LeisureVideo GamesTechnologyExplicit

Script Lock

Max Folkman, Nick Folkman

Writers Max and Nick Folkman sit down with other writers and developers to discuss storytelling in video games.

Play

Open in

20 episodes
every few months
Avg 1 hr 24 min
English

Episodes 20

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

#86
June 9 · 1 hr 17 min
Courtney Woods & Ari Martinez
We've returned with a more focused episode on the Ghost of Yotei, and we're joined by Courtney and Ari to discuss the relationship between theme parks and game design, Ghost of Yotei’s open world design, the narrative tool developed for the game, exposition rules, their relationship with design, making weapon tutorials more resonant, what makes ideas worthy for games as opposed to other mediums, not getting lost in the details of a game, and some of their favorite people they’ve worked with.
#85
Dec 22, 2025 · 1 hr 22 min
Yuri Lowenthal & Nhi Do
Happy holidays!!! We have returned from the crisp winter cold of work deadlines with a brand new episode containing Yuri Lowenthal AND Nhi Do! They join us to discuss coming from theater, crazy requests they’ve made in the booth, how they’ve managed to develop deep relationships were certain studios, not knowing where your character is going in a story, how they prefer to receive direction, favorite/least favorite pieces of direction, do they ever push back when they see a line that doesn’t feel
#84
Jul 21, 2025 · 1 hr 31 min
Karrie Shao & Ros Dachtler
We're over halfway through 2025 and we've got Karrie and Ros in to talk about breaking into games via Craigslist, what Ros has been up to since working on Battlefield 1, who/what taught them the most about storytelling, changing a game in response to fans, how Karrie’s experience making escape rooms and working in marketing influenced her narrative work, handholding players too much, rules they adhere to for getting exposition across successfully to players, how to make a good opening, how they
#83
May 27, 2025 · 1 hr 17 min
Brendon Chung & Laura Michet
Hello hello! We're back with returning guests Brendon Chung and Laura Michet to talk about the recently-released Skin Deep as well as Brendon working with VO for the first time, the goals that came out of deciding Skin Deep would be a comedy game, earnestness in storytelling, making a comedy game with multiple writers, documentation, their process working together as a married couple, the narrative challenges of working on a sim game, what they think makes a good game opening, advice for people
#82
Apr 7, 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
The GDC 2025 Grab Bag Episode
We return with another grab bag episode for GDC 2025! Like last year, we brought a bunch of simple questions to ask folks, and in these three groups you get to hear how their answers differed. In our first group we had Chase Dodge, Ruari Root, Calliope Ryder, Chandana Ekanayake, Hudson Janow, Apollo Umbra. Our second group had Lis Moberly, Vincent Perea, Lola Shiraishi, and Meghan Thornton. And our last group had Emma Kidwell, Natalie Checo, Sam Low, Nessa Cannon, and Bria Davis. Topics include
#81
Feb 3, 2025 · 1 hr 35 min
Adam Dolin & Jolie Menzel
It’s been an embarrassingly long time but we are BACK! Again!!! And this time we’ve brought returning guests Adam Dolin and Jolie Menzel to discuss breaking in, how they define narrative design, the differences between creative directors who come from narrative versus other displiclines, the three c’s, can game writers exist without knowing narrative design, favorite narrative tools, what makes a good opening to a game, tutorials, letting players have choices where the results lead to them missi
#80
Jun 20, 2024 · 1 hr 20 min
Jaclyn Seto & Christal Rose Hazelton
Moving on from our GDC episodes, we're back with Jaclyn and Christal Rose! Together we discuss writing fanfiction, doing work you’re proud of without getting too attached, finding a way into a character, being funny on demand, self-imposed rules, whether their writing styles have changed over the years, writing with constraints, worldbuilding pet peeves, most overused words, what practice would they standardize across the industry, and common themes in their writing.
#79
May 6, 2024 · 2 hr 2 min
The GDC 2024 Grab Bag Episode
Hey hey! We're back with our second episode that we recorded at this year's GDC, and it's a doozy! In a switch from how we normally do things, we brought a grab bag of simple questions to the conference and hit up people who were free, and so y'all get to see how everyone's answers differed. In our first group, we had Ben Starr, Alexa Ray Corriea, Kait Tremblay, and Kelsey Beachum. In our second group (starting at 35:21) we had Adam Dolin, Kate Dollarhyde, and Kelsie Mhoon. Our third group (star
#78
Apr 3, 2024 · 41 min
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland & Sarah Elmaleh
Coming to you NOT LIVE from GDC, we've got a special episode of the podcast covering SAG-AFTRA's negotiations with game studios! Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Sarah Elmaleh join us to discuss the overall situation as regards to the potential strike, the issue of Artificial Intelligence, studios trying to exempt certain types of performances from AI protections, dealing with the convenience bargaining group (aka the studios), their experiences at GDC, the ways devs can support SAG's members, if the
#77
Feb 21, 2024 · 1 hr 13 min
Stephen Rhodes & Danny Homan
First ep of 2024! We've got Stephen and Danny in to talk about the UT Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, accountability in writing, having the spine of the story figured out in pre-production, communicating changes that affect other departments, being custodians of story, soft skills, unlearning bad habits, getting better at pitching, building teams, their most used words, staying open to new ideas without losing sight of the vision, taking and prioritizing feedback, and letting go of your projects aft
#76
Dec 18, 2023 · 2 hr 1 min
Alexa Ray Corriea & Ben Starr
Happy Holidays! We're closing out this year with the absolutely amazing Alexa Ray Corriea and Ben Starr, and they join us to discuss their favorite game performances growing up, working in games being like the wild west, being kind in this industry, looking at the jobs you don’t get/obstacles you face in another light, skills that are unique to games, banned words in scripts, being given the opportunity to add your ingredients to projects, the themes and kinds of stories that Alexa keeps returni
#75
Oct 30, 2023 · 1 hr 35 min
Ally Hennessy & Natalie Watson
We've got Ally and Natalie in to talk all things PRODUCTION, including how the definition of a producer is different at every studio, the Triple Diamond technique, transcendental meditation, productivity software, best practices for outlining/facilitating interactive narratives, producing Immortality, the organizing monster, documentation and getting people to read it, the most useful soft skills, setting expectations with teams on a producer’s role, what they would tell their starting-out-self
#74
Jul 25, 2023 · 1 hr 21 min
Jennifer Hale & Debra Wilson
Everyone said it’d be impossible, but we managed to find another pair of twins to come onto this podcast. That’s right. The incredible Jennifer Hale and Debra Wilson have joined us to talk about improv, how they manage to stay positive and not become cynical in this industry, the kinds of direction they enjoy most, favorite/least favorite piece of direction they’ve ever gotten, what acting jobs they learned the most from, are there any roles they’ve never done or want to do more of, and oh man y
#73
May 1, 2023 · 1 hr 2 min
Chris Garbutt & Rikke Asbjoern
Apologies for the wait, but we're back! We don't often do episodes focused around one specific thing, but we're making an exception to talk about Netflix's newest interactive special: We Lost Our Human, and we're joined by its two co-creators, Chris and Rikke! Together they talk about how they broke into animation and got into interactive narrative, what they thought the hardest part of making We Lost Our Human would be, getting advice from the Bandersnatch folks, making media for kids vs adult
#72
Dec 7, 2022 · 1 hr 28 min
George Lockett & Mary Goodden
It's the end of the year, which means it's time for us to put out a new episode and feel guilty for not releasing more this year! (We were busy, but we got lots more planned for next year!) Our guests this month are George Lockett and Mary Goodden, and they join us to discuss how their marketing backgrounds have helped with their writing, how to make a writer’s room work, advice for thinking in terms of design, what's helped maintain their writing output, what they’ve learned from the other writ
#71
Sep 19, 2022 · 1 hr 35 min
Rob Forman & Andrew Walsh
We've got a unionization-heavy episode for y'all as we've got Rob and Andrew in to talk about fate meeting preparation with getting that first job, finding your voice as a writer, changing your voice for the market and work-for-hire, living in fear of “no notes,” likable characters, taking notes, the Writer’s Guild (of America & Great Britain), the differences between the two with representing game writing, the similarities to the struggles of the Animation Guild writers, the growing appetite fo
#70
Aug 15, 2022 · 1 hr 26 min
Sarah Baylus & Mike Laidlaw
Somehow we're over halfway through the year, but this podcast is still going! Our guests this month are Sarah Baylus and Mike Laidlaw, and they join us to discuss why Dragon Age’s storytelling has struck such a chord with people (especially in game development), what they look for in a creative director, what makes a good game writer, the best ways to keep teams updated on a game’s ever-evolving story, favorite software for collaboration, what’s one thing they wished games delved into more often
#69
Jul 5, 2022 · 59 min
Corey Brotherson & Kelsie Mhoon
Back in the throes of summer, we've got Corey and Kelsie here to talk about writing tests, barriers, common motifs & themes in their writing, games they wish they wrote, unexpected pieces of media that inspired them, games where they felt the most invested in the player characters, silent protagonists, things they wished game narratives delved into more often, character tropes, building characters from scratch, and more! *The views and opinions expressed by Corey do not necessarily reflect the v
#68
Apr 25, 2022 · 1 hr 31 min
Zoe Franznick & Franciska Csongrady
It’s time to get MEDIEVAL with our guests Zoe and Franciska! They join us to talk about ousting J.R.R. Tolkien as the top fantasy writer of all time, untapped medieval stories that people in games should be thinking about, parallels between medievalism and game design, manuscript culture, how you balance between explaining things for players and letting them fill in the blanks themselves, would they rather tell stories with dialogue or without, are there any books or talks or resources they go b
#67
Mar 11, 2022 · 1 hr 39 min
Ashley Swidowski & Graham Reznick
We celebrate spooky season all year round here, which is why we've brought back Ashley and Graham to talk all things horror! Together they chat with us about what attracts them to horror, whether horror is a genre or a tool, the sublime of horror, the power of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, cross-pollination between film and TV, video game adaptations, how to pace horror games when players control the pacing, horror games following different rules from other horror media, first-person horror, ho

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes