Creative Laureate: Collette Quach
Meet Collette Quach, 2021 Storytelling Collective Creative Laureate.
When she’s not busy with graduate work, Collette can be found concocting new ideas for games and interactive storytelling experiences. We asked Collette about their creative process and plans for 2021.
What kind of creative work do you do?
My main creative work is narrative design both for digital and analog games. I usually write within the fantasy and speculative fiction genre. I write from my own experiences as an Asian diaspora. I often incorporate Chinese and Cambodian culture into my design. While I put in aesthetics and culturally specific wording, I also design mechanics specific to those cultures.
I also have a background in film, specifically documentary. Before transitioning to game design, I worked on a feature-length documentary on housing in Santa Cruz, California. I still do filmmaking, but more as a hobby. Mostly now I do short documentaries on spaces I find interesting, which is basically setting up the camera somewhere and filming what happens naturally.
What is your background (where did you go to school and how did you start your creative career?)
Collette’s adventure work can be found in several collaborative projects, including the Unbreakable anthology produced by Unbreakable Publishers. Unbreakable brings together Asian creators to tell authentic and innovative stories.
I was always a creative ever since I was a kid. I love making things. Prior to getting into game development, I was a filmmaker. I did my undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz with a Film degree. My interest was in documentary film. However, I slowly started to lose interest in filmmaking. It came to a point late in my degree that the industry just wasn’t for me. I was actually in a television screenwriting class where I learned that I wanted to go into games, specifically narrative design.
My creative career in game design didn’t really start until months after I graduated. My first published work was an adventure in the Uncaged Anthology titled “The Serpent and the Sea,” an adventure showcasing the naga, a mythical creature common in Southeast Asia. From there I joined other writing projects (Book of Seasons, Unbreakable, and Eat the Rich are some examples). TTRPG writing was something I never thought I would get into.
I always had plans to go back and get a Master’s degree, so after a year and a half of writing, I applied to various graduate programs, mostly for game design. Now I’m currently an MfA student at University of Southern California in their Interactive Media and Game Design program.
What would you consider to be your "creative process" when starting > working on > completing a project?
When I start, obviously there is a lot of thinking. Most of my ideas start from an idea or a theme and I spend a lot of time outlining and designing how my story is played out. To help visualize the story, I often create mood boards. I always make a general one that combines themes, settings, and other images to put me into the story.
Before I even start writing, I do an outline. I typically write a beat sheet. This helps me outline the plot of any story by writing one or two sentences for the important moments of the story. This helps me see an overview of the story and helps me pace myself when the actual writing comes.
During the actual writing phase, I complete everything in sections. Rather than allotting time to just write (for example, having to write for 4 hours every day.) I focus on getting sections done. It’s overwhelming for me to have to just sit and write. Setting a goal like that for the day really helps me narrow down my thinking.
What is a must-have tool in your creative arsenal?
Since I usually imagine my stories visually, it helps that I have a compilation of various images I found that I find interesting. While the internet is always a great tool, most of my images I take myself. Whenever I’m out, be it traveling or just going on a walk. I keep an eye out on anything that looks cool or interesting.
You are currently working on your MfA in Interactive Media. What type of scholarship are you doing within that field?
My focus right now is, of course, narrative. My most recent work has focused more on tabletop roleplaying games but within my program, I am focusing more on interactive writing for digital games. As with most of my work, I plan on continuing designing based on more experiences and create a more inclusive games industry.
I also am going into interactive space design. I love museum and educational spaces that have an interactive component to them. I have a background in education and hands-on education is a great supplement to learning. I plan on doing a lot of work in creating interactive spaces or walking simulators in digital or real-life spaces.
What do you consider to be "the future of storytelling"?
It sounds cliche but the future of storytelling is diverse and inclusive.
Specifically, in video games, there has been a lot of love of narrative-rich games. Games are starting to tell stories that are more thought-provoking. Characters are also more diverse and reflective of the world around us. And I am so excited for this.
Can you tell us about any cool 2021 projects you have on the horizon?
It’s been a long time coming but I’ve been working on a compendium of creepy monsters with other designers. It’s my first project that I am heading so I am super excited. As the title suggests, it’s a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition-compatible book of creepy, uncomfortable, and eldritch horrors written and illustrated by a small group of amazing designers. I am aiming for it to be out in early 2021!
Other than that I’m hoping to release content I make while in grad school, which I’ll be talking about on my Twitter, @collettequach.
What is a piece of advice you have for aspiring storytellers?
Take it at your own pace. If you have a day job, it’s OK to not devote all your energy to doing creative work. As long as you’re taking some timeーeven if it’s once a weekーto make something that is enough. Overworking yourself only leads to burn out so work on creative stuff if you know you have the capacity to do so.
Collette (she/they) is a writer and game designer based in California. Her focus is on analog games and tabletop RPGs. She has a passion for creating fantasy worlds based on non-European cultures and using games as a way to tell stories from marginalized communities. Her work can be found in Uncaged, Book of Seasons: Solstices, and the Unbreakable Anthology. Currently she is a MfA student in Interactive Media and Game Design at USC. Follow her on twitter @collettequach.