Dan and Fred talk to Richard Cobbett about writing for games, including The Long Journey Home, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, and Nighthawks. Richard shares his love for The Ur-Quan Masters, and explains how a good storyteller can draw the player into a game's story, setting, and characters.
0:00 - Theme music
0:14 - Introductions
1:56 - The Long Journey Home
4:15 - The Ur-Quan Masters
5:52 - Layers of sci-fi writing
10:28 - Likeable villains
12:33 - Where to start writing
21:14 - Narrative design in Sunless Skies
31:35 - Writing with a team
45:46 - Star Trek and self-referencing
50:42 - Changing from the first idea
55:33 - Ownership and project size
1:00:27 - Sci-fi and procedural generation
1:04:19 - Making of Nighthawks
1:09:00 - Starting a career in games
1:27:10 - Sketches and iteration
1:36:30 - Fusing story and gameplay
1:49:43 - The unique appeal of UQM
2:02:01 - The adventure game genre
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