What is horror and how do you make it? Our second conversation with Ed McRae, kiwi horror author, narrative designer and narrative paramedic for the video games industry. Ed's been a screenwriter and story designer for over 13 years, and was lead writer on the hit online RPG Path of Exile.

Follow Ed at www.edmcrae.com.

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Outline:

Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction

(04:44) - Education in game development, careers in startups

(13:22) - Survival horror (Dawn of the Dead) and creativity

(17:25) - Cujo by Stephen King and mental illness, Alfred Hitchcock, Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner

(25:56) - Devolution by Max Brooks (World War Z), Batman: Arkham Asylum, Grant Morrison, Batman’s katabasis

(34:36) - Horror in NZ: Growing up in small-town Aotearoa. Viktor Antonov and Half-Life 2, making space for influences beyond America

(39:19) - Scandinavian noir vs NZ 

(42:53) - Personal motivation in horror: a journey of self discovery. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, art as a path forward 

(44:32) - Fitting in and feeling like an outsider. Majority vs minority. Social media creates mobs

(59:15) - Creative plans for the future. Project Tempest, Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings. Responsibilities of a narrative curator to an audience

(1:14:20) - Finishing up

Mentioned:

Cujo by Stephen King

Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner

Devolution by Max Brooks

Grant Morrison’s Batman run

Viktor Antonov interview

Elizabeth Knox, NZ writer

Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli historian & philosopher

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings

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Find us at www.project-tempest.net/podcast

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