You have a story, and you want to make a game. But great stories know how to use all the tools of their storytelling medium to their fullest potential. With a Terrible Fate's team of analysts has the expertise to turn your great story into a great video-game story.
Our team has a wide array of academic backgrounds to take your game to the next level.
We've done landmark work on how to develop robust and challenging player-avatar relationships to add new kinds of depth to games.
There's a difference between building a world that's just interesting, and building a world that contributes to your game's story in integral, compelling ways. We'll show you how to avoid the former and master the latter.
Our analysts have studied video games in a variety of disciplines at the top colleges and graduate schools in the world. They’ve studied everything from game design, to philosophy, to neuroscience, to symbolic systems, and they have the expertise to turn your story into a master-class game. Our work has been published and cited in academic journals, and regularly presented at conferences like PAX.
Chris Anhorn is a freelance journalist who writes both fiction and non-fiction. He focuses on how the established techniques and tropes of literature inform the storytelling of video games.
Skylar Cohen has a background in psychology and feminist/ gender/ sexuality studies. He's interested in how games engage real social issues, and in how storytelling impacts the success of game studios.
Peter Finn is a Master’s candidate in game design at FIEA. He explores how video games further develop the elements of traditional storytelling, with a special interest in action-adventure platformers.
Kent Vainio studies computer science and Japanese. He's especially interested in the intersection of video game storytelling and human psychology.
Dan Hughes has dabbled in everything from playwriting to religious studies to YouTube personas. He specializes in the influence of Japanese culture on modern gaming.
Laila Carter is a science fiction/fantasy author with a background in English, folklore, and mythology. She discusses what video games inherited from older forms of storytelling.
Richard Nguyen studied psychology and film, and thinks about how each of these disciplines inform decision-making in video game storytelling.
Nathan Randall is a Master’s candidate in game design at FIEA. He analyzes how gameplay mechanics and design impact the storytelling of video games.
Matt McGill is a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Harvard University, and a competitive Melee player. He likes to explore how brain science influences the ways we play video games.
Aaron Suduiko is the founder of With a Terrible Fate and studies the philosophy of video game storytelling. He specializes in the impact of player-avatar relations on game stories.
We can work with you for as long as you want, from a one-time consultation to collaboration throughout the whole development process.
Work with one of several of our analysts, selected to match their particular expertise with your particular development needs.
We can raise the profile of your game by assigning independent analysts to analyze and critique it on With a Terrible Fate after its publication.
Email us at: withaterriblefate@gmail.com