Gaming 101
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 | 5-6:30 PM PT | Online

This conversation will explore how screenwriting skills translate in the world of gaming, what makes interactive storytelling different from movies and television, and what the job market is like for writers working in game development. Hear from writers who have successfully navigated both worlds.

Toiya Kristen Finley

Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley, Ph.D., has been a freelancing writer and editor her entire adult life. She earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. Over her career, she has published more than 80 works of fiction, nonfiction, comics/manga, and games, and has over 20 years of experience writing in a range of genres, tones, styles, and voices. She gained editorial experience interning at Henry Holt’s imprint, Owl Books. At Binghamton, she founded the literary journal Harpur Palate and served as its managing/fiction editor.

In 2011, she cofounded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012. In videogames, she has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, editor, and diversity/narrative consultant (or some combination of the five) on everything from AAA titles to mobile games to games for children to small indie projects. Recent work includes writing visual novel Siren Song (Stardust Works), copyediting for Destiny 2 (Bungie), developmental editing on Insecure: The Come Up Game (Glow Up Games), writing/editing on Ritual of Raven, writing for the Interview with the Vampire TTRPG, and editing Our Brilliant Ruin.

A presenter at conferences throughout the year, she has lectured on freelancing and storytelling and led workshops on narrative design and game design. She is a member of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group’s Executive Board. The Game Narrative Toolbox (CRC Press), a book on narrative design she coauthored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner, was published in 2015. Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling (CRC Press), which she edited and contributed to, was published in 2019. Her latest books are Freelance Video Game Writing: The Life & Business of Digital Mercenary for Hire (2022) and Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels (2023) both from CRC Press. Of late, she has been working on her own visual novel series, beginning with Incarnō: Everything Is Written.

Marianne Krawczyk

Game Writer Marianne Krawczyk has won numerous awards for her pioneering work in the creation of game worlds, stories, and characters. At Sony Santa Monica, Marianne served as lead writer on the God of War trilogy and PSP releases and has also been deeply involved in the overall franchise, consulting on various content, including novels and comics. She was nominated for WGA Awards for Prince of Persia, God of War III, and God of War: Ascension and won the BAFTA Award for her character and story work on God of War II. Marianne has also worked extensively with Ubisoft, THQ, and Activision on major franchises, including Skylanders, Knack 2, Far Cry, and Prince of Persia, the latter of which garnered another WGA Award nomination. She served as lead writer on Klei Entertainment’s Shank and Shank 2, collaborated with J.J. Abrams and Roberto Orci on the 2013 video game tie-in to the Star Trek film franchise, and contributed to Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark. Marianne later served as Narrative Director at Riot Games, where she led a team of writers and editors across several projects.

In addition to her work in games, Marianne has written exclusive content for Amazon Prime, as well as the feature film Appleseed Alpha, directed by Shinji Aramaki. She was also nominated for an Emmy for her work on Amigo to the Rescue, an interactive project for Disney Junior.

Currently, Marianne is Narrative Director at Lightspeed LA, working on an original game franchise.

Josh Sawyer

Josh Sawyer started his career in 1999 at Black Isle Studios, where he worked as a designer on the Icewind Dale series. Since 2005, he has been at Obsidian Entertainment, where he directed Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, and Pentiment. Josh serves as the Studio Design Director.

Christos Gage

Christos Gage is a writer of TV, film, video games and comics. With his wife and co-writer Ruth, he has written for TV shows such as the first season of Daredevil, Law & Order SVU, Hawaii Five-0, and Numbers, as well as movies like The Breed, Paradox, and Grow, for which he and his co-writers won a Humanitas Prize. His video game credits include the best-selling Insomniac Games Spider-Man series, for which he was nominated for Writer’s Guild and BAFTA Awards; Batman: Arkham Shadow; and Captain America: Super Soldier. He has written over seven hundred comics, including Batman/Fortnite, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in a career that spans twenty years and nearly every major publisher.