Samantha Wallschlaeger & Brooke Maggs

Samantha (narrative designer at ArenaNet, and previously a writer and narrative designer on titles such as SumoBoy, Fallout: Lonestar, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Mass Effect Andromeda) and Brooke (writer and narrative designer on The Gardens Between, Paperback and Florence) call in to talk about breaking into the industry, binging the Mass Effect trilogy, writing processes, why character should be the plot, trying to get a story across without using text or speech, creating well-rounded characters, transitioning from a literary writer to a narrative designer, writing for MMOs and the writing process working on The Old Republic, episodic and 100+ hour narratives, special difficulty modes for people who just want to experience the story in a game, NOT being able to kiss Nick Valentine in Fallout 4, different approaches to storytelling within Bioware, career advice and tips for breaking into the industry, and oh man so much more it's crazy.

Our Guests on the Internet

Samantha's Twitter.

Brooke's Twitter and Website.

Stuff We Talked About

HULK PRESENTS CHARACTER TREES by Film Crit Hulk

The Gardens Between

The Writer Between: Thieving Literary Plot to Design Game Narrative by Brooke Maggs

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