Special Thanks

First off, I’d like to thank Laura Lewin and Anais Wheeler at Focal Press for all their help during the proposal and preparation of this book, Chris Klug for his excellent contributions, and Beth Millett for her editing.

I’d also like to thank the entire teaching staff at the University of Advancing Technology for all they taught me and for their help when I was researching the material for the papers that eventually became the basis for Interactive Storytelling for Video Games. Extra-special thanks to Michael Eilers, Ken Adams, and Derric Clark for their knowledge and advice on game design; Sharon Boleman, for information on story structure, clichés, and archetypes; and Kathleen Dunley, for helping with my research, introducing me to some new types of interactive stories along the way, and coming up with the perfect subtitle.

And I can’t forget the great licensing, marketing, and legal staff at the various developers who helped me obtain permission to use so many great screenshots in this book. In particular, I want to acknowledge the extraordinarily helpful folks at Don Bluth Games, Nippon Ichi, XSeed, Game Arts, Konami, and Square Enix, who really went above and beyond the call of duty.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who participated in my research surveys and, of course, all the writers, designers, artists, programmers, and the rest who created the many excellent games mentioned throughout this book.