We’re thrilled to introduce C.J. Kershner, who will be judging the Game Writing SIG Arcjam!
We asked C.J. some burning questions regarding his background in the game industry, his advice to our game jammers, what he would look for in a portfolio piece, and more! Take a look at his answers below.
Let’s get to know you! How did you originally get into game development?
“My first big professional opportunity to pursue game development came shortly after I left university and was looking for a job. I applied for a PA (production assistant) role on a prominent NYC-based police procedural and, simultaneously, for a QA (quality assurance) tester position at the only AAA studio in the city (at the time). My options were, literally, Law & Order or Kaos. In the end, the TV show declined (I didn’t have a film production degree) and the game studio invited me for an interview.”
We’ve been going through incredibly tough times in the industry. What keeps you going?
“The games industry certainly feels like it’s in a difficult position these past few years, and it’s been hard to watch friends laid off en masse and beloved studios shuttered (all while the corporate overlords continue to report record-breaking profits). Two things keep me optimistic:
1. The knowledge that, while electronic interactive entertainment is still a relatively new medium, the storytelling and artistic traditions that underpin it go back to the Paleolithic era; we are just the latest iteration of the dreamers from the Stone Age and, provided we don’t destroy ourselves, there will be others who come after us.
2. Despite the challenges, we continue to create things we believe deserve to be in the world, in players’ hands, in peoples’ imaginations; modern devs, especially students, have access to tools and tech I could only have dreamed of when I started my career almost 30 years ago, and they continue to make incredible things with them.”
We shared some basic advice for our jammers in this blog post. What’s your #1 tip for our game jammers?
“My #1 tip for game jammers is to try something you’re unfamiliar with! Maybe that’s writing in a new genre, maybe it’s working with a different engine, maybe it’s completely switching disciplines (e.g. an artist experimenting as a sound designer). Obviously, you don’t want to hamper your team’s efforts and do want to try to complete the project in the time allotted, but if there’s a good opportunity then there’s no better, or safer, space than a game jam to explore!”
Learning new tech can be quite daunting, but is vital to a career in game narrative. How do you approach learning new technical skills?
“For me, the best approach to learning new technical skills is brute force. It’s the old story about the two pottery classes: one assigned to make as many pots as possible, regardless of quality, and the other instructed to make one perfect pot; the class that makes, and breaks, a lot of pots in the process generally produces the better results by the end. Break lots of pots and make lots of mistakes; don’t rely on AI to correct them. If you’re writing code, ask for help and work through the bugs until it compiles; if you’re writing dialogue, put in crappy lines, ask for readers, then edit them until they sound good; if you’re making art, erasers exist for a reason; if you’re making audio, maybe scratches and skips can be part of a groovy lo-fi vibe. Repeated failure now is just learning how to be successful later.”
Finally — What do you like to see in a game narrative portfolio piece?
“Something I like to see in a game narrative portfolio piece is the unexpected. Which is not to say incoherence – the piece should still abide by the rules of the world in which its set. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be a surprising twist at some point. Even better when the clues are in the set-up all along but the audience doesn’t yet have the right context to interpret them. And how do the characters now deal with this revelation? This can be tricky to accomplish in shorter works but, if you can pull it off, it will leave all the more lasting an impression on the reader.”
Check out our other judge spotlights below:
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