Interview: Chernobylite Narrative Designer, Lukasz Sapko-Kepa

pczone.co.uk:

Because the real world is in such disarray, we decided to catch up with the narrative designers of post-apocalyptic games to interview them about what makes them tick. You know… just in case fiction spills into reality, and we need survival tips. 

Firstly, we sought out Lukasz Sapko-Kepa, the narrative designer on the post-apocalyptic horror survival first-person shooter RPG Chernobylite.

I’ve always been a passionate gamer and an avid reader. I think it was after I finished playing Mass Effect 2 that I started to wonder if a narrative design writing career was something I could pursue. I wrote and published a book sometime before that. 

I also did a lot of writing during my philosophy studies and even more when I worked as a copywriter. I knew I had the necessary tools to become a narrative designer.

I began educating myself on the subject of narrative design and pestered narrative designers on Linkedin with questions about what they do and how the work of a game writer looks. 

Some of them were very helpful and inspired me to pursue my goals, for which I’m eternally grateful. As luck would have it, soon after that, I learned about an opening at Techland for the zombie survival horror co-op game Dying Light, and I took a chance to fulfil my dream of becoming a narrative designer.    

What games had you worked on before Chernobylite, and how did these experiences help you build the narrative for Chernobylite?

My first project was writing side-quests for Techland on Dying Light. It was brief but helped me to understand (and practice) the most important differences between the narrative in games and other media. I had to drop some of my personally cherished writing habits, like writing dialogues that would go on for pages. 

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