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ELLE OSILI-WOOD TALKS TO DAN HOUSER, FOUNDER of THE LEGENDARY ROCKSTAR GAMES

Theme: The Future of Storytell: Dan Housers's Vision for a Transmedia Universe

At 10.30 am on Day 2, 12th March, Dan Houser’s gait as he walked into the packed Main Stage alongside Elle Osili-Wood –host of the high profile interview, was unassuming enough to be remarkable. Here was the man whose Rockstar Games franchise, Grand Theft Auto, had, in 2018, generated approximately USD 9.4 billion in revenue. I took in his appearance: 5ft 8 or 9 inches no more. Nice face, salt of the earth, inescapably Anglo-Saxon despite travelling far and wide - metaphorically also - in pursuit of astounding success as a creator, world-builder, master storyteller. And there, seated beside him was the slender, remarkably tall, Elle Osili-Wood. Of British and Nigerian heritage, Osili-Wood is a respected book reviewer for Radio 4, and has been honoured as a BAFTA Breakthrough in Television. Earlier this year, on the ITV Oscars show hosted by Jonathan Ross, her commentary was memorably solid alongside veteran actor Jason Isaacs, and celebrated literary journalist, Mariella Frostrup. The conversation with Dan Houser, saw her not only propel the segments along masterfully, she demonstrated a knowledge of video-gaming that left me feeling behind-the-times. A quick search online told me that she had hosted the UK Esports Awards and that she currently hosts the BAFTAs video game content. In contrast with her Millennial gaming savvy, my only knowledge about the sport is its power to hold gamers totally captive. As a child, my son was addicted to video games and as an adult pursuing a Master’s degree in the Creative and Cultural Industries, he plays Dungeons and Dragons, the video game version, every week. Launching into the session, “Storytelling and World Building from Video Games to Audio Fiction to Novels”, she referred to Houser as the “Bob Dylan of video games” “Bob Dylan?”, Immediately, I texted my son, Damilare. This is what he said about video gaming and about Dan Houser’s world-building:

“As someone who grew up playing games and has had his appreciation for narratives shaped by games, what has always struck me is how much being able to live an experience elevates it. Every medium has its differences and different strengths, but the fact that video games allow us to live in a character, to be them over a significant amount of time and see them grow and change is an experience without parallel. If someone who doesn’t play video games were to ask me who has made the games that allow characters to live their fullest lives, I’d say Rockstar Games. The Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto games are so successful 13 and critically acclaimed because the player gets to move the hands and make the choices of a character they’d otherwise watch or read. And those narratives would be great if they were experienced only in those formats as an onlooker. But to live them, drive them forward, through the good and bad, is what has always made them seem exceptional to me. I feel that anyone with an appreciation for stories would feel the same way”

(Damilare Williams-Shires – Entertainment Journalist, Gamer)

 

Like the session with Ashok Giri, Dan Houser’s Main Stage interview titled, Storytelling and World Building from Video Games to Audio Fiction to Novels had me marvelling at the wild, ambitious possibilities technology has bequeathed to creatives. His conversation with Elle Osili-Wood was a showcase of his abilities as a compelling and witty speaker – “without an undergirding thesis, science fiction is space opera”. Their conversation moved with momentum from the contemporary pre-eminence of storytelling via video games, to the evolution of his latest creation, A Better Paradise Vol.1: An Aftermath, through Houser’s writing processes and the realness of the worlds he builds.

Houser: “It starts with the characters and then I attend to the world (they inhabit) …What is the personality of the world? What is the personality of the main protagonists? The combination is an interesting story. Are the characters in an interesting conflict with themselves and the world they inhabit?”

What changes when a story becomes interactive?

Houser: You have to break the story apart and let the players discover stuff?

What do you read? What are your influences?

Houser: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lonesome Dove. The follow-up.

Let’s talk about AI. You said it would shape our future.

Houser: We were prescient…We hope our stories have a unique angle. Our work is made by human beings so we hope the human touch comes through.

Interesting windows opened onto his cinematic approaches which intersect with “novelistic structures”.

How does he know which parts should be allocated whichever one of the various platforms he employs: graphic novels, audio novels, video games and now novels?

Houser: Novels help to get into people’s heads and psychology… Using prose to tell a very visual story is unique and works well. 

Bob Dylan enjoys a reputation as a master storyteller and countercultural icon. From the session, and from my son, I learned that these qualities align with Dan Houser’s approach to game writing and world-building in what was once Rockstar Games and is now, Absurd Ventures, a platform which in its creator’s words, “presents a transmedia universe”. 

“We are in an era of great human transformation”, Houser told the audience. “It’s like the agricultural and industrial revolution”.
Through Absurd Ventures, he seeks to tell a story about the transition from the previous world to this one which humans have built. Dylan’s lyrics are deeply poetic, socially aware and often rebellious, so too I have learned, are Houser’s narratives in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

“He is absolutely lauded as a transgressive creator” declared Osili-Wood.

If at first I was very curious about the choice of Bob Dylan as Houser’s avatar, thanks to Osili-Wood at the steering wheel, I understood a great deal more about the parallel by the end of the conversation.

To learn more about Dan Houser’s work from the horse’s mouth, read his pre-event interview with Ed Nawotka of Publishers Weekly here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/london-bookfair/article/97302-london-book-fair-2025-q-a-with-dan-houser-video-game-creator-turnedauthor.html 

 

 

 

Reviewer : Olatoun Gabi-Williams