collateral tales 
Winter (Term) Is Coming!(0)
The fall/winter term 2024/2025 is approaching, and with it a new batch of freshwo:men.
Ludotronics: Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You!
Long ago in 2019—some of yer olden folks might still remember—I published my book on game design methodologies.
Interactive Narrative vs. Interactive Storytelling
In Ludotronics, my textbook on game design, I sometimes use less well-known terminology for specific reasons.
All Around a Theme
The important point is, “theme” is not about some message or moral, it’s about coherence and design decisions.
How Many Papyrus Scrolls Have You Written Today?
Come to think of it, writing on scrolls is effectively what we’re free to do now.
On Interactive Writing: Jon Ingold’s Sparkling Dialogues
How to plan, prepare, and execute dialogue that is both interesting and interactive.
Storytelling Technique, Western Culture Edition
Applies to around 95 % of popular books, movies, tv-shows, or video games. Add meta bonus for rationalizations in literature vs. genre / highbrow vs. lowbrow manifestos.
Where Our Treasured Writers Go
Good literary criticism, after all, does what every good scientific endeavor does: it builds models and checks how well they stack up against the evidence.
Book-Cut Storytelling: Carved Landscapes
“Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS.”
When You Step on Their Privileges, Men Are Such Delicate Flowers
Chauvinist fun for the whole family.
German »Tatort«: Learn the Elements of Dramatic Structure in Less Than Three Minutes!
I just love everything meta-.
Cerebral Writing
A professional micromanager with words, I keep having a hard time writing blogposts suited to sparking and maintaining a conversation.
I Write Like… / Ich schreibe wie …
Orwell and Freud, according to statistical analysis. Are these algorithms our Digital Age’s new Über-Ich, filtering out everything deemed unsuitable and socially disruptive?
Sunday Question: Which Science Fiction Novels and Story Collections Had the Greatest Impact on You?
Most people I know who read sf read it in their formative years. Also, there’s no law that this period of “formative years” can’t be extended forever.