Erik Wolpaw's guest appearances

Erik Wolpaw

The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook

Kiwi Talkz

The Dogg Zzone by 1900HOTDOG

Tim Schafer

Jack Wall

Tom Salta

Garry Schyman

Gareth Coker

Jason Graves

Peter McConnell

Hugo Martin

Kynan Pearson

Mike Bithell

Derek Yu

Vanessa Williams

David Wise

Amy Hennig

Darcy Ungaro

OwlTail

Erik Wolpaw is a writer at Valve and has worked on franchises such as Half Life and Portal. He recently worked on Half Life:Alyx and Aperture Desk Job   SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @wolpaw   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Being A Database Programmer Before Being A Writer 01:00 - Procrastination/Psychonauts 03:10 - Coming Up With Names Is Easy/Keeping Up Energy Is Hard/Jokes Being Cut 04:50 - Erik Doesn’t Like Writing 05:55 - Erik’s Ideology In Terms Of Writing For A Game 07:50 - Time Between Portal &amp; Portal 2/Don’t Write Yourself Into A Corner 08:25 - Erik Wants To Work On A Portal 3/Valve’s Corporate Structure  10:01 - Portal 3 Might Not Happen/Why Valve Doesn’t Release Many Games 11:45 - Valve’s High Quality Bar/Development Cycle 12:20 - Portal 2 Almost Didn’t Happen/Portal 2 Project Cycle 15:45 - Games Are Terrible Until Near The End 17:04 - Struggling With Ideas For Portal 2 Until Wheatley Idea Came About 19:14 - Working With Stephen Merchant On Wheatley/Writing To An Actors Strengths 23:30 - People Involved In Directing An Actor In The Studio 25:00 - Working With Rhys Darby On Russell/Meeting Rhys Darby In L.A. 27:45 - The Original Writing For Half Life:Alyx Didn’t Work/Writing Half Life:Alyx 31:47 - Original Ending Of Half Life:Alyx And Tweaking It 34:15 - Connecting Half Life:Alyx Ending To Half Life 2 38:10 - Gabe’s Involvement/Erik’s Relationship With Gabe 39:45 - Writing With Jay Pinkerton 41:22 - Erik’s Easiest  Character To Write Is The Institution Voice In Portal 2 42:36 - Writing Something And Thinking Its Horrible When Said Aloud 43:40 - Nate Bargatze Struggled With The Word Turret On Aperture Desk Job 44:08 - Convoluted Lines Of Portal 2 45:00 - Erik Appreciates The Work It Takes To Write Something Good/God Of War Caused Erik Stress 46:00 - Erik Is Always Stressed/Erik Hates Letting People Down 47:45 - Comedic Obsessions With Writing/Erik Wants To Improve On His Writing 49:40 - Re-Purposing Dialogue 50:10 - Erik Respects The Valve Artists/Picturing An Image Well Writing 53:00 - Jay Pinkerton Is A Good Designer/Comics 54:09 - Erik Wants To See A Sunset Overdrive 2/The Game Industry Is Quite Small 55:50 - Why Erik Left Valve &amp; Became A Contractor Instead 56:50 - Erik’s Son Being Born During The End Of Portal 2’s Development 1:00:15 - Where To Follow Erik Wolpaw 1:02:09 - Petition To Gabe Newell To Start Portal 3

Erik Wolpaw is a writer at Valve and has worked on franchises such as Half Life and Portal. He recently worked on Half Life:Alyx and Aperture Desk Job SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @wolpaw TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Being A Database Programmer Before Being A Writer 01:00 - Procrastination/Psychonauts 03:10 - Coming Up With Names Is Easy/Keeping Up Energy Is Hard/Jokes Being Cut 04:50 - Erik Doesn’t Like Writing 05:55 - Erik’s Ideology In Terms Of Writing For A Game 07:50 - Time Between Portal &amp; Portal 2/Don’t Write Yourself Into A Corner 08:25 - Erik Wants To Work On A Portal 3/Valve’s Corporate Structure  10:01 - Portal 3 Might Not Happen/Why Valve Doesn’t Release Many Games 11:45 - Valve’s High Quality Bar/Development Cycle 12:20 - Portal 2 Almost Didn’t Happen/Portal 2 Project Cycle 15:45 - Games Are Terrible Until Near The End 17:04 - Struggling With Ideas For Portal 2 Until Wheatley Idea Came About 19:14 - Working With Stephen Merchant On Wheatley/Writing To An Actors Strengths 23:30 - People Involved In Directing An Actor In The Studio 25:00 - Working With Rhys Darby On Russell/Meeting Rhys Darby In L.A. 27:45 - The Original Writing For Half Life:Alyx Didn’t Work/Writing Half Life:Alyx 31:47 - Original Ending Of Half Life:Alyx And Tweaking It 34:15 - Connecting Half Life:Alyx Ending To Half Life 2 38:10 - Gabe’s Involvement/Erik’s Relationship With Gabe 39:45 - Writing With Jay Pinkerton 41:22 - Erik’s Easiest  Character To Write Is The Institution Voice In Portal 2 42:36 - Writing Something And Thinking Its Horrible When Said Aloud 43:40 - Nate Bargatze Struggled With The Word Turret On Aperture Desk Job 44:08 - Convoluted Lines Of Portal 2 45:00 - Erik Appreciates The Work It Takes To Write Something Good/God Of War Caused Erik Stress 46:00 - Erik Is Always Stressed/Erik Hates Letting People Down 47:45 - Comedic Obsessions With Writing/Erik Wants To Improve On His Writing 49:40 - Re-Purposing Dialogue 50:10 - Erik Respects The Valve Artists/Picturing An Image Well Writing 53:00 - Jay Pinkerton Is A Good Designer/Comics 54:09 - Erik Wants To See A Sunset Overdrive 2/The Game Industry Is Quite Small 55:50 - Why Erik Left Valve &amp; Became A Contractor Instead 56:50 - Erik’s Son Being Born During The End Of Portal 2’s Development 1:00:15 - Where To Follow Erik Wolpaw 1:02:09 - Petition To Gabe Newell To Start Portal 3

#133 - Erik Wolpaw Interview (Half Life:Alyx, Portal 2, Portal 3, Valve, Writing, Dialogue etc.)

Ted Price chats with writer Erik Wolpaw about his writing career before game development writing on Old Man Murray and Gamespot; his career path into development at Double Fine and Valve; collaborating between writing and development teams; the pressures of creating sequels to beloved games; and important steps needed to help young developers enter the games industry.   Erik Wolpaw is a writer best known for his work at Double Fine on the Psychonauts series and Valve where he has worked on several titles including Half-Life 2, the Portal series, Left 4 Dead, and the recently released Half-Life: Alyx.  Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.

<a href="https://insomniac.games/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Ted Price</a> chats with writer <a href="https://twitter.com/wolpaw?lang=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Erik Wolpaw</a> about his writing career before game development writing on <a href="http://www.oldmanmurray.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Old Man Murray</a> and <a href="https://www.gamespot.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gamespot</a>; his career path into development at <a href="https://www.doublefine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Double Fine</a> and <a href="https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Valve</a>; collaborating between writing and development teams; the pressures of creating sequels to beloved games; and important steps needed to help young developers enter the games industry.  Erik Wolpaw is a writer best known for his work at <a href="https://www.doublefine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Double Fine</a> on the <a href="https://www.doublefine.com/games/psychonauts-2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Psychonauts</a> series and <a href="https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Valve</a> where he has worked on several titles including <a href="https://www.half-life.com/en/episode1" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Half-Life 2</a>, the <a href="https://www.thinkwithportals.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Portal</a> series, <a href="https://www.l4d.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Left 4 Dead</a>, and the recently released <a href="https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Half-Life: Alyx</a>.  Follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Official_AIAS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@Official_AIAS</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AcademyofInteractiveArtsandSciences" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or visit us at <a href="http://www.interactive.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">interactive.org</a>.

Portal & Half-Life: Alyx Writer, Erik Wolpaw