The terminally trill Jon Irwin stops by to talk about some of the narratives on display at The Game Awards and the PlayStation Experience. We discuss Death Stranding, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, The Last of Us: Part Two, and o

Episode Twenty-four - This Is So Depressing

Dec 1st, 2016 11m 29s

Josh stops by to talk about clinical depression and how it affects writing. The answer is: A LOT. However, there is hope, and it involves not obsessing over deadlines and word counts while still honing your craft. Black Mirror is briefly discus

Episode Twenty-three - Kyle Bosman

Nov 1st, 2016 1h 1m

Kyle Bosman stops by to absolutely slay in this episode, as we discuss his career, GameTrailers, Easy Allies, stand-up comedy, improv comedy, the Nintendo Switch, and lots of other fun stuff! On a side note: Kyle is an incredibly nice, outgoing

Episode Twenty-Two - Josh Talks Final Draft 10 and Dark Souls

Oct 16th, 2016 31m 29s

Josh stops by to talk about his verdict on Final Draft 10 as well as Dark Souls, American Horror Story, and the NX horror story he wrote. Then: Checking in with Chad as he completes his first six weeks of trying to break into the film/televisio

Episode Twenty-one - One Year Anniversary episode

Sep 16th, 2016 23m 27s

Father Time checks in to remind Josh that a year has passed since the first episode of Digital Writes, forcing your faithful host to feel a tad wistful. The wistfulness gives way to discussions of specializing in particular types of writing, Fi

Episode Twenty - Alone with You - new game by Benjamin Rivers

Sep 2nd, 2016 1h 18m

Benjamin Rivers stops by to chat about his new game, Alone with You: A Sci-Fi Romance Adventure. Let's take a moment to appreciate how incredible these words become when placed in a sequence: "A Sci-Fi Romance Adventure." We talk about a lot

Episode Nineteen - William Brierly of Soda Drinker Pro fame

Aug 16th, 2016 1h 1m

William Brierly stops by to talk about his bizarre and wonderful game, Soda Drinker Pro. It's a fun conversation that naturally devolves (or should I say "evolves"?) into arcade talk. Digital Writes is back on an every-other-week schedule, and

Episode Eighteen - E3 Narrativecast with Jon Irwin

Jun 17th, 2016 1h 50m

Jon Irwin stops by to analyze the stories of some of E3's most interesting games! We talk about Death Stranding, ReCore, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and of course, We Happy Few. We also use the word "sausage" more than I anticipate

Episode Seventeen - Karla Zimonja of Gone Home fame

Jun 2nd, 2016 1h 40m

I talked about it in episode zero, and now it's a reality: this week's episode with Karla Zimonja! Gone Home is the best game of the 2010s...or is it 201X's? Either way, Gone Home is incredible and can be played and enjoyed by anyone. AND...the

Episode Sixteen - Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report

May 16th, 2016 1h 28m

Neal Ronaghan stops by to talk about a little bit of everything. The Nintendo World Report website, copywriting, the Green Bay Packers, and very creepy Halloween products. It's a good conversation with a good beat, and you can dance to it. Link

Episode Fifteen - I Know What You're Doing This Summer

Apr 16th, 2016 21m 8s

Josh tells it all in this overly-honest talk about making the most of the summer as well as the nature of good vs evil in narratives.Specifically, he talks about his plan to write a lot of words, what your plan might be, representations of evi

Episode Fourteen - CJ of Adult Swim Games and Player One Podcast

Apr 1st, 2016 1h 5m

Chris Johnston (CJ) is perhaps the most passionate member of the video game community. In this episode you'll find out why as he discusses the underlying reasons for doing a podcast for ten years ... or launching a youtube page ... or really do

Episode Thirteen - Gabe Durham of Boss Fight Books

Mar 14th, 2016 1h 4m

Gabe Durham stops by to talk about his downright excellent press, Boss Fight Books. He's published ten wonderful books on games ranging from Bible Adventures to Metal Gear Solid to Super Mario Bros. 2, and quite frankly, he's providing an impor

Episode Twelve - Josh gets to work

Mar 2nd, 2016 15m 51s

Determination stops by to remind Josh of an inconvenient truth: Writers must write. Thus, writers must have time to write. Thus, writers must make time to write. Thus, writers must determine the best times and places to write based on their sch

Episode Eleven - Aaron Mahnke of Lore

Feb 16th, 2016 50m 24s

Aaron Mahnke stops by to talk about writing podcasts as well as ebooks, the success of Lore, and the importance of writers cultivating real social networks. Writers of all varieties will benefit from this episode.Lore podcastAaron Mahnke's no

Ten - CourTney Collins of television editing and NonLinear Knitting

Feb 2nd, 2016 44m 58s

CourTney Collins stops by to talk about film/television editing as a craft, Las Vegas, telling your family you're leaving a great job, writing honest blog posts, and that strange entity that is the future. It's a great conversation, and I think

Episode Nine - Narrative lessons from Bloodborne

Jan 15th, 2016 14m 37s

The PS4 game Bloodborne stopped by Josh's life to teach him several lessons about storytelling, so he decided to share them with you! He discusses the importance of interesting universes, not beating the audience over the head with exposition,

Episode Eight - Kevin Larrabee of The FitCast and Back in My Play

Jan 4th, 2016 1h 22m

Kevin Larrabee stops by this week to discuss two topics that go so so well together: video games and fitness. We focus a great deal of attention on his article "Saying 'Goodbye' to Video Games," funny censor sounds (you'll hear what I chose abo

Episode Seven - Super Mario Bros 2 book by the awesome Jon Irwin

Dec 15th, 2015 2h 4m

Jon Irwin, author of the downright excellent Boss Fight Book on Super Mario Bros. 2, stops by to talk about his career, his writing process, being an au pair, driving an ice cream truck, and many many other things. On a side note, Jon Irwin mi

Episode Six - Christopher Baker - Author, PR Expert, Former Journalist, Nice Guy

Dec 1st, 2015 1h 45m

Christopher Baker, the author of one of my favorite nonfiction books, WRONG! Retro Games You Messed Up Our Comic Book Heroes!, stops by to talk about his book, his career as a games journalist, working at Marvel and LucasArts, and what he's up

Episode Five - Georgia Dow - Psychotherapist, Podcaster, and All-Around Awesome Person

Nov 16th, 2015 1h 26m

Alternate title for this episode: Find Your Kevin Larrabee.Georgia Dow stops by to talk about depression, therapy, OCD, and her incredibly helpful Internet videos on anxiety. It's a wonderful discussion that hopefully helps at least one person

Episode Four - Josh vs Josh

Nov 2nd, 2015 16m 57s

Josh is guest-less this week, so Josh stops by to talk to Josh about the Grantland closure as well as Ben Kuchera's article on Halo 5's narrative. Learn more about Josh at joshuahillyer.comI'm not Joshing.We'll return to more traditional, in

Episode Three - Home - a unique horror adventure

Oct 15th, 2015 1h 27m

The undeniably trill Benjamin Rivers stops by to talk about his critically-acclaimed iOS/PS4/PSVita/PC/Mac horror game Home. The conversation gets pretty crazy, and Ben is dubbed the "Canadian Lovecraft," a term he begrudgingly accepts. We then

Episode Two - Jonny Metts of RFN fame

Oct 1st, 2015 1h 41m

Dr. Jonny Metts stops by to discuss his ten plus years working on a popular video game website, the Nintendo podcast from which he recently retired, as well as his awesome book, Surviving Coventry!Plenty of great nuggets on why we do creative

Episode One - Ori and the Blind Forest

Sep 15th, 2015 1h 6m

Thomas Mahler, Game Director of the stunning 2D action platformer Ori and the Blind Forest, stops by to discuss his game's narrative! Other topics include incorproating story into an interactive medium as well as using Final Draft to write your