Narrative Designer on Trailblazers - Devlog #04

I come from the land of comics but have been entranced by video games from the first time saw the manhole cover explode in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Video games were prohibitively expensive for a divorced family and I rarely asked for new games, the Game Boy was revolutionary because it could travel with me. My sixth birthday was in a New York arcade, back when arcades existed. Kids had two hours to play all the games they wanted, except the claw machine, pizza and cake, and then the birthday kid got to play the claw machine until they won something. I would host the same party today for my friends.

Jen as the villain in an annual dinner theater production at the University of Texas at Austin called Madrigal Dinner.

Now there are games at the library or mediatheques, which I know a younger version of me would have loved. Games can be rented for free or played at some libraries, they are included in streaming apps. But the library was my main home and best friend as we moved (every summer) until high school. We moved so much that the first place we visited once moved in was the library so I could get a card and my mom would ‘give permission’ for me to check out books from any section (many libraries let kids check out anything, as they should, but my mom wanted to make sure it was noted in my file).

Not to be ‘that person’ but I read everything, or try to. I always try to have one non-fiction book going along with fiction because in there lies the keys to so many new stories. But I’m also a sucker for horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The unknown revealing itself calls to me. From reading Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived Here, to scaring myself in Vermont with Stephen King’s IT, to pledging my fealty to Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir to traveling Gethen in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin to attending Oozma University in the Binti by Nnedi Orkorafor.

Covers for Gideon the Ninth, The Left Hand of Darkness, and the Binti collection.

When I was high school, I went to a romance/fantasy reading group run by my best friend’s mom, we would often get free copies of books from publishers in exchange for feedback, writing honest reviews, and to with help word of mouth. I was soon able to decipher the rhythm of romance, it’s a nice comfort genre but the thrill of science fiction, the different magic systems of fantasy, and the hoping to hell the hero makes it through in horror or finding the murderer have a bigger draw as they are the things I am least likely to grasp within my lifetime.

Screenshot of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (1995)

These were same genres I’m attracted to in video games! The exquisite glory of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on PC, which I replayed recently, as a way to encourage people to use the included encyclopedia was a giant bridge for reader like me to get into games more. As a kid, the definitive ending of each mystery, racing against my own brain, felt perfect.

One of the boss fights in Paper Mario: Origami King. With clear blue skies.

Now, what often what draws me into a video game is the color palette: limited or