Steve Posted January 1, 2018 Tone Control 17: Charles Webb New Bordeaux, Louisiana, 1968. As the turbulent '60s come to a close, New Bordeaux has been carved up by unscrupulous interests: the mob, the Klan, moonshiners, gun runners, and more have hacked off their piece of this storied southern hub of music, voodoo and vice. Who can step in and wrest control of the city back for its people, its community? Lincoln Clay, son of the south and recent Vietnam Vet, takes it upon himself to restore a little order to this city on the bayou. And who could step in to help write such a character? Charles Webb, self-styled "Senior Black Writer" at Hangar 13, joined the Mafia III team after a long and winding path that included writing narrative-driven cell phone games in the early 2000's (!), a stint at Microsoft, a bit of professional film criticism, and more. Join us on the journey that led Charles to help bring one of the most fascinating game characters in recent years to life. Recorded live on site at 2K's studios in Marin. Games Discussed: Mafia III, BioShock 2, Minerva's Den, Halo, Dragon Quest 2 or 3, a bunch of stuff in old Nintendo Power magazines, a bunch of awesome-sounding narrative driven cell phone games from the early 2000's (!) that Charles worked on, etc. Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dragonfliet Posted January 13, 2018 I enjoy hearing stories about how video game writers get jobs in games, because they're all completely insane. It's almost never that someone submitted great work, or wrote a great story, or IF piece, or short film, or whatever, and always that they happened to be doing web design, and chatted with someone about comics, etc. It's amazing that games have as good of stories as they do, with the inane-seeming nature of recruitment. This was a great episode, and I loved hearing Webb's humble, hard working origin-story, and his thoughts on this process. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Posted January 13, 2018 Ha, yeah, it's definitely pretty common. I know I only got into writing stuff for BioShock 2/Minerva's Den because I already happened to be a level designer there and volunteered. The path is weird and wandering. Thanks for listening to the ep! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
