World Building on Forspoken, out now!

Forspoken, the long-awaited action role-playing game developed by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix, finally hit the shelves on January 24th, 2023 for PlayStation 5. I am proud to have participated in an early worldbuilding phase of the project, contributing to the creation of the fantastical realm of Athia. I collaborated with a host of amazing writers from TV, games, and publishing. The actual writing team, including Gary Whitta, Amy Hennig, Allison Rymer, and Todd Stashwick, wrote the game itself.

Players take on the role of Frey Holland, a young woman transported from New York City to the tyrannical land of Athia. Equipped with magical powers, players must navigate the open-world and find a way back home. The game features a variety of enemies and bosses to battle, as well as the ability to upgrade equipment and craft new items.

As a PlayStation 5 console exclusive for two years, Forspoken offers players the opportunity to delve into a fully-realized world. It was a privilege to work alongside such a talented team, and I look forward to seeing players’ reactions as they explore the world we envisioned.

Keynote: Imagine Film Festival today!

I’ll be keynoting the Imagine Film Festival today with a focus on worldbuilding in science fiction. They’ve actually labeled the talk “Worldbuilding in Space,” so I have to warn you, it will have nothing to do with this:

I’m very sorry, as I know this is a huge disappointment. Here are the details of the actual talk:

Keynote Anne Toole: Worldbuilding in Space

Where: Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
When: Wednesday, April 17, 5:30pm
What: Anne Toole started out as a writer for television and quickly developed towards video games. She has a preference for writing mysteries, horror, fantasy and sci-fi and has produced a large body of work. She worked on big games like The Witcher, Assassins Creed: Origin and Horizon Zero Dawn, as well as writing a lot about writing genre games.

In her keynote speech at Imagine she will talk extensively about her area of expertise, with an extra focus on sci-fi. How do you develop a sci-fi world as a writer, what do you pay attention to, how do you work with artists and game designers and what are the pitfalls of the genre?

Hope to see you there!

Worldbuilding at Dutch Comic-con!

I have modest ambitions this weekend. I’m going to teach how to build an entire world. A universe even. But I won’t be alone. I’ll be joined by several other writers with the equally modest goal of sharing how to create appealing worlds for the reader. If that’s not enough, I’ll also be speaking about the representation of women in games with several other writers of books, comics, and movies. If you’re interested in building worlds for your novel or game, or you’d like to hear about great representations of women in the media, come on down to Dutch Comic con this weekend!

World Building
When: Saturday, March 26th, 3:45pm-4:45pm
Where: Jaarbeurs Utrecht, Speakers Corner, Hall 8 by the American Book Center
Who:
Brian McClellan
Chris Ryall (Editor-in-Chief, IDW)
Adrian Stone
Me!

Bechdel Test Anno 2016
When: Saturday, March 26th, 5-6pm
Where: Jaarbeurs Utrecht, Speakers Corner, Hall 8 by the American Book Center
Who:
Corinne Duyvis
Marieke Nijkamp
​​Tisa Pescar
Ann Vandermeer
Jeff Vandermeer
Me!

If you find yourself near Utrecht in the Netherlands this weekend, join all of us at Dutch Comic Con!