#hannah nicklin

[digiacom]

An ad-hoc game design curriculum

Mostly for my own reference, here are the 5 things I’m working through right now to satisfy my learning-thirst for game development:

GD50 by Harvard / CS50 on edX This is Harvard’s Game Development basics course to follow up their intro to computer science (CS50). I love CS50 when I tried it years ago, and after working through the Pong lecture I’m hooked on this course. Expect to develop a wide selection of games across a variety of tools at breakneck speed.

Writing for Games: Theory and Practice by Hannah Nicklin (Paperback) This was a gift from my partner and I’m so grateful for it! Practical, holistic advice for writing for games by someone doing it (and doing it well). It is designed as a text for serious aspirants and fills a learning gap for my inner storyteller wannabe.

Godot 3D Tutorial by Tutemic on YouTube This is a 7 hour video walk-through of 3D game development in Godot. Unlike other tutorials, the author takes plenty of time to deeply discuss their thinking as they build a 3D scene, design a dialog manager, and implement core mechanics for a simple game. This feels like apprenticing with a professional, and is absolutely worth the time.

Low Poly Landscapes - Blender Bite Sized Course on GameDev.tv I feel like Blender is a must-have skill at this point, and I picked up this and multiple other courses on Humble Bundle (always worth keeping an eye on those). Grant Abbitt’s teaching is timeless, focusing on fundamentals and efficiencies that an aspiring professional will want to master.

Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games on YouTube This YouTube channel is a passion project by the creator of Kirby & Smash Bros. designed to teach some of his best tips on game design. It is a playful, inspiring little channel, with bite-size videos on a variety of topics that can be watched in any order. I just love watching these, they ooze both fun and game dev experience!

I have some other resources I’m enjoying such as Alexis Kennedy’s Against Worldbuilding and Other Provocations and The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions. I love Kennedy’s writing and these two paperbacks have a lovely grip matte finish with matched (or aesthetically mismatched?) covers, making an attractive pair on the shelf.

[andreablythe]

Culture Consumption: January 2023

Hi, lovelies. Here’s my month in books, movies, television, and games. Books When I purchased Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes, the cashier paused to tell me, “This one’s messed up.” Having now read the three stories in this horror collection, I can heartedly agree with the cashier’s sentiments. In the titular novella, two women meet online and…

[leguin]

die gute fabrik shutting down is such a bummer...i was kind of anticipating it bc saltsea chronicles obviously didn't get the same attention or sales of mutiazone, and games funding is also obviously pretty fucked rn, but even so...one of those studios that could've thrived in another world

[finalmjorproject]

International Women's Day!

Female Practitioner!

Hannah Nicklin:

She is an award-winning writer, narrative designer and narrative lead with over 10 years of experience. been Creative Director & CEO of Die Gute Fabrik, we launched Saltsea Chronicles to critical acclaim in 2023 on which she was the Creative Director & Game Director.

She has also wrote and narrative designed and co-produced Mutazione.

I am looking into her as she has a PHD about the playful arts and digital art. This will help me gauge on how to make artwork engaging and her brilliant storytelling will help nourish the artwork to help me convey a certain view or perspective on what it is I'm making.

(NOTE: This Blog Post Was Already Completed But I forgot To Upload It.)

[fmpkingmidasandthethief]

IWD Research: Hannah Nicklin

I couldn't find any game artists that explore my theme of Illusion or the use of things like holograms. However, I have found this artist who is a top female games designer called Hannah Nicklin

Hannah Nicklin is an award-winning game & narrative designer, writer, and narrative/game director. She wrote and narrative designed 2019’s multiple-award-winning Mutazione, and directed & co-wrote Saltsea Chronicles (2023), Eurogamer's game of the week, 5/5 stars. She is also the author of Writing for Games: Theory & Practice which is an entry level introduction to the specific practice of writing for games. She is also a CEO of a company called Die Gute Fabrik who design different concept art ideas for indie games.

[elgatofmp]

Hannah Nicklin

Hannah Nicklin is successful woman who writes fiction for games. She majorly plays a part in story games as she writes the entire story lines/ works on the story lines of said games. The people who do this for games are important due to story games needing an actual story because that is their entire purpose.

[jag0137ac]

APEX - Hannah Nicklin & Others.

The main focus of the event was among other guest speakers, Hannah Nicklin. A brief summary of the events however reveals that Nicklin talked about previous games, and the ups and downs of games development as a whole, however, the other speakers also had interesting points that could be considered e.g. an artist and how he got to where he is using unique styles, or a fellow games developer that randomly hit big and his story of thinking up the ideas and how to put them into action.

[catherinek-g]

M.A.R.S event

Presenters: Henry Driver, Adam Bridgland, Hannah Nicklin, Charlotte Dalton, Craig Bloomfield, Vic Lee, Fred Hoffman, Sophie Baverstock, Kit Miles, Chris and Emily, Mary Imhogiemhe and Gianni Notarianni.

The guests talked about there own personal experiences and journeys in different parts of the art industry. The jobs ranged form graphic design to fashion and makeup/SFX which helped in getting a grasp of how diverse jobs in art can be. Some presentations included other subjects that the speaker had an interest in,like maths or climate change, and how they interweave that into their work. It was also nice to see that some of the speakers started there career in art later in life, having experienced other ares of work before moving to art.

[megantga]

Tuesday 5th December 2023

Apex

★○★○★○★

★○★○★○★

Today we went to the Apex Centre where we was spoken to by other artists, the other artists spoke about their experiences and how they got to the point they was at.

at the apex centre we learnt about other Artist’s life experiences and how they got the the point they are at today.

★○★○★○★

The artists I thought was the most interesting was Hannah Nicklin who created SaltSea Chronicles

[nitrosodiumepicfps]

On Hannah Nicklin

No idea if I have to blog this, but I've had a look at her site and works, and here are some thoughts. Here's a bit of a weird allegory. The games she's worked on look like something my dad would buy me in 2018 for when I got my new Steam account - I would play the games a bit and then never touch them again after 2018. They were too artsy and nuanced for my 11-year-old brain, but you know, I'd probably play them again nowadays. Sorry if that was totally incomprehensible.

Saltsea Chronicles seems very cool, a seafaring game where you manage your crew and boat, and visit far-flung island communities after a catastrophic flood drowned most of the world. It looks very oceanpunk on a surface level, barnacled hulls of scuttled ocean liners reinforced with flotsam piers being used as towns in this cerulean world, but the artstyle is questionable. I can't help but see it as one of those soulless corporate advertisements for a Google Pixel or whatever. The gameplay and premise reminds me of Sunless Seas, but considerably less grimdark.

Now, onto Mutazione. This one really caught my attention. From what I can see, you play as a girl visiting your ill grandfather in some strange region populated by both humans and monsters. You have to manage a garden while solving the mysteries of this place - different plants have different attributes. The whole thing looks like My Singing Monsters crossed with Pathologic, but to be honest, I'd actually watch a multi-hour video essay on it.

[qudachuk]

Creative director Hannah Nicklin explains how the narrative adventure game offers a far-reaching new take on storytellingWhat does it mean to play a video game as an ensemble rather than a single character? How would it change your experience...

[nicholasandriani]

Unleashing the Power of Storytelling in Video Games: Insights from Hannah Nicklin"

The fact that I’ve somehow overlooked Hannah Nicklin’s prescriptive techniques on world building and storytelling… well I’m embarrassed. But to think of the time I could have saved throughout the process of dragging, assimilating, and developing worlds by applying her techniques. A colleague recently introduced me to her book “Writing for Games: Theory and Practice,” and I’m excited to now share…

[leguin]

big fan of the suggested purchase feature on the library website. some of my approved suggestions from the last year or so: hannah nicklin's writing for games: theory and practice, cadence weapon/rollie pemberton's memoir, stef shuster's trans medicine, sim kern's real sugar is hard to find, and now the 70s scifi art book...lotta neat stuff

[andreablythe]

I listened to two fantastic episodes on writing yesterday.

The first is "Feel the Burn" on Writing Excuses. The last year has been challenging for a lot of folks and many people (myself included) are feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. For writers and creatives, this episode provides excellent advice on the necessity of taking breaks and providing room for rest, while reminding you that you are not alone: https://writingexcuses.com/2022/12/18/17-51-feel-the-burn/

The second is the episode of She Plays Games, in which Hannah Nicklin, studio lead at Die Gute Fabrik, discusses her new book, Writing for Games. Nicklin provides a number of fantastic insights on this episode, which has me eager to go read her book: https://www.sheplaysgames.co/episodes/96-hannah-nicklin

#writing #writingcommunity #writinglife #games #gamesindustry #gameswriting #narrativedesign #gamewriting #writerscommunity

[gaming]

Indie Game Spotlight: Mutazione

We’re ready to spill the tea in this week’s Indie Game Spotlight. Mutazione is a mutant soap opera in which neighborhood gossip meets the supernatural. The player joins Kai as she arrives in the mysterious community of Mutazione to care for her ailing grandfather. With her, you will discover scenic hangouts, magical gardens, new friends, and old secrets…the people of Mutazione can survive an apocalyptic meteor strike, but can they survive their own small-town dramas?

Hannah Nicklin is the CEO of Die Gute Fabrik and the narrative designer and writer on Mutazione. We spoke with her about animation styles, the truth in storytelling, and the nature of communities. Ready? Let's go!

How did the team come up with the animation style in Mutazione?

The creative vision for Mutazione has been developing for much longer than is usually the case for games, having been in Creative Director Nils Deneken’s imagination for over a decade. He has whole notebooks filled with his beautiful illustrations and designs, going back years!  

When looking back at early concept art, the designs seem to have arrived in Nils’ mind fully formed. It’s very much what you see in the game now. He draws influence from anime, comics, and illustration, and is interested in weaving nature and the natural world into his work. Our very talented animators (Esben Modvig and Anne Louise Laugesen) worked from Nils’ mock-ups to help bring his world to life. Esben and Anne Louise were both new to animating for games, and we think that helped us maintain a fresh feel for the animation—unburdened with ideas about how games ‘should’ look.

We’ve heard that there are musical plant gardens—tell us more!

When you travel to the community as Kai, you believe that you are going there to help care for your ailing grandfather. But it quickly becomes clear that he has other plans for you, like introducing you to several magical musical gardens.

Alessandro Coronas, who composed and designed them, was influenced by sounds from nature, as well as ambient music—in particular, Brian Eno’s Music For Airports. In the game, you can gather seeds and plant them in the gardens, adding their sounds to the symphony of all the other plants there.

Different plant families play in different harmonic keys, so you’ll experience a variety of moods, textures, and emotions—from melancholic orchestral instruments in a minor key, to tranquil acoustic guitars in a major key. In order to progress through the story, you must tune each garden in a specific way.

Sometimes you might like to move on with the story, but you can always return to adjust the tuning, and if you want some background music while you take a break from the story, you can just sit in ‘listen’ mode and enjoy your unique ambient composition.

How did the team approach the design of characters and their backstories?

When I joined the project over three years ago, the broad brushstrokes of the story were very much in place from Nils’ original vision. As the writer and narrative designer, being handed the story-world of Mutazione was a huge gift for me because it felt like it already really existed—our task has been less one of invention, and more like we are recording a history that has already been written. With an excellent and dedicated team, we’ve been able to take those first ideas, and develop and structure them to create something full of dramatic twists and turns, with rich characterisation, in a lush, hand-illustrated world.

That said, I did a lot of work on shaping the characters' emotional journeys, making sure that none of them felt like a stereotype. I wanted them to be defined by their complexities, so there are no 'goodies' or 'baddies.' only characters whose troubles and traumas are complex because everyone has darkness and light inside them. I think the key to writing an ensemble-driven story is to make sure that every character has evolved in some way by the end, even just a little.

Is there any juicy drama in the game that was inspired by real events?

Despite the supernatural elements, the stories within the community are the stories of every community, everywhere: unrequited love, meddling family members, old secrets, relationships breaking down, and lovers finally finding their way to one another. It's a story that deserves to be told, with humour and honesty.

As a writer, I try to be alive to the truth of the stories I'm working on— whether that's drawing on my own experience, exercising empathy, or speaking with someone who might know more about a particular situation than I do. For example, my brother helped us playtest the game. His training as a bereavement counsellor really helped me compose a convincing journey for a character who is revealed to be dealing with a tragic loss in the past. 

What do you hope people will take away from Mutazione?

We’re trying to create experiences in games that draw on references outside of games, and so we aim for a form of storytelling which is mature, complex, and unique when compared to the typical ‘hero’s tale' that consists of one character moving through the world, and a world that revolves around their quest. It’s a trope we inherited from film and theatre and is designed for a shorter experience and an era of kings and emperors.

In games, we often tell longer-form stories, and the problems and concerns we face today are collective, not individual. It’s vital for us to think about how we exist as a series of communities, and how we might find a better balance, both within those communities and as part of our environment.

Mutazione is about the messy, joyful, breathtaking act of living with people—not just alongside them, or through them, or in passing. It’s the kind of story I feel privileged to be a part of telling. We have used our resources to create a lively ensemble of voices, and hope this will strike a chord with audiences around the world.

Who’s ready for some drama? Mutazione will be released on September 19, 2019! Visit their website for more info on how to get an alert when it’s live.

[taimoorzaheer]

Here's How You Can Learn More About Storytelling In Video Games

Here’s How You Can Learn More About Storytelling In Video Games

If you’re an aspiring video games writer, there’s a short course to give your storytelling skills a jump start. This November there’s a short games writing course for budding storytellers. The course will be led by award-winning games writer, Hannah Nicklin who is studio lead at the Danish indie studio, Die Gute Fabrik. 💫 After getting some super nice feedback, the Guardian are running another…