Our last episode of the year is here and it's super writing-focused! Cara Ellison (Writer, game critic, narrative designer, creator of Sacrilege, and writer on Dishonored 2) and Jack de Quidt (Writer/composer of Castles in the Sky, and writer of Veracity & Purpose and Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist) join us to talk about their writing processes, working on a narrative when it's fractured across an entire team, why fetch quests occur even though everyone HATES them, the narrative design in The Witcher and Kentucky Route Zero, why a lot of studios are afraid of trusting the player, narrative problem-solving, the verbs that happen in games, navigating breaking the fourth wall, the portrayal of relationships in games, the importance of humor, how to handle pacing, required reading for people working in the industry that isn't about making games, and much, much more.
Our Guests on the Internet
Cara's Twitter, Website, Dishonored 2, Sacrilege, and you can buy Embed with Games here.
Jack's Twitter, Crows Crows Crows, and Friends at the Table.
Stuff We Talked About
On Pointlessness by Steve Gaynor
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (it's free!)
TO THE WRITERS OF THE UNIT by David Mamet
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Clint Hocking's Blog
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin
Kentucky Route Zero and the Poetics of Space by Cara Ellison
Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School
Jessica Jones on Netflix
Fargo on Hulu
Fiasco
Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.