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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