ABSTRACT
Brendan advocates a holistic approach to game design and suggests that writing in games is one small part of a very complex system. We discuss whether the independent scene is the greatest source of innovation in video game writing today. He suggests that writing in the Triple-A industry is severely limited by convention and expectation, highlighting thematic tensions in BioShock: Infinite and The Last of Us, and argues that if change is going to come it will be from outside the traditional space. Brendan wants designers and writers to focus on the total play experience, regardless of technology or platform, and to explore a wider range of genres and narrative methods. Only then, he suggests, can coherent, meaningful storytelling be achieved.
