The Writer of Things

I never know how to write introductory posts that aren't lame, so let me try to keep this short:

I am the Writer of Things. I've been brought onboard here at Groundling Games to script Robot.

Although I've done some spec dialogue work here and there, my primary background as a freelancer writer lies in the tabletop roleplaying industry. (You can check out my online Bibliography.)

If you're looking for a quick primer on how I think about interactive narrative structures, check out:

The Three Clue Rule
Don't Prep Plots
Getting the Players to Care
Remixing Keep on the Shadowfell

These essays were written for pen 'n paper gaming, so the methods of execution may be radically different when it comes to computer games. But I think the underlying philosophy remains fairly constant.

A final introductory thought: If I could only eliminate one flaw in modern game design it would be the presence of narrative dead space. Pauses of faux-poignancy. Droning repetition. Facile time-wasting. A lot of modern games are the narrative equivalent of a tight two-hour movie blown out into a six-hour waste of time -- they're artificially pumping up their play time by watering down the experience.

Robot is going to be pretty much the opposite of that. Expect intensity.