Worldbuilding with a Purpose: Linear Media, Shared Worlds, and Interactive Narrative

(or, you know, books and movies and video games and pen-and-paper games)

a very long thread, because one of you asked for it Let's start by defining terms: For our purposes, worldbuilding is the process of defining a history, geography, physical laws, cultural norms, magic systems, etc., for a fictional universe in ways which may or may not be revealed in story.

Thanks to @newedgeswordmag for the shout-out. I've been excited to see the growth of a more inclusive, forward-looking version of sword-and-sorcery over the past few years, but only recently really appreciated how rapidly new outlets are springing up.

https://twitter.com/newedgeswordmag/status/1589801855277989888

It's a hard genre to define, especially once you get past its stereotypes. In my head, S&S is "fantasy picaresque with dreamlike magic and an emphasis on physicality," but is that true or useful? Is it wrong for me to want Kij Johnson's DREAM-QUEST OF VELLITT BOE to qualify?

Someone asked me recently about breaking into the video game industry as a writer / narrative designer. There's so, so much good advice out there that I only tend to hit this topic on rare occasion. But it's been a while, so let's go! (Why my answer is worth anything: I've been doing this for about fifteen years and I've hired a lot of writers and editors. Why my answer isn't worth anything: My view of the industry is fairly narrow and I haven't tried to break in for a while, so I'm arguably out of date.)

It's Tuesday night and I feel like teaching some of what I've learned in 15 years of branching narrative video game writing. Let's go in-depth about one incredibly specific subject: neutral / fallthrough / catchall response options! Player ownership of the protagonist in choice-based branching narrative games (a la BioWare, Telltale, mobile narrative games, etc.) is a vital aspect of the form.

The Game Developer's Conference is next week, which always puts me in a mindset of "lessons and advice for aspiring writers." (Also, the world feels dark right now and I need a distraction.) To that end... here's a thread of random suggestions: 1) I've yet to find a better online source of advice on writing fiction (novels, mostly, though many of the lessons apply cross-medium) than @PatriciaCWrede's blog. Dive in and soak it up: pcwrede.com/blog/