Marc Laidlaw & Chris Gardiner

Summer is here and so is a new episode! Today we're talking with Marc (author, game writer, designer, and previously worked at Valve on Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 & 2, and Dota) and Chris (narrative director at Failbetter Games, previously a staff writer and head writer, and has written on Fallen London, The Last Court, Sunless Skies, and Sunless Seas) about storytelling transmedia synergy in 1990s Japan, what makes a good narrative director, planning a career as a writer, core skills writers should have, getting into writing with a team too early in your career, keys to good worldbuilding, creating the illusion of depth, the poop caves of Nottingham, having end goals in mind as a team, trusting your teammates, avoiding your first thoughts in writing, how expectations of more dialogue can put the wrong weight on characters, big failures, changes in writing processes, and player literacy.

Our Guests on the Internet

Marc's Twitter and Website.

Chris' Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Which Legend of Zelda Game Was Inspired By Twin Peaks? by Michael McWhertor

Woodcutters from Fiery Ships

Machine Cares

The Clarion Workshop

Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.