ahhh that explains why are I keep having carry on my wayward son vibe when killing monsters in the game
Oooh oooh oooh! Favorite Buffy character? Favorite season? Least favorite season? Favorite episode? If Riley and Kennedy were both on fire and you had only one bucket of water, what kind of sandwich would you make?
Giles obviously although in recent watches I’ve developed a respect for Spike’s character arc.
Favourite episode “Once more with feeling”
And a beef brisket on a brioche bun while pouring petrol on the both of them.
- How do you feel the landscape has changed in interactive fiction from when you published Unnatural until now (regarding what readers expect from IF length, feature-wise, and setting)?
- How much time do you usually spend writing in a week (you can include coding here as well)?
- When you work, do you get distracted by other stuff (phone, memes, etc), or can you focus without much effort?
- If you were to write an interactive novel featuring a romance between your bank details and your buried treasure, where would their first date be and who would pay?
I think the IF landscape has changed a lot since I first started writing UnNatural. It’s grown more every year and we keep getting better and better IF because people are learning more clever ways of using choicescript. Readers expectations has changed which is not always a good thing imo. Because the quality of some games has increased some of the games by more newer younger authors gets unfairly compared. Or even get miscompared for example I’ve seen a comment saying UnNatural was a wayhaven clone which I thought was funny but a newer author might get disheartened by it.
Well my day job is 8:30am till 4:45pm and my wife works the weekends so my weekends are mostly spending time with my sons. So I tend to write between 9pm and 12am.
I try not to get distracted when I write but my cats don’t always let me. Merlin for example likes to sit on the hand I use to move the mouse.
If I wrote an IF about a date between my bank details and buried treasure it would take place at the cusp of the end of the world.
He’s just keeping his territory free of live mice, as a proper feline ought. You should thank him!
I dont want ask Matt here anything I am here to make an homage to my friend. I still having him as friend in the playstation.
It is not only a great writer obsessed to detail and capable to introduce codes and lore tweaks to let me role play a very different character to probably what him had imaginated.
When my flamboyant and rude without intention way of giving feedback pissed to no end big chunk of his own audience, he defended me and treated me like a trully friend, when the easy rute would be let them be rude with me.
He deserves any current success and all possible project in Cog or another company. Because is passionate and a good guy. Matt you know where I am and my door is always open for you.
I would like to know the details of your buried treasure and where your bank is located.
Thank you Mara.
To find the answer you will have to go through Merlin and Lily the map to it is split into two and worn on their collars.
No fair! You know I’m going to be distracted by petting them!
They are the perfect protectors of my treasure!
You spelled purrfect wrong.
This brings up a follow-up question: What tips and pointers would you give to authors about feedback?
Also: How do you drum up activity on your WiP threads and get readers to participate in your betas?
Thanks for doing this, it is wonderful to see.
I’d advise them to not take negative feedback to heart. Unless it is useless feedback such as “this sucks” which should be ignored, take your time and actually read what the reader is saying. If they didn’t like your story they wouldn’t take time to write feedback.
On the flip-side for people leaving feedback it is okay to say you didn’t like something but try and explain why you didn’t like it and make sure you also take time to Point out what you enjoyed as well.
To drum up interest I try and post often and get readers involved. I make a mental note of readers who put in that little bit extra, the ones that question you and show interest in the world outside what occurs in the game. Those are the readers who will push you to make a better game.
Glad people find it interesting.
Nah haha who wanted to romance that grumpy guy from the beginning…
I love what you did with Vicky, he’s still an asshole, but a lovely one.
I love how far our boy came, from “I’m not romance material” to matching tattoos
As questions:
How is your creative process? I know that most writers outline the whole story and plot points before starting to write, but there are others that write in a more “going with the flow” way. Also, how do you keep notes? I totally imagine a board of Unnatural with a lot of post-its of the cases.
Do you like Alice Cooper? I absolutely loved the reference in Victor’s plot.
Another reference that was awesome was the RPG table. You totally should consider making a DLC with the characters playing another campaign.
In song!
What? How? There’s not really a single point of comparison between them other than “government agency.”
I tend to have a general idea or the overall plot. For example in Season One I knew I’d introduce the MRU and it would end with an attack on the SRT base. Then I just write the journey between the start and finish letting the story evolve as I go.
I do like Alice Cooper he is pretty cool.
As for another rpg campaign I’ll consider it!
I’m assuming group taking on monsters I was a bit confused myself as UnNatural was released before Wayhaven shrug
Have events in your life or family members ever inspired how/what you write?
If you were playing through Unnatural for the first time as just a player, what would your MC’s name be, what powerset would you pick and who would you romance?
Why would it be Denise?
Would you like to ever see one of your stories turned into a video game? (Action rpg etc…)
My son Sam who was sadly stillborn gave me my pen name. A nightmare a few years ago gave birth to the marrionne. And the Unnaturalverse gave me some place to wander when the sadness hits. A house fire put out my desire to write and my kids and my readers helped reignite that spark.
My first character would be Matthew Charlemont and he would have lost his family to a werewolf, reclaimed his Azure birthright and romanced Scarlet.
I would love to see one of my games become a full on videogame or even a TV show or movie that would be amazing.