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Dragon Age, Comics, and Writing Collaboratively
In March, the first issue of Dragon Age: Until We Speak will be published by Dark Horse Comics. Until We Speak is the final part of the trilogy that David Gaider and I have been working on since...
View ArticleMost Excellent Free Indie Games: A Short List
Early days, yet. What do people want to read here? How about we try a list of some of my favorite free indie games from the last few years? Go try them! Go play! For Free! Games With Thoughtful Musing...
View ArticleWhy It Worked: Wing Commander II
Will I drive off my newly forming audience by waxing nostalgic and overanalyzing a twenty-year-old game? Or are there insights to be gleaned here about the simple interactions between story and...
View ArticleForthcoming Project Roundup and Convention Appearances (February 2013)
A few folks have asked what I’m working on currently. Unfortunately, non-disclosure agreements prevent me from saying much–I’m actively doing more video game writing and having a grand time of it, but...
View ArticleEight Ways to Accommodate Violence in Action Game Stories
You’re making a first-person shooter or a third-person action game. Your gameplay centers around combat, but you don’t want your protagonist to come across as the sort of person physically and...
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The Imperial Agent, Inspiration, and Science-Fiction Espionage (Part 1)
I wrote the Imperial agent for Star Wars: The Old Republic because nobody else wanted it. That’s not actually true, of course. There were other writers who were interested and willing to take on the...
View ArticleOf Course No One’s Paying Attention: Subtlety and Narrative Design in Video...
One challenge writers face when moving from traditional media into video games is learning what, exactly, qualifies as “subtle” in the new medium. What works as a understated plot thread or gentle...
View ArticleCraft Sessions: Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching...
My article “Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching Narrative” is now up at Gamasutra.com. This is by far the most in-depth discussion of games writing I’ve engaged in publicly, and it...
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The Imperial Agent, Inspiration, and Science-Fiction Espionage (Part 2)
Following up on part one, this post contains is a list of science-fiction espionage works I found particularly useful while working on the Imperial Agent. This is by no means an exhaustive inventory of...
View ArticleWhat Editors Do
Not all editors do all the things below. This isn’t an all-inclusive list. (I’m not even touching line- and copyediting.) But it’s a start. Patricia C. Wrede has a lovely post touching on some of this...
View ArticleEditing in Video Games (A Discussion, Not a Manifesto)
We established in this post the ideal role an editor should play. Again, we’re ignoring line- and copyediting (improving the quality and consistency of individual lines of text, correcting grammar and...
View ArticleA Small Update
It’s been ages since my last post, and it’s going to be a while more before my next “real” update–life and work have been busy, and I’m going to be traveling with intermittent Internet for the next...
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Why it Worked: Wizardry VII, In-Game Text, and a Fantasy of Ideas
Even in the early 1990s, Wizardry was something of a throwback. Both the Wizardry and Ultima series–the two great and venerable franchises of computer role-playing games–had begun in 1981, but while...
View ArticleLove What You Write, Don’t Write What You Love; or, Be a Hack, Take Every...
There are writers who go their entire careers writing nothing but original, creator-owned material that they’re deeply passionate about. Most of these writers never earn enough money from their writing...
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Craft Sessions: Character, Viewpoint, and Audience Sympathy
This is the second in a (very occasional) series of articles dissecting challenges and techniques in game narrative. The first, “Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching Narrative,”...
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Player and Player Character Motivation in Video Games
We’ve touched on player motivation before, but let’s briefly give it our full focus. Boiled down to a simple statement, bridging the gap between player motivation and player character motivation is one...
View ArticleDesigning Stories for Nonlinear Game Segments (or “Civic Planning for Side...
It’s been a busy few months–I’ve been juggling multiple projects across multiple media and haven’t had the opportunity to blog much. I’ll be at the Game Developer’s Conference next week and hope to see...
View ArticleLearning to Budget at a Glance
I’m hoping to discuss some more ambitious topics in the coming weeks, but let’s take a break from serious technique analyses and talk about a very basic skill every video game writer should possess...
View ArticleA Short Update
I’ve been remiss in updating the blog over the past few months. The dry spell will end shortly as I begin a new multi-part game writing series. In the meantime, a few personal notes and links: My short...
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Branching Conversation Systems and the Working Writer, Part 1: Introduction
This is the first part in a multi-part series on branching conversation systems (crossposted at Gamasutra.com). See “This Blog Series” (below) for an overview of each part; experienced game writers may...
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