Eric Stirpe's guest appearances

Eric Stirpe

Script Lock

Sarah Elmaleh

Meg Jayanth

Karla Zimonja

Brad Muir

Matthew Burns

Anna Kipnis

Tim Schafer

Jill Murray

Sean Vanaman

Robin Hunicke

Walt Williams

Marc Laidlaw

Mike Laidlaw

Cissy Jones

Jon Ingold

OwlTail

Molly Maloney

It's 2019 and we've got Molly (Lead Narrative Designer at Bad Robot Games, and previously Lead Gameplay Designer at Telltale on Guardians fo the Galaxy, Minecraft: Story Mode, Walking Dead: Season 3, Tales from the Borderlands) and Eric (Writer on Fortnite, interactive consultant for Eko, and previously a staff writer for Netflix's Trash Truck, and a writer at Telltale on Walking Dead: Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode seasons 1 &amp; 2, and Batman: The Telltale Series) here to talk about  how choose your own adventure is the dominant influence on interactive narrative at the moment, choice timers, the marriage of writing and narrative design, working relationships, players forgiving bad writing more than bad narrative design, what made Telltale work, finishing a project and feeling like you just spent a lot of time making an asset for somebody else, Bandersnatch (SPOILERS), the problem of having “good” and “bad” endings in branching narratives, fail states, making people feel like their choices matter, obfuscating branches from players, and what makes a good choice. Our Guests on the Internet Molly's Twitter. Eric's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney Still The Smartest Guy On The Hill 30 Years After Sex, Lies &amp; Videotape: Steven Soderbergh Unravels Hollywood Chaos by Mike Fleming Jr. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters Until Dawn Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

It's 2019 and we've got Molly (Lead Narrative Designer at Bad Robot Games, and previously Lead Gameplay Designer at Telltale on Guardians fo the Galaxy, Minecraft: Story Mode, Walking Dead: Season 3, Tales from the Borderlands) and Eric (Writer on Fortnite, interactive consultant for Eko, and previously a staff writer for Netflix's Trash Truck, and a writer at Telltale on Walking Dead: Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode seasons 1 &amp; 2, and Batman: The Telltale Series) here to talk about how choose your own adventure is the dominant influence on interactive narrative at the moment, choice timers, the marriage of writing and narrative design, working relationships, players forgiving bad writing more than bad narrative design, what made Telltale work, finishing a project and feeling like you just spent a lot of time making an asset for somebody else, Bandersnatch (SPOILERS), the problem of having “good” and “bad” endings in branching narratives, fail states, making people feel like their choices matter, obfuscating branches from players, and what makes a good choice. Our Guests on the Internet Molly's <a href="https://twitter.com/llyann" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Eric's <a href="https://twitter.com/stirpicus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Stuff We Talked About <a href="https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025476/Writing-and-Narrative-Design-A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship</a> by Eric Stirpe and Molly Maloney <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/01/steven-soderbergh-sundance-slamdance-icon-interview-1202544513/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Still The Smartest Guy On The Hill 30 Years After Sex, Lies &amp; Videotape: Steven Soderbergh Unravels Hollywood Chaos</a> by Mike Fleming Jr. <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80988062" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Black Mirror: Bandersnatch</a> <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80095988" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters</a> <a href="https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/until-dawn-ps4/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Until Dawn</a> Our theme music was composed by <a href="http://2mello.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2Mello</a>, and our logo was created by <a href="https://lilynishita.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lily Nishita</a>.

Molly Maloney & Eric Stirpe

This week's coming in hot with Karla Zimonja (researcher and sound tech person on Bioshock 2, narrative and 2D art on Minerva's Den, story editor and 2D artist on Gone Home, and currently working on Tacoma) and Eric Stirpe (writer on The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode) joining us to talk about writing and editing processes, writing at Telltale and working with design, player trust, gaming literacy, the importance of Minecraft, trying to balance giving the player an experience that feels unique and tailored to them with the desire to tell a coherent story, ludonarrative dissonance, whether there's a place for cutscenes, how to handle pacing, things you can and can't do with a first person narrative, and so much more! Our Guests on the Internet Karla's Twitter and Tumblr. Eric's Twitter. Stuff We Talked About Double Fine Adventure! Darmok "Playdate" (Chris Ware's story about playing Minecraft with his daughter) VIDEO GAMES CAN NEVER BE ART by Roger Ebert The Witness Firewatch Growing up Weightless by John M. Ford Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson Hail, Caesar! Frontier | Youth in Decline Learnt Until Dawn Tearaway Roommates The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling Kaptara The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

This week's coming in hot with Karla Zimonja (researcher and sound tech person on Bioshock 2, narrative and 2D art on Minerva's Den, story editor and 2D artist on Gone Home, and currently working on Tacoma) and Eric Stirpe (writer on The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode) joining us to talk about writing and editing processes, writing at Telltale and working with design, player trust, gaming literacy, the importance of Minecraft, trying to balance giving the player an experience that feels unique and tailored to them with the desire to tell a coherent story, ludonarrative dissonance, whether there's a place for cutscenes, how to handle pacing, things you can and can't do with a first person narrative, and so much more! Our Guests on the Internet Karla's <a href="https://twitter.com/zusty" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://t.co/CO28iVcQLz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>. Eric's <a href="https://twitter.com/stirpicus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Stuff We Talked About <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd7F6pU2ByRRb0igiI-WKk3D" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Double Fine Adventure!</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Darmok</a> <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/cover-story-playdate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Playdate" (Chris Ware's story about playing Minecraft with his daughter)</a> <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VIDEO GAMES CAN NEVER BE ART by Roger Ebert</a> <a href="http://the-witness.net/news/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Witness</a> <a href="http://www.firewatchgame.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Firewatch</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Weightless-John-Ford/dp/0553373064" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Growing up Weightless by John M. Ford</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Fears-Death-Nnedi-Okorafor/dp/0756407281" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail,_Caesar!" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hail, Caesar!</a> <a href="http://www.youthindecline.com/frontier" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Frontier | Youth in Decline</a> <a href="http://cheappaperart.com/learnt.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learnt</a> <a href="http://www.supermassivegames.com/games/until-dawn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Until Dawn</a> <a href="http://tearaway.mediamolecule.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tearaway</a> <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/317300/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Roommates</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Casual-Vacancy-J-K-Rowling/dp/0316228532" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling</a> <a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/kaptara" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kaptara</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Girl-Everywhere-Heidi-Heilig/dp/0062380753" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig</a> Our theme music was composed by <a href="http://2mello.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2Mello</a>, and our logo was created by <a href="https://lilynishita.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lily Nishita</a>.

Karla Zimonja & Eric Stirpe