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Reposted by Graham Smith

Hannah Nicklin @hannahnicklin.bsky.social · 1d

📚 My current contract is coming to an end in Dec so I am now looking for new work!

⭐ I am an award-winning & expert/lead game writer & narrative designer.

🌎 I am interested in long & short term contracts & consultancy, ideally remote.

Let's chat!

hannahnicklin.com
linkedin.com/in/hannah-nicklin

A selection of images from games etc. Hannah Nicklin has worked on, a screencap or key art image from: Saltsea Chronicles, Black Mirror: Thronglets, Mutazione; and the cover of Writing for Games: Theory & Practice. Also featured two reviews.

One from Eurogamer: 5/5 Saltsea Chronicles
"Onwards you go in pursuit of your missing crew, then, your story diverging further from mine with every island choice, with every flick of the head or settling of the lips. Memories/Artefacts? Skeptical/Curious? And astonishingly, through all these moving parts, all this phase space, my story still made rich sense, and actually built to a truly devastating climax.

Scream/Weep? Fittingly, for me, Saltsea Chronicles turned out to be a story about choices as well as a story made of choices. It made me think about the big decisions I make in life, but also the decisions that shape a life that I don't even notice having made. Ripples turning to waves and all that. You must play this. It's luminous."

The second of Mutazione from Gamespew, 9/10
"Mutazione is a game that builds up relationships within a community you instantly feel a part of. The main story is secondary to the real drama and the heart of the town, but it’s necessary. It’s extremely well-written, and the hand-drawn environments are beautifully designed. Die Gute Fabrik has crafted a sweet, powerful fairy tale that delves into the human psyche and allows you to reside there for five hours or so."

A virtual biz card on a dark purple background, featuring an image of a white woman in glasses, with blonde hair, speaking at a podium. Next to it is the title Hannah Nicklin, and the details Creative Director, Narrative Lead/Designer, Senior Writer, Consultant.

11+ years experience in interactive narrative

• 3 games shipped as Lead (PC, Console, mobile)
• Many more as consultant
• PhD in Interactive Practices
• Masters & BA in Play/Screenwriting & Dramatic Arts
• GDC Indie Summit Advisor, BAFTA Juror, TGA Future Class
• Author of Writing for Games: Theory & Practice

Black Mirror: Thronglets; Saltsea Chronicles; Mutazione; Saturnalia; Night School (A Netflix Studio); Cardboard Computer; Die Gute Fabrik; Draknek; Twisted Tree Games.

Based in: Sheffield, United Kingdom
Work in: Remote, CET-PST
LinkedIn.com/in/hannah-nicklin
hannahnicklin.com

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 3d

LibraryThing? Has algo recs too, but lots of user made lists www.librarything.com/zeitgeist/li...

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 7d

I think the trad games press can offer better value through deeper critical engagement, but that's still harder than ever, niche and - pertinent in this instance - unlikely to arrive on launch day of a new game.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 7d

This is all true, but I'm also less convinced than ever of the merit of covering small games, particularly in the "here's a quick post about its announcement/release" vein. No one reads the posts and a lot of these games evidently don't need the coverage to find an audience.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 10d

Split Fiction (2025).

Ted (& technically Ro) @brandtandstein.com · 10d

Two photos side by side. On the left is Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, labelled “Karl Urban”. On the right is Karl Urban as Eomer, labelled “Karl Rural”.

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Reposted by Graham Smith

Matthew Reynolds @mattreyn.games · 20d

Feel this is being buried under the digital ID announcement today.

Ministers plan to allow naming and shaming of offenders completing community sentences

Exclusive: critics say the move, part of the sentencing bill for England and Wales, would bring shame upon families of offenders

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Graham Smith

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 21d

So Starmer is backing ID cards - which I do not like - in order to facilitate this government’s ugly immigration policies - which I also do not like - and in doing so is apparently spiralling down the electoral drain and throwing votes to Farage - whom I do not like?

Fan-fucking-tastic.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 21d

If anyone is considering purchasing part of a property via a shared ownership scheme, I strongly suggest you: don't. It's pitched as "affordable" housing but then they will quadruple your service charge and make it so no mortgage lender will touch it, stopping you from selling or staircasing.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 16

These are some of my favourite games and @pentadact.com is one of my favourite people so this is really just a huge opportunity to ruin a lot of things I love

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 16

I started my new job last month: I'm now studio manager/producer at Suspicious Developments, the team responsible for Tactical Breach Wizards, Heat Signature and Gunpoint!

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Reposted by Graham Smith

James Archer @jamesandstuff.bsky.social · Sep 15

We're shortstaffed on RPS and need some rad PC-minded freelancers for urgent review work. Specifically:
- Borderlands 4 (yes I know it's out already)
- Dying Light: The Beast
- Silent Hill f

Standard rate is £200 GBP per review, make yourselves known at [email protected]

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 13

Then Aaron Sorkin revives Studio 60 just to write another episode about it.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

Floof.

A cocker spaniel curled up on a couch, looking soft.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

There's a later slide that's like, "some players are willing to spend $10,000/month!", the argument being, "so you should try to take that".

Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

In fairness, that's effectively what this particular talk was arguing. 'Mobile games are making more money via F2P, microtransactions, etc. and now console devs are beginning to do it, too.' It's the dawn of the live service game. I think it's also the dawn of a more extractive way of selling games.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

The "supply" here is: a person has bought your game, they'd be willing to spend more, but you're not offering them ways of doing so. So you increase "supply" to meet "demand" by offering DLC and microtransaction hats and so on.

It's not incorrect. It's just... exhausting.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

These arguments always seemed to contain a moral component, as if you owe it to the work or its creators to wring the money sponge as tightly as possible. If your fans had money to spend on going to PAX, then by rights they should be giving that money to you and only you, as "owner" of the fandom.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

Every video game industry presentation I saw circa 2009-2016 looked like this. "Consumers who were willing to spend more on games weren't able to". Oh no!!!!!

A slide from a GDC 2011 presentation explaining that traditional models of selling games "represented lost economic value".

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 4

Would people be willing to pay more for Silksong? Sure. Is it worth more? No idea. Is it nice to have an interaction with capitalism that isn't designed by a team of data analysts to take you for the absolute maximum possible? Yeah.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 1

Ah, this was Tony. I was trying to bluff my way to the PC Gamer word count with a lot of words I didn't need and he righteously sliced me to pieces.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Sep 1

I've still got a printout of a bit of feedback you gave me 16 years ago. A breakdown of sentences I had written in a preview of a Men Of War game, so surgically precise it was worth carrying into everything I wrote afterwards.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Aug 29

We had similar experiences with maybe three different people. Sorry you and the fam are going through, Pat.

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Reposted by Graham Smith

gailrenard.bsky.social @gailrenard.bsky.social · Aug 26

The BBC is about to shut its Written Archives to the public. Writers and researchers rely on these archives. They belong to the licence payers. Please sign and share this open letter.

Writers' Guild of Great Britain @writersguildgb.bsky.social · Aug 26

Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre

Follow the instructions at the top of this open letter to join the campaign and sign

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Open letter BBC Written Archives - August 2025

Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre The following text is an open letter expressing the concern of historians and researchers about chan...

docs.google.com

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · Aug 21

I don't know what this is but it's the apex of technology

A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. Most of the text is in Japanese except for "My Seal Computer". It has pictures of colourful games and lots of pink hearts.

A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. It has Japanese writing, "My Seal Computer" in the corner, and lots of coloured hearts along the bottom.

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Reposted by Graham Smith

Digital Foundry @digitalfoundry.bsky.social · Aug 7

We're excited and proud to announce that Digital Foundry is now fully independent, having parted ways amicably with IGN. In this DF Direct Special, we share our thoughts and aspirations for the future of the channel: youtu.be/tl7bIJ2yu4I

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