Weird West scribe Erin Firestine on the complexities and intricacies of narrative design

gamedeveloper.com:

Before Erin Firestine joined indie developer Wolfeye Studios as a narrative designer, she began her writing journey with a short story about her runaway hamster. "My mom was like, 'You should be a writer when you grow up,'" says Firestine, "and I was like, 'No, that's too much work.'"

After contributing to webcomics and graduating with a bachelor's in creative writing, Firestine still couldn't see a path to go professional. "I was sort of drifting a little bit trying to make ends meet," she says.

It wasn't until she watched an in-depth interview feature on Laurence Schick, loremaster for the Elder Scrolls series preparing for the launch of Elder Scrolls Online, that she learned that a writing career in video games was a possibility. "He posted a video talking about his job," Firestine remembers, "and how it was sort of his responsibility to make sure all of the games in the Elder Scrolls series used the right lore and was consistent in building a world that was real and living." Not long after, Firestine found a new objective to keep her motivated: "'I want that job,'" she remembers thinking, "Whatever I needed to do to get that -- I wanted it."

At the time, Firestine was working at Austin Community College and enrolled herself into the game design program, earning an associate's degree and getting to know instructor Rich Wilson, who was then Lead Level Designer at Arkane Studios, who recommended her when colleague Raphael Colontonio was looking for writers to help craft his new studio's debut title. "It feels like a series of lucky stumbles," Firestine says.

But after nearly two years of working with the development team on Weird West, Wolfeye's isometric RPG, Firestine couldn't be happier with what she's accomplished.