One of the many very interesting aspects, which applies to all types of storytelling (and most of the concepts did), was the story structures he presented, from the traditional three act story structure, to the twelve step monomyth, and even some interesting takes on nonlinear narratives, such as branching storylines and narrative nodes. Another interesting aspect he introduced us to was the “trinity of interest”, which specifies the three components that engage a player’s, or reader’s, interest: curiosity, surprise, and suspense.
For writing exercises, we brainstormed a list of game concepts and created some great, and even a few hilarious, ideas. We then developed these further to determine the type of gameplay, player role, setting, structure, genre, perspective, and other features the game would use. Finally, we developed a story for the game and outlined whether it would be a linear or non-linear narrative.
Glen was enthusiastic and related his personal experience writing for and creating games. He had some wild, creative, and inspirational ideas. Most of all, he was full of insightful and in depth information so that all workshop participants went home loaded with information about writing for games, and writing in general.