Kelsey Beachum & Olivia Alexander
Explicit content warning
09/27/19 • 95 min
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.
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.
Previous Episode
Kait Tremblay & Sam Maggs
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
Kait's Twitter and Instagram, and you should follow all of the rad Watch Dogs: Legion writers and narrative designers on twitter!
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
ASMR Hair Treatment | Mic ON Brush | Oils & Crinkle Cap
What Makes a Good Video Game Ending? by Kait Tremblay
Mass Effect 2
Borderlands
Portal 2
God of War
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Bioshock
Hellblade
Observation
Dames Making Games
The 18-month fence hop, the six-day chair, and why video games are so hard to make by Blake Hester
Chernobyl
Fleabag
The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss
Stargate SG-1
Cleopatra 2525
Farscape
Andromeda
seaquest DSV
Star Trek: Voyager
Our theme music was composed by Isabella Ness, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.
Next Episode
Nicole Martinez & Megan Starks
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.
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