This book teaches the complex, sometimes confounding, and often beautiful art of directing live performance for videogames. Starting from a clear and comprehensive introduction to the nuts and bolts of directing on the motion capture floor and in the voiceover booth, this book dives deeper with concrete examples from the author’s 25-year career directing seminal games from the early years to today’s blockbusters.

Identifying the Place (What is the physical environment?), Time (What just happened?), and Action (What do the characters want?) of every scene empowers directors with essential tools to dive straight into the subtext, the life below the words. Through step-by-step instructions, this book shows how to make scenes and lines come alive. It offers real-world advice on everything from casting to table reads, rehearsal, and production days. In addition, readers can find valuable advice about self-care and sustaining a long-term career as a performance director.

This book is sure to be an essential resource for directors, actors, voiceover artists, and game developers who want to master videogame performance.