Idle Weekend September 17, 2016: Writing the Zee with Alexis Kennedy

[Chris]

Idle Weekend September 17, 2016:



Alexis Kennedy on Writing the Zee
The Weekenders are joined by special guest Alexis Kennedy, co-founder of Failbetter games (creators of Idle Weekend GOTY contender Sunless Sea), who came by to chat about writing good player-created characters, his work on Stellaris, and a bit about his new gig at BioWare. Also, he's a Farscape fan, which made Danielle an even bigger fan of his.

Discussed: Sunless Sea, Fallen London, Stellaris, Farscape, Hamilton, Twin Peaks, Archer, HTC Vive, Con Air, The Vision: Little Worse Than a Man, Thunderbolt Fantasy

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[Twig]

Oh mannnn I love Fallen London, can't wait to listen to this episode. When I saw he was going to be writing for the new Mass Effect... I don't think I can be more optimistic about that game, now.

 

And he likes Farscape?! MAN. (PS Farscape Podcast when!)

 

And you talk about THUNDERBOLT FANTASY?? Wuxia puppets?!

 

This is gonna be a good episode.

[Gamebeast23456]

I don't necessarily think of it this way, but there's a lot of games I don't finish because I think I've gotten all I want out of them, and would only be soured on the game to play more. For example, I put about sixty hours into The Phantom Pain, but I did not finish the game, or even come close, if you count in all the extra missions and nonsense like that. I got the mechanical fulfillment I really wanted, and then I ducked out, and it left me with the opinion that it's one of the greatest action games I've ever played. 

[Athis]

Excellent interview and discussion

Your show is one of my faves

Thank you Danielle and Rob

[Cbirdsong]

Oh mannnn I love Fallen London, can't wait to listen to this episode. When I saw he was going to be writing for the new Mass Effect... I don't think I can be more optimistic about that game, now.

 

Did something indicate it was Mass Effect? I would have assumed it's the next Dragon Age, since I imagine you'd want a writer to be involved in the early stages of a game. I suppose he could guest-write an add-on for Mass Effect Andromeda, but it seems like the real meat of Bioware writing is the characters in your party.

 

Definitely a great interview, at any rate. With how well this went, I'd love more guests on Idle Weekend!

[ahuttoftea]

What a great discussion! I thought the discussion of gender was particularly interesting as it shows how such a small change can make so many more people included and feel comfortable.

Did something indicate it was Mass Effect? I would have assumed it's the next Dragon Age, since I imagine you'd want a writer to be involved in the early stages of a game.

I think it depends on their role; presumably he wouldn't be a story supervisor but he might be a scene writer in which case it probably doesn't matter too much when he jumped on board.