Choosing Your Path: Writing Games for Player Agency
Summary:
Game writers discuss choices and techniques for crafting interactive narrative.
Description:
Not sure how many dialog options should you provide your player in a conversation? Debating the benefits and drawbacks of large-scale choices in your narrative? Interested in procedurally generated narrative, but unsure if it's right for your game? Join our panel of experts as they unpack what tools in the toolbox are most useful for any interactive narrative experience. Panelists: Jennifer Allaway (moderator), Kelli Fitzpatrick, Grace P. Fong, Mostafa Haque, Bryan Young. Track: GCWS Game Narrative.
Game writers discuss nuances of collaboration - including their real world experiences - in game design.
Description:
Most writing requires collaboration, but how does this manifest in the worlds of game design? Join our panel of gamewriters as they discuss. Panelists: Toiya Kristen Finley (moderator), Jeremy Bernstein, Jordan Jones-Brewster, Gabrielle Harbowy. Track: GCWS Game Narrative.
Writers discuss techniques and considerations for broadening the spectra of intimacy in fiction.
Description:
Writing intimate scenes goes far beyond sexuality when incorporating elements such as physical closeness, emotional intimacy, sensuality, consent, ace-spec dynamics, trauma, and shared experiences. Join our panel of writers as they discuss more comprehensive elements of how to write a compelling and impactful intimate scene. Panelists: Jennifer Allaway (moderator), Erin M. Evans, Sarah Hans, Gini Koch. Track: GCWS Writing.
Professional writers discuss techniques for writing fallible, yet relatable, characters.
Description:
A protagonist's depth relies as much on their weaknesses as their strength. Join our panel of expert character writers as they discuss how to write a character who is authentically fallible without being too much so. Panelists: Karen Menzel (moderator), Richard Lee Byers, Erin M. Evans, Gabrielle Harbowy, Chris A. Jackson, Track: GCWS Writing.
Fantasy writer, cook, and entertainer Daniel "Doc" Myers teaches the basics of believable medieval-inspired cuisines in your writing.
Description:
A fantasy world should have a cuisine that takes into account the resources and technology of the people that inhabit it. In this seminar, join medieval cooking expert Daniel "Doc" Myers to learn how to make up a consistent, believable fantasy cuisine using the workings of medieval European cooking as a template. Track: GCWS Classroom.
Expert writers discuss East and Southeast Asian writing and media across science fiction, fantasy, and horror in prose, poetry, and tabletop roleplaying games.
Description:
Panelists: Bryan Thao Worra (moderator), Mary Fan, Grace P. Fong, Diana M. Pho, R.R. Virdi. Track: GCWS Multimedia.
Swing by before the closing ceremonies to say hello to Writers' Symposium Guests, and Gen Con Guests including Ed Greenwood in a casual, wind-down event.
Writers discuss the incorporation of entertainment into troubled worlds.
Description:
Often in the hardest times, it is culture that provides people the energy to face them. From theatre to sports to group gaming, what does the inclusion of entertainment in your story say about your troubled world—and what does your world say without it? Join our panel of writers as they discuss. Panelists: Patrick S. Tomlinson (moderator), Richard Lee Byers, Jennifer Brozek, Gini Koch, K.B. Wagers. Track: GCWS Worldbuilding.
Fantasy and Historical Fiction: Where Do They Overlap?
Summary:
Writers discuss the cross-connections of fantasy and historical fiction in a modern context.
Description:
Historical fiction has been an integral part of fantasy from the very start of the genre and remains a core influence in the works of many prominent fantasy authors. How are authors inspired by history in classic and current works? What are the pros, cons, and pitfalls of historical influence? Join our expert panel of fantasy writers as they discuss. Panelists: LaShawn M. Wanak (moderator), Howard Andrew Jones, Diana M. Pho, Dedren Snead, R.R. Virdi. Track: GCWS Genre.