Podcast: The Corner of Story and Games

Last week, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Gerald Ford of The Corner of Story and Games podcast! Gerald was an excellent host and is an all-around nice guy; I loved getting into the nitty gritty with him about narrative structure and how to keep the plot rolling when the player tries to break your story.

Check out our lil’ fireside chat here:

Wanna get right to the point? Lucky for you, I’ve got timestamps for that!

• 1:45 - My game writing origin story

• 8:26 - What other writing forms are closest to game writing? (spoiler: it’s not screenwriting!)

• 11:56 - For all you sadists out there—my relationship with novel writing! (And how we’re all pieces of beautifully mended pottery.)

• 19:07 - What sorts of narrative mechanisms exist in video games?

• 22:38 - What sorts of story structures exist in video games?

• 32:08 - How can we let players disrupt narrative mechanisms without breaking the story?

• 43:22 - How do you decide how far you’re willing to go to support player choices?

• 50:41 - How to disguise gameplay limitations (making games is like being a magician!)

• 55:10 - How we designed plot failsafes in Weird West

• 1:00:48 - What creates a sense of shared fellowship among friends playing games?

• 1:04:27 - Quick-fire questions! What am I reading and playing, and what do I listen to while I write? Bonus: If I were a game, what would I be?

What fun! Y’all don’t be a stranger—go give Gerald some love over at The Corner of Story & Games. It’s a veritable treasure trove!

And for all you audio-only people (take me on a run with you? or in your car? heck yeah, let’s go!) here’s the episode on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

Happy writing!