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The Examined Game #4

In this episode of The Examined Game I speak with Erik Wolpaw on writing for video games. 

Erik is best known for his work on Portal, Portal 2, the Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, as well as his time at Valve and Double Fine Productions
working on Psychonauts. We talk about environmental storytelling, just how difficult it is to make games funny, and how much of Portal’s world was built through suggestion rather than exposition. Erik breaks down how characters like GLaDOS and Wheatley evolved during development, and why constraints often lead to stronger creative decisions. The fact that Portal was way into development before he came on-board as a writer says a lot about just how strong the writing for Portal is, considering it is so well known for its characters and world building.

We talk about the realities of the writing process itself: procrastination, self-doubt, collaboration and playtesting. Erik talks candidly about the creative culture at Valve during the development of The Orange Box, the pressures of shipping games, and why most writers secretly hate writing. 

I got to talk with Erik about Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and some of his favorite games including ICO, Slay the Spire and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

This was such a great deep dive into the power of writing in video games but above all else, you must remember: the cake is a lie.

The Examined Game

Each week, host Steven Lake asks the creators behind some of the world’s most influential video games about the meaning of life (in video games), leading to conversations about the personal and creative impact games have had on their lives.

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The Examined Game #3

Julia Minamata is the solo developer of The Crimson Diamond, a love letter to the classic Sierra On-Line parser adventures. I adored playing The Crimson Diamond and wanted to talk with Julia about the power of play in video games and why classic adventure games still resonate so strongly with players today.

We discuss Julia’s inspiration for the game and the idea of building a game like a doll’s house for the player to lose themselves in. We wade into some hard-core adventure game depths including discussions on The Colonel's Bequest, King's Quest, Space Quest, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Maniac Mansion, as well as why parser based gameplay creates a very different kind of player immersion compared to point and click adventures.

What I love about Julia's commitment to tex parser games is that she has found a way to introduce a decades old mechanic and make it work for a modern audience. She has been surprised by how many new, and often young players have picked up her game and enjoyed it.

Julia talks about the pressures of being a solo developer and how making the game became its own escape for Julia when her work as an illustrator was stalling. The Crimson Diamond had a long development process and Julia really did pour her heart into it. From retro game design, EGA graphics, nostalgia, indie development and the challenge of creating a game that feels so personal this is such a great conversation about the golden era of adventure games, and how devs like Julia are keeping them alive for modern gamers. 

At the core of this conversation is an exploration into the relationship between games, imagination and physical play spaces, including doll houses, LEGO and mystery fiction, and why older games often encouraged players to slow down and engage with virtual spaces.

Steam Page:
The Crimson Diamond on Steam

Official Website:
The Crimson Diamond Official Website

The Examined Game

Each week, host Steven Lake asks the creators behind some of the world’s most influential video games about the meaning of life (in video games), leading to conversations about the personal and creative impact games have had on their lives.

Send us Fan Mail

In today’s episode I speak with Larry Kuperman, Vice President of Business Development at Nightdive Studios. Larry retired not long after this interview, so I was pleased to chat with such an industry veteran.

Nightdive have made a well-deserved name for themselves with their remakes and remasters of classic games including System Shock, System Shock 2, Blade Runner, Star Wars: Dark Forces, The Thing, Quake and many others.

I sat down with Larry to discuss the ups and downs of remastering and remaking games. We talk about player expectations and the legal maze involved in resurrecting these games. How missing source code, lost contracts and rights ownership make for a “fun” puzzle when it comes to getting these games to see the light of day again, as well as game preservation and the technical challenge of bringing older PC games onto modern hardware and consoles. Based on Larry’s experience, some games are far more difficult to preserve than others, and we get into the “games that got away”, at least for the time being. The studio’s current white whale being No One Lives Forever.

We talk about nostalgia and why certain games stay with players for decades. Larry talks about growing up during the early PC gaming era, the impact of studios like id Software and why games like Doom and Descent mean so much to him as games he played with his son. We also discuss the emotional connection people have to games from the 1990s and early 2000s, and why replaying them can feel like reconnecting with a specific moment in life. This leads into the pressure that comes when you, as Larry put it, “remaster the Mona Lisa of video games”.

The conversation also covers Nightdive’s early relationship with GOG, the decline of physical PC games, digital distribution, modding communities and the growing importance of game preservation, and why the goal is not to recreate games exactly as they were, but to make them feel the way players remember them.

We also get into titles like I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, No One Lives Forever and SiN. These are the games of my youth, so talking with Larry on this subject was, for me, fascinating.

The Examined Game

Each week, host Steven Lake asks the creators behind some of the world’s most influential video games about the meaning of life (in video games), leading to conversations about the personal and creative impact games have had on their lives.

Send us Fan Mail

I sat down with co-lead game designer on the original Uncharted trilogy, Richard Lemarchand, to talk about the creative process Naughty Dog took when making Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and how Naughty Dog
approached pacing, cinematic gameplay and level design.

Richard talks about working alongside Amy Hennig, Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann on the original Uncharted trilogy, and how the studio evolved from games like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter into more story-driven games like Uncharted and The Last of Us.

A large part of the conversation focuses on the Tibetan village sequence in Uncharted 2 and why the team decided to slow the player down after the train level. Richard explains how the level was designed to create contrast with the action sequences and why some people at the studio thought it would not work.

We also talk about player psychology, environmental storytelling, audio design and how quieter moments can change the pacing of a game. Richard discusses some of the games that influenced him, including ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and The Graveyard by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn.

We also get into Naughty Dog’s development process, how the studio used vertical slices and game design documents during pre-production, and how the team approached cinematic action sequences like the moving train level in Uncharted 2.

Years ago I heard Richard talk about the Tibetan village level and wanted to ask him more about how it came together. This interview goes into the details behind that sequence and the wider design philosophy behind the Uncharted games.

Richard now teaches game design at the University of Southern California. He says the biggest mistake his students make is being to ambitious in their scope for their games. I can relate to this as a film-maker. His philosophy is to do one thing extremely well rather than many things poorly. Richard clearly borrows from music, film, books and TV to inspire his work, just look at the book shelf behind him during our interview. 

The Examined Game

Each week, host Steven Lake asks the creators behind some of the world’s most influential video games about the meaning of life (in video games), leading to conversations about the personal and creative impact games have had on their lives.