer for Death Carnival,  creator of It Girl, and was also a content designer at Jam City and a writer at Pixelberry Studios) here to talk about writing tests, barriers, common motifs & themes in their writing, games they wish they wrote, unexpected pieces of media that inspired them, games where they felt the most invested in the player characters, silent protagonists, things they wished game narratives delved into more often, character tropes, building characters from scratch, and more!

*The views and opinions expressed by Corey do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Silver Rain Games*

Our Guests on the Internet

Corey's Twitter and Website.

Kelsie's Twitter and Linkedin.

Stuff We Talked About

Jax & Daxter series

Hades

90 Day Fiance

Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Return of the Obra Dinn

What Remains of Edith Finch

Dragon Age: Origins

The Activision Blizzard Diversity Space Tool

Our theme music was done by Isabella Ness, and our logo was done by Lily Nishita.