¶ Dev Spotlight on Sirick
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Voice Actor Lead Writer Lead Narrative Designer |
History with the Team
- Voice Actor for Sim Settlements, Industrial Revolution
- Voice Actor for Sim Settlements, Rise of the Commonwealth
- Voice Actor and Writer for Sim Settlements, Conqueror
- Lead Writer and Story Director, Lead Narrative Designer for Sim Settlements 2
- Head Writer and Story Director for Sim Settlements 2, Chapter 2
Dev Q&A
¶ Where are you from?
- Born and raised in the northwest of the UK.
¶ What other hobbies do you have?
- Besides gaming, weightlifting, a little bit of art now and again, (very) slowly teaching myself Japanese, watching old TV shows, cartoons and anime series, (and when I can) visiting beautiful Nippon! (Japan).
¶ What other games do you play?
- I’m just going to rattle off a bunch of titles I think are great and I often play! Baldur's Gate 1+2, Jade Empire, Mass Effect trilogy (just use the MEHEM/AHEM mod to fix the ending). Unreal Tournament, Star Trek: Elite Force, Deus Ex 1+Human Revolution, Persona 4+5, Fallout 1-4+NV, Bioshock 1+Infinite, Alpha Protocol, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Half-Life 1+2+Black Mesa, The Witcher 2+3, Monkey Island 1-3, The Dig, XCOM EU/EW, Medieval II: Total War, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Cyberpunk 2077, Wario Land 1-4, Golden Sun 1+2.
...Is that enough?
¶ What is your favorite thing to work on for SS2? and why?
- I guess writing! I mean, it is my main job. Although I’d say less of the dialogue writing part, and more the “world building”. It’s fun to try and construct a story that fits into a pre-existing world and still makes sense.
I’ve written a ton of background information on characters, groups and events that will probably never make it directly into the mod. But I think that kind of stuff is super important to ensure characters motives and actions make sense and are consistent. Plus it’s fun to hint at that stuff now and again, see what players pick up on and watch them start to figure things out for themselves.
¶ What was the most difficult thing you worked on in
- I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Using the pre-existing voice lines for the Sole Survivor. It really limits what you can do if you want the player character to interact even somewhat believably with the new NPC’s and story. I still think it was the right choice for us, but it more than quadruples the time it takes to write a quest.
¶ Do you have a story about working on SS2 that you'd like to share?
- Funnily enough, I didn’t sign up to be lead writer. Originally I just did some voice over and then offered to help out with some of the smaller writing tasks. But things just naturally progressed to the point that I became lead! I think a good number of people on the team have had a similar experience, joining to do a task, only to find themselves doing something completely different.
To me, that shows if someone can demonstrate a skill, and the ability to deliver, they’re given a lot of freedom to do whatever they want on the mod! And that’s kind of cool I think.
¶ What's next for you?
- Once we wrap Chapter 3, I really want to keep working with the team we’ve put together. We’ve gathered so much talent I can’t imagine us just going our separate ways. Maybe we’d work on a new mod, maybe some future DLC for SS2, or perhaps start modding a whole new game!
Heck, if enough people are willing to back us, I’d be up for us making our own game! But that’s a discussion for the future...
As for personal projects, I’ve been casually working on a complete overhaul for the game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. A complete re-write of the story from the ground up using all the new assets available. As far as I’m concerned, the team that made the game dropped the ball so hard it was embarrassing. So, I wanna fix it!
Links to Share
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My Twitter
I’m on the wonderful cesspit known as Twitter! -
My Email: RichardJonGriffiths@Gmail.com
For general enquiries
And of course, I’m on Discord. But if you want to reach me there, you’ll have to work for it.
Some of My Work