Script Lock artwork

Ep 23: Tim Schafer, Jake Elliott, and Cara Ellison

Script Lock

English - December 05, 2016 11:00 - 1 hour - 72.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 35 ratings
Video Games Leisure Technology video games storytelling narrative writing nonlinear storytelling rpg open world nonlinear narrative systems max folkman Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed


We are JAM-PACKED with storymakin' knowledge as we talk with Tim (co-founder and creative director of Double Fine Productions, probably wrote/designed/programmed your favorite LucasArts games), Jake (co-founder of Cardboard Computer and writer on Kentucky Route Zero. Maker of artware, music, and games like A (Moth in Relay), We Were You, and The Penguins’ Dilemma), and SURPRISE RETURN GUEST Cara (writer, narrative designer, game critic, and wrote on the recently released Dishonored 2) about using Twine as a design tool, knowing the implementation of your writing, working the fat off your prose style, the hero’s journey being just one bag of tricks that works, the differing emotional states between pitching and working, thinking of structure like Brutalist architecture, the most over utilized/underutilized tools in the storytelling toolbox, the importance of having/not having voice over, fatigue from world-ending stakes, internal writing rules, deciding to use/not use puzzles in adventure games, and whether there’s too much pressure on conclusions.


Our Guests on the Internet


Tim's Twitter and Website.


Jake's Twitter and Website.


Cara's Website and Book.


Stuff We Talked About


Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field


Save the Cat by Blake Snyder (Don’t buy this book)


Breakfast of Champions: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut


On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King


Thirty Flights of Loving


Virginia


Here and There Along the Echo


Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin


Emily Short’s blog


Sunless Sea


Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Rules


Jake's GDC 2013 talk - Designing for Mystery in Kentucky Route Zero


The Poetics of Space by Cara Ellison


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

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