Brian Mitsoda's guest appearances

Brian Mitsoda

Dev Game Club

The RE:BIND.io Podcast

Julian Gollop

Paul Pierce

David Brevik

David Collins

Soren Johnson

Chris I Brown

Breogán Hackett

Tom Hall

Chris Avellone

Tim Schafer

Chris Franklin

Liz Ryerson

Janos Flösser

Ueda Wrap-up

Brad Furminger

OwlTail

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we air our December interview with Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines writer/designer Brian Mitsoda. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:48 Interview 1:11:02 Break 1:11:34 Outro Issues covered: wanting to start in screenwriting, playing a game that gets its hooks in you, overdressing for the interview, the low bar to QA entry, starting out testing RPGs, "don't crunch, kids," a game cancellation, the OC style, branching dialog, being given a lot of leeway, including mature language, generalizing across level design vs writing vs narrative design, two designers, bringing hubs to life with supporting characters, working to get the Ocean House scary, funneling the player subtly, the importance of audio to horror, sticking to your guns about keeping combat out, a necessary density, representing Santa Monica, thinking about who lives in a location, satisfying player expectations and wish fulfillment, filling in gaps and fixing things yourself, domain protection, not needing permission, balancing input and ownership, keeping the game in your head, a lived-in quality, how to branch effectively, focusing on player intent, the difference between writing and narrative design, 24 ways to say "ow," helping to design and build tools, guiding the experience, maintaining cohesion, how writing is delivered, prepping to work with a license, managing experienced players' expectations, bringing in players as a new vampire, avoiding a Chosen One story, thinking of clans as a mod, feeling important and unplanned delights, reskinning the game for Malkavians, thinking of characters as having lives that are interrupted by the player (not waiting for the player), overlap with theater. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Icewind Dale, Messiah, Interplay, Troika Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment, Alpha Protocol, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Double Bear Entertainment, Dead State, Panic at Multiverse High, Bloodlines 2, Fallout, Black Isle Entertainment, Invictus, TORN, Planescape: Torment, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, The Writer Will Do Something, Matthew Burns, Tom Bissell, Universal Studios, TJ Perillo, Chad Moore, Jason Anderson, Ubisoft, Dungeons &amp; Dragons, Halo, Half-Life 2, LucasArts, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Annual Takeaway Show! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we air our December interview with Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines writer/designer Brian Mitsoda. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:48 Interview 1:11:02 Break 1:11:34 Outro Issues covered: wanting to start in screenwriting, playing a game that gets its hooks in you, overdressing for the interview, the low bar to QA entry, starting out testing RPGs, "don't crunch, kids," a game cancellation, the OC style, branching dialog, being given a lot of leeway, including mature language, generalizing across level design vs writing vs narrative design, two designers, bringing hubs to life with supporting characters, working to get the Ocean House scary, funneling the player subtly, the importance of audio to horror, sticking to your guns about keeping combat out, a necessary density, representing Santa Monica, thinking about who lives in a location, satisfying player expectations and wish fulfillment, filling in gaps and fixing things yourself, domain protection, not needing permission, balancing input and ownership, keeping the game in your head, a lived-in quality, how to branch effectively, focusing on player intent, the difference between writing and narrative design, 24 ways to say "ow," helping to design and build tools, guiding the experience, maintaining cohesion, how writing is delivered, prepping to work with a license, managing experienced players' expectations, bringing in players as a new vampire, avoiding a Chosen One story, thinking of clans as a mod, feeling important and unplanned delights, reskinning the game for Malkavians, thinking of characters as having lives that are interrupted by the player (not waiting for the player), overlap with theater. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Icewind Dale, Messiah, Interplay, Troika Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment, Alpha Protocol, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Double Bear Entertainment, Dead State, Panic at Multiverse High, Bloodlines 2, Fallout, Black Isle Entertainment, Invictus, TORN, Planescape: Torment, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, The Writer Will Do Something, Matthew Burns, Tom Bissell, Universal Studios, TJ Perillo, Chad Moore, Jason Anderson, Ubisoft, Dungeons &amp; Dragons, Halo, Half-Life 2, LucasArts, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Annual Takeaway Show! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 245: VtM Bloodlines Bonus Interview with Brian Mitsoda

Cara Ellison

topics:tabletop games inspirationshow cara joined, going from journalist to developernarrative designhumour in the game, silly jokes, himbosbloodlines 2representation in bloodlines 2bloodlines 1 fan questions, lore &amp; worldbuildingtroika, bloodlines 1 developmentgames journalism plugs:Cara Ellison's personal websiteBrian Mitsoda's twitterDead State Show notes:Cara Ellison's Embed with GamesKiereon Gillen's review of BloodlinesKieron Gillen's piece about HeatherPart 1 of Emily's series about Bloodlines on RE:BINDPart 2 of Emily's series about Bloodlines on RE:BINDAuto-generated transcript is available here

topics:tabletop games inspirationshow cara joined, going from journalist to developernarrative designhumour in the game, silly jokes, himbosbloodlines 2representation in bloodlines 2bloodlines 1 fan questions, lore &amp; worldbuildingtroika, bloodlines 1 developmentgames journalism plugs:<a href="http://caraellison.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cara Ellison's personal website</a><a href="https://twitter.com/bmitsoda" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brian Mitsoda's twitter</a><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/239840/Dead_State_Reanimated/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dead State</a> Show notes:<a href="http://caraellison.co.uk/tag/embed-with-games/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cara Ellison's Embed with Games</a><a href="https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_vampirebloodlines_pc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kiereon Gillen's review of Bloodlines</a><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/09/vampire-bloodlines-heather-and-me/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kieron Gillen's piece about Heather</a><a href="https://www.rebind.io/the-thin-blood-diaries-pt-i-whats-in-a-city-2268/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Part 1 of Emily's series about Bloodlines on RE:BIND</a><a href="https://www.rebind.io/diaries-of-a-thin-blood-pt-2-a-very-indie-gehenna-2277/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Part 2 of Emily's series about Bloodlines on RE:BIND</a> Auto-generated transcript is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FpMfBtvgZ-rL21mH3edmKDz6LELsQD3XIsIa5IjrY8k/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">available here</a>

The RE:BIND Podcast Episode 22: Cara Ellison & Brian Mitsoda on Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines II