Meet the Game Developer Turning Fanfic Into Deadpool DLC

Before she started writing video games, Emma Kidwell loved Twilight fanfiction. Her “bad, self-insert” stories found a home on DeviantArt, an online community where people posted fan art, original work, and so much more. “The low barrier of entry made it very accessible,” Kidwell says. Her writing turned into role-playing in forums, and Twilight fandom gave way to a love of video games like Mass Effect. Today, Kidwell is a writer for Firaxis Games and a rising star in the world of game narrative. Her work includes Hindsight, Borderlands 4, Life Is Strange 2, and Sid Meier’s Civilization VII; she’s been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 and The Game Awards’ Future Class of 2023. This week, she’s hosting the annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) awards during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. All of that is happening alongside her talk about how writing in fandoms as a kid helped her write DLC for Marvel's Midnight Suns. Writing fanfiction, it turns out, isn’t so differe ... Read full article.