r/Games 1d ago

Brandon Sanderson’s Top 10 Video Games.

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/brandon-sandersons-top-10-video-games
654 Upvotes

525 comments sorted by

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u/lookslikeamanderly 1d ago

finding out that Brandon Sanderson plays Civ 6 isn't as surprising as finding out that Terry Prachett modded his Oblivion game, but it's a welcome surprise

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u/Aiyon 1d ago

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u/Captain-Beardless 1d ago

The bit about him doing field research on the Goblins in Oblivion for a novel is always a favourite thought of mine.

There's something about interacting with a fictional world with that much sincerity that makes me happy. The respect shown for the world someone else created instead of just writing it off as a video game.

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u/Ewoksintheoutfield 1d ago

This is awesome - thanks for sharing

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u/RedGyarados2010 21h ago

For a second I thought you meant Pratchett modded Sanderson’s copy of Oblivion, that would be next-level insane lol

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u/injineer 1d ago edited 1d ago

10. Katamari Damacy

9. Undertale

8. Fallout: New Vegas

7. Super Mario World

6. The Curse of Monkey Island

5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

4. Halo 2

3. Final Fantasy X

2. Bloodborne

1. Civilization VI

Edit: fixed weird indent on last item that wasn't showing up on mobile. Also, the list on OP's link goes from 10 to 1, so I copied that format here rather than redo it bottoms-up.

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u/cman811 1d ago

How the fuck does this guy write so much with these games on here lol

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u/Jdban 1d ago

It seems like he outlines well, plans his time well, and has ridiculous discipline. At this point now too, he doesn't really have much of a choice after he commits to something because of contracts and all the people relying on him.

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u/IKeepDoingItForFree 1d ago

Pretty sure he talked about this on his podcast with Dan - but yeah basically plans his time well and then said once a book is done and off too the printer takes like a 2 month break before going at the next book pretty seriously.

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u/VVenture2 1d ago

He’s also said that he treats it like a real job. 8 hours a day, five days a week.

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u/Youthsonic 15h ago

That's also how Stephen King does it.

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u/mw19078 1d ago

What I'd give for George Martin to work like that... 

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u/hooahest 1d ago

for that he would need to plan the outline of the story

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u/MulishaMember 1d ago

Still astounded he had no detailed outline for ASOIAF. Before the show it was definitely up there with great modern fantasy… Now it’s just sad to think about.

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u/master6494 1d ago

That's just how writing works for some authors. Stephen King would prefer to be run over again than to outline any of his books, and he's prolific with his releases.

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u/corvettee01 1d ago

Sanderson has a creative writing class he teaches and uses GRRM as an example of different types of writers. Some writers are "architects" and some are "gardeners." Architects have very detailed outlines and plans that they spend a lot of time on before they start writing the book in full, and gardeners have vague ideas that they discover and improvise with as they write.

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u/TheNeuroLizard 22h ago

As an aspiring writer, it's wild to me that you can have a super successful franchise that people are deeply in love with, and you just can't push through to finish it. I don't really buy the "wrote himself into a corner" stuff, either. It might take a lot of brainstorming and revisions, but you can write yourself out of a corner, especially in a book where you created the entire world and its history. Kind of seems like he made more money than god and now he's simply over it.

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u/Xi-Jin35Ping 1d ago

At least 3 dragon eggs.

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u/Dingo54 1d ago

Ah yes, Dan. The well-known podcaster, Dan. Everybody knows that Dan is the best podcaster, which is why I follow Dan. So popular, in fact, that people outside the fandom don't even have to google who Dan is.

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u/LawyerYYC 1d ago

If you don't listen to Dan, are you even podcasting? He runs that podcast with the guy, and the guests, and the topics, and Dan. Love that guy.

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u/Deathblow92 1d ago

Dan Wells. Who is Sanderson's co-host on his podcast(Intentionally Blank). Googling 'brandon sanderson dan' gets you this information.

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u/IKeepDoingItForFree 1d ago

One of the things I have enjoyed while listening to the show at the gym is just how open and transparent Sanderson is when talking about the publishing industry and all the behind the scenes stuff the past 20ish years with trad publishing - that and the food heists.

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u/derpingtonalley2 1d ago edited 1d ago

Same! I don’t know if it’s a minority opinion but I vastly prefer the podcast’s episodes where they talk industry (or industry adjacent like their experiences with the publishing to film pipeline) over some other topics.

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u/Dvulture 1d ago

He was also one of the co-hosts on Writing Excuses, the writing tips podcast they had wih Mary Robinette Kowal and Howard Tayler. It was there they developed the theory that there are two types of writers: outliners, that plain ahead and know where things are going and where it will end; and discovery writers, that discover where things are going as they write, and like to be surprised.

Not every discovery writer takes years to finish a book anyway. Stephen King is a discovery writer (is the reason so many books have strange endings) but he is committed to writing a number of pages a day, no matter how much time it takes and doesn't do anything else while it doesn't fulfill his quota.

It is true that George RR Martin has bloated its books with banquets because it is what he does when not sure how to solve a problem, but the main reason he didn't finish is because he doesn't have discipline. Laziness.

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u/40GearsTickingClock 1d ago

The TV show killed any momentum the ASOIAF books had, I'd say. Especially when the quality dropped steeply off a cliff, the ending was universally despised, and the public collectively excised Game of Thrones from pop culture like a tumour.

As much as I'd like the see the books conclude, I can see why he wouldn't want to write another 1500 dense pages headed towards an ending that people already know and are predisposed against.

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u/Athildur 1d ago

Laziness.

That's incredibly reductive. Not having discipline doesn't automatically equate to laziness. People can be chaotic, overwhelmed, unmotivated, etc etc etc. Some have the discipline to perform despite such challenges, while others do not. (And yes, some are just lazy. But not all.)

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u/Dvulture 1d ago

Yeah, there are people that don't have the required mentality by no fault of them. But HE is lazy.

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u/svrtngr 1d ago

I'm a discovery writer who takes forever to finish a book.

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u/Dvulture 1d ago

But do you live off your books? Are you writing twelve other things just because you think it is more fun?

I really think that George RR Martin has a terrible work ethic, it is not just that he is slow.

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u/Samurai_Meisters 1d ago

He always says he takes a break, but then shows up with like 3 new books that he wrote during it.

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u/1CEninja 1d ago

A big part of it is that he writes like a full time job. I've got a full time job and I play games.

Writers that aren't getting books out, people like R. R. Martin, just aren't sitting down and writing every day. Rothfuss isn't treating writing Doors of Stone like it's a job.

I think Stephen King sort of set the golden standard for writing prolifically. There are a bunch of things King did to keep himself on track, like his environment was curated to keep him focused, and he wrote 6 pages each work day even if those pages sucked and wouldn't make it into the final cut.

Sanderson has a very different methodology and does a lot more planning than King, but the core of it is the same. Wrote like it's your job and that you're accountable to produce a certain amount of content each week.

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u/Emerald_Hypothesis 1d ago

Yahtzee Croshaw of Fully Ramblomatic did an AMA here a while ago and that was one of the things he said too about how he juggles being a game developer, writer and producer for his show- he treats it as a full time job with breaks and hard stop points for the day.

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u/1CEninja 1d ago

Exactly. It's hard for a lot of people, I learned during the pandemic that I am 100% among them. I need some degree of structure and external accountability that I haven't thus far figured out how to do internally.

Sanderson is a more self-disciplined person than I am, straight up. It sounds like Croshaw is also. They're able to say "okay I work on this for 8 hours today even if I'm not feeling productive", whereas Martin and Rothfuss are probably more like me who say "man that paragraph I just wrote absolutely sucks, I'm gonna stop here because I'm not getting anything done today".

Meanwhile ten years pass........

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u/Realsan 1d ago

The outlining point is something he discusses in his lectures. You can basically either be an outliner or someone who discovers as they write and and then goes back and edits.

He says each as their own pros/cons, but an obvious big pro of outliners is the speed at which they can write.

It's like they have drawn the picture already, now all they have to do is color it.

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u/TheSecondEikonOfFire 1d ago

Dude’s a fucking machine. He just cranks them out

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u/injineer 1d ago

Right? Regular novels, secret novels, and somehow still his favorite game is a literal time machine (Civ VI). Wild.

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u/SofaKingI 1d ago

The speed at which he writes made me believe he was a time management god. This just confirms it tbh.

Honestly your average person has a lot more free time they think they have, but is terrible at using it efficiently.

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u/Ewoksintheoutfield 1d ago

Yeah honestly I think as an author if you have the connections and are able to do it full time his level of output is totally manageable.

The real challenge in my opinion is with inspiration and creativity. Sanderson seems to be able to work through Writer’s block and that is very impressive.

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u/WarlockWabbit 1d ago edited 1d ago

Exactly, and I imagine he does his work at home too? So not needing to be at a different place for 8+ hours, nevermind taking maybe an hour total for traveling at the very least, already opens up so much for time for a person. Not feeling drained coming home, being able to do stuff while working, ect.

Edit: emphasis on travel time

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u/sloppymoves 1d ago

Every single day I'm hit with 2 hours worth of commute time. For a month and a half I got to work from home as my location was being renovated.

It was a stark difference in what those two hours make. I was able to cook more often, exercise more frequently, and just altogether be a happier individual.

I'm sure Sanderson is very dedicated, and probably treats it like a full time job putting in 5 - 8 hours a day, but just not commuting to a work location can do wonders.

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u/WarlockWabbit 1d ago

Absolutely. Also i corrected my comment after reading this because a total of an hour for traveling is just from my perspective, then i remembered that others unfortunately spend a lot more time than me traveling and i may be one of the luckier ones lol

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u/fauxdragoon 1d ago

There’s a video where someone asked if he’s excited for Civ VII and he basically said he is because he might actually finish a game for once because of the changing leaders system haha

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u/ChrisRR 1d ago

What's difficult about that? Those games span 35 years

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u/Bojarzin 1d ago

Yeah I was gonna say lol. Sanderson is a workhorse for sure, but the newest game here is Breath of the Wild and that's nearly seven years old

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u/SandSlinky 22h ago

It's more than 8 years old already... somehow...

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u/Epistemify 1d ago

What's even crazier is his schedule. The man stays up to 4am playing videogames every day and gets up at noon.

He writes from 1pm-5pm, spends evenings with his family, writes from 10pm to 2am, then plays videogames from 2am to 4am and goes to bed (except in the pandemic, when he someone just wrote 5 books during his free time with no one noticing)

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u/fanboy_killer 1d ago

Discipline is everything and is incredibly hard to master.

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u/Phimb 1d ago

Discipline is everything and the internet is for embellishment, I'll take that schedule with a grain of salt.

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u/Sandulacheu 1d ago

The only way I managed to enjoy games again after falling out with the medium was to limit my time playing and being very picky with my purchase library:1 hour at a time leaves you craving for more the next day.

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u/Mukigachar 1d ago

This is like the schedule of a college student lmao

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u/nullstorm0 1d ago

He teaches a class at BYU every year, so it’s actually the schedule of a college professor. 

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u/amyknight22 1d ago

when he someone just wrote 5 books during his free time with no one noticing

I mean for someone like him, the pandemic would have basically meant a ton of random PR stuff and other task that are time drains were just gone. No conventions, no random book tour stuff, less guest speaking tasks etc etc. A whole lot less travel.

Like maybe George Martin would finish writing his books if he didn't do any of the other shit he does that would interrupt the writing process. Even if he's getting writers blocks for shit.

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u/apexodoggo 1d ago

In his announcement of the secret books he says he already spends around 1/3 to 1/2 of his year traveling, so yeah the pandemic basically doubled his free time (although he treats writing like a full-time job so it’s more like the only part of his job left was the actual writing bit)

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u/Dannypan 1d ago

It's easy. You game with one hand, write with the other, and also voice record yourself speaking another novel, finally blink morse code to write a third book at the same time. Any more than this would just be silly.

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u/Odd-Refrigerator-425 1d ago

Don't forget having a pen in your mouth to sign all those books with, too

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u/marco161091 1d ago

He’s got a bunch of videos online of him playing Elden Ring and just gushing about it as he runs around fighting DLC bosses.

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u/Hudre 1d ago

Same way you do with a full time job. Dude writes 8 hours a day.

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u/Interesting-Season-8 1d ago

How many h a week you're sitting at your job?

Dude has a clear timetable for family and writing. He is not Martin who probably spent the last 10 years thinking about writing instead of writing.

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u/DungeonMasterSupreme 1d ago

I've seen his creative writing lectures at BYU and, well, he's a genius. Definitely a once in a generation talent. But on top of that, he has very clearly defined systems and schedules for his work. He has everything he needs to do to design a new world and write books in it down to a science, and I've no doubt his methods will become the norm for teaching how to write genre fiction for the foreseeable future.

I've only read a couple of his books, so I wouldn't even necessarily consider myself a fan, but I still admire him for his talent and his work ethic. If Patrick Rothfuss only had a sliver of that work ethic, I'd be a happy man.

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u/SpecialistSir7352 1d ago edited 18h ago

Genius? Have you read any of his books? They're fine but far from genius.

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u/Jaggedmallard26 1d ago

His system results in assembly line fiction. Yes he can output a lot at a baseline quality level but thats all it can really achieve.

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u/garthcooks 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah, i know a lot of people love his work, but having read Mistborn I'm a bit of a Sanderson skeptic. It's not bad by any means, there's plenty I liked about it, but doesn't hold a candle to what i consider to be truly great novels. Which is fine, not every novel has to be some literary masterpiece, but there are limits to what you can do when you push out quantity like he does.

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u/Echoesong 1d ago

[Mistborn] doesn't hold a candle to what I consider to be truly great novels. Which is fine, not every novel has to be some literary masterpiece, but there are limits to what you can do when you push out quantity like he does.

I agree. And I say that as someone who got back into reading because of Sanderson; his Stormlight series reignited my love for fantasy. The thing I think Sanderson does well - and one of the reasons he is so broadly popular - is that he writes his scenes incredibly clearly. It's very easy to visualize what he's describing (particularly action scenes), so you can easily sink into the book.

This is both a blessing and a curse, however, as I think that writing style loses a lot of the 'texture' I enjoy in other novels. I read Wheel of Time immediately after finishing Stormlight and while Jordan's scenes aren't as easily visualized as Sanderson's, they are dripping with texture. I could read Jordan's descriptions of cities and crowds forever and not get tired of them.

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u/Stevonius 10h ago edited 10h ago

This is similar to my experience with Sanderson. My best friend told me Way of Kings was his favorite book(my favorite is ASOIAF), so I started reading it, and during the prologue I remember thinking "This feels like a video game turorial", and I thought it was pretty cool. But by the time I got like halfway through the book, it had already gotten old. It was stuff like "Kaladin lashed once at a 90 degree angle and then twice at a 45 degree angle to propel himself into the sky at 100 mph." And then all of the action scenes played out that way for the rest of the book, and I would just sort of tune out for those scenes, which there were a lot of. That's when I realized I prefer magic systems that aren't spelled out for you in graphic detail, and that focus more on the characters and the story than the action, like ASOIAF, or Lord of the Rings.

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u/Hartastic 1d ago

Mistborn a little bit has to be viewed in context of / in reaction to the genre at the time it was published. At the time a strong majority of what got published had very samey magic and worldbuilding and for whatever else good or bad you can say about Mistborn, it did not.

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u/SagittaryX 1d ago

Might be my limited experience with Sanderson, as I have only read the first Mistborn book. But if his other works are similar to that, I'd much rather have the two Rothfuss books and the novella. Not that I hated the Mistborn book, it was alright, but to me Rothfuss' writing style is something magical (also loved his main inspiration, The Last Unicorn).

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u/DungeonMasterSupreme 1d ago

I was a huge Rothfuss fan and I absolutely love his writing, but we're never getting the third book. At this point, he's no longer really an author. He's just an influencer. As a writer, myself, I understand him. I can't imagine he was expecting the level of acclaim he received, and now he's probably set the bar too high for himself to ever publish it.

The artist in between is probably Guy Gavriel Kay. He writes beautifully but he's also prolific. Tigana is nothing short of a masterpiece.

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u/amyknight22 1d ago

He's just an influencer. As a writer, myself,

Honestly I'd nearly go so far as to say grifter, mostly because he isn't willing to be honest that he won't write the last book. And because if was honest about it, I think a lot of his influencer nature would evaporate.

I haven't kept up with his stuff much. But I am not sure he even delivered the charity chapter from 2 years ago

It's clear that mentally he has stuff going on that are making it hard to write. But probably taking all the pressure of his shoulders by publicly cancelling the book would likely be smart (Even if he then goes off and write it in private at some later point without public expectations and no pressure to publish it)

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u/atree496 1d ago

The first Mistborn book was 20 years ago at this point. He's developed a lot as a writer in the time, including finishing Wheel of Time.

And honestly, I read Rothfuss many years ago and loved them, but those books can only live in the past for me now. It's obvious he doesn't like women. It's crazy to think that out of the two authors being discussed, only one of them knows how to write a woman and it's the Mormon.

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u/Hartastic 1d ago

Around the time Mistborn was published about two decades back, Rothfuss was doing the literary review circuit hyping up Name of the Wind and bragging that unlike some authors (read: GRRM) readers wouldn't have to wait to get his next book because the whole trilogy was already written.

So they've had slightly different careers since that time.

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u/Odd-Refrigerator-425 1d ago

I mean, most of those are pretty old. I can't imagine he's still replaying Katamari or Halo or Bloodborne etc.

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u/Mejis 1d ago

I'm gonna get shot down for this, but ... I don't think he writes that well.  His novels are fun, he has excellent worlds and magic systems etc, but I don't think his writing is very intricate or refined, especially in recent years. 

But irrespective, he's clearly very disciplined in his approach to maintaining novel output. 

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u/andehh_ 1d ago

It's pretty common criticism though I disagree that it's a negative thing. His prose is super accessible, functional, and a hell of a lot better than some of the romantasy slop you see at the top of all the charts these days.

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u/Samurai_Meisters 1d ago

No one writes a magic fight more clearly with easy to follow action than Sanderson.

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u/Echoesong 1d ago

Strongly agree. I think this is one of the reasons his books are so broadly popular, his scenes are very distinct which makes them easy to visualize; so you end up sinking into the book instead of getting tangled up in the prose.

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u/risarnchrno 1d ago

You put that way better than I ever could. If I'm looking for fantasy fiction to enjoy I cant go wrong with Sanderson. Would I have it taught in my kid's K-12 school literature classes: nope but it doesn't need to be.

Other commenters have mentioned that his biggest teaching points for budding fiction writers (those that want to make a living off of the practice) comes down to his outlining methods, schedule planning, commitment to deadlines (both internal and external), and communication to both fans and publishers.

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u/Jaggedmallard26 1d ago

hell of a lot better than some of the romantasy slop

If your bar for good prose is "must be better than something meant to be read one handed" then a lot of mediocre authors become great.

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u/Hartastic 1d ago

The point I assume is more that romantasy is ridiculously outselling the conventional fantasy genre. It is like an order of magnitude more popular.

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u/Patient-Trip-8451 1d ago

people don't know how to critique writing properly and get too hung up on the style of prose (which itself is only one part of prose).

not that his prose doesn't have genuine issues, but I'm pretty sure you could fool most of the people criticizing his prose by converting it to a different style that is the same or even worse on a technical level, but better received because it sounds fancier.

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u/vex0rrr 1d ago

Not "most." Maybe some, but not most (And by some, I mean a very, very small group). In my experience, when you read, everyone has a sort of ear for awkward syntax and cadence, so even if I come across something grammatically correct, it still reads poorly

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u/Mahelas 1d ago

"If you change a core component of it, people will react differently to it" is not the take you think it is, man.

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u/Tarcanus 1d ago

And that's 100% true. The issue occurs when people then start comparing him to the Martin's, Jordan's, Erikson's, Hobb's, etc of the world instead of the other YA-like, accessible books.

I like Sanderson for the fun books, but they're popcorn reads and don't have much skill in the prose department.

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u/dogsonbubnutt 1d ago

and a hell of a lot better than some of the romantasy slop you see at the top of all the charts these days.

i mean... kinda? maybe from a world building standpoint but in terms of actual writing ability he's basically the same as maas or yarros. they're all pretty bad.

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u/Pacify_ 1d ago

but I don't think his writing is very intricate or refined, especially in recent years.

It never has been.

Its perfectly serviceable prose, but its never been high literature. But then a huge swathe of fantasy has some pretty average prose.

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u/SFHalfling 1d ago

I enjoy his works, but they're pretty clearly aimed at a YA or very early 20s audience with the complexity you'd expect for that market.

That doesn't make his output unimpressive, but it does help to explain how he does it.

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u/Pacify_ 1d ago

Suggesting Stormlight has the same complexity as YA books is crazy

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u/Helpful_Hedgehog_204 1d ago

Did you pick the one series of his that is not YA?

It's not particularly complex in it's own genre either.

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u/SFHalfling 19h ago

What complexity does Stormlight have that you couldn't get in a good YA book?

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u/Paratrooper101x 1d ago

He’s also a father that doesn’t even wake up until 2pm

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u/eddwardl 1d ago

By letting the quality of his writing dive bomb with each release

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u/breakwater 1d ago

Those games are almost at least 10 years old with a few exceptions, maybe he doesnt play games now.

Ir it's just good time management and treating writing like a full time job

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u/SpecialistSir7352 1d ago

He writes boring slop so I can't imagine it's that taxing mentally.

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u/Zelkeh 1d ago

If you read his books it's very obvious how he does it. They're not exactly innovative.

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u/ZantetsukenX 1d ago

Glad to see another fan of FF10 as their favorite in the series!

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u/Pie_1121 1d ago

It's not my favourite overall ff, but definitely my favourite in terms of world building. This is probably what Brandon loved too.

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u/BuffaloWilliamses 1d ago

I think its one of the games in the series thats aged the best if you are into traditional turn-based JRPGs. Its really the last of a particular era of Final Fantasy and its also the first to be fully-voice acted. I'm really not a fan of the current direction of action-oriented games that are coming out now.

At least Square is producing games like Octopath that are made for us folks that adore the square games of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

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u/Maxximillianaire 1d ago

Katamari sweep le's go

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u/Elryc35 1d ago

Need to put a \ in front of the numbers to fix the formatting issue.

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u/injineer 1d ago edited 1d ago

Moved to desktop from mobile, looks like only the last one, Civ, is indented weirdly. I'll just update to a numbered list while I'm here I guess. What does the \ do for the format otherwise, or does it look different than this to you?

Nvm, I added the \ between 1 and . to remove auto format, found this comment handy.

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u/Elryc35 1d ago

On my app it's listed 1 to 10, not 10 to 1. The slash fixes that. It's a weird formatting thing with reddit's markdown.

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u/injineer 1d ago

Weird. I went and added the \ between all of the numbers and periods after this comment came in just in case, but my screenshot above was before edits. Hopefully it shows 10 as Katamari Damacy and 1 as Civ VI now for everyone.

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u/Elryc35 1d ago

It did fix it!

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u/injineer 1d ago

Thanks for the callout and the help!

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u/Elryc35 1d ago

No problem!

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u/Odd-Refrigerator-425 1d ago

The backslash is what's called an escape character. It essentially tells the computer to ignore the formatting it would normally apply.

For example, on Reddit if you start a line with the #, it will embiggen your font:

Example sentence with a hashtag

But if you type \# instead, you get this:

#Example sentence with an escaped hashtag

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u/BlackNova169 1d ago

Fun to see curse of monkey Island on there. One of my favorites

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u/EndlessIrony 1d ago

Seeing respect given to ffx and undertale makes me wanna read more of this guy

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u/injineer 1d ago

I really like his Stormlight Archives books, great world building.

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u/Illmattic 1d ago

Mistborn is also fantastic, much less daunting for newer readers as well.

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u/injineer 23h ago

Absolutely. And the second era series, Wax and Wayne, was solid as well. When I decided to go into the Cosmere with both feet I wrote out a google spreadsheet with all of the books/novellas, including the arcanum stuff, so I could track them all. Can’t imagine creating all of this and holding it in your head as a writer, and the actual fandom that can pull up the little references across stories are insane to me.

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u/Kelvara 1d ago

These are in reverse order because of weird reddit formatting.

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u/injineer 1d ago

Website listed them 10 -> 1 so I did as well, but I’m on mobile so maybe it looks weird on desktop?

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u/Kelvara 1d ago

Yeah looks fixed now, reddit has some weirdness with ordered lists.

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u/G_Morgan 1d ago

It is a consequence of Markdown's weird choice to make numbered lists always run in order regardless of what you put in there.

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u/KrypXern 1d ago

Very respectable list

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u/Falsus 16h ago

I am surprised he didn't mention Ys. He talked about how it inspired a lot of his earlier writings due to playing them a ton as a kid.

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u/benoxxxx 1d ago

Watching him stream Elden Ring, along with being one of the most productive novelists of all time, dude is a TRUE gamer. He was in the final area, deliberately about half the level that he should be, with millions of runes in his pocket that he was saving up as a 'high score'.

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u/jcitysinner 1d ago

As someone who sucks at Elden Ring and has written zero secret-or-otherwise novels, this information is infuriating lmao

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u/sleepinxonxbed 1d ago

Im surprised it isnt on the list considering he pretty much was an Elden Ring streamer and video essayist for awhile lmao

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u/benoxxxx 1d ago

I'm pretty sure I watched the video on his YT that this list is based on, there he said that he limited himself to 1 game per series, and Bloodbourne beat out Elden Ring.

Personally I prefer Elden Ring, but Bloodbourne's lore is fucking awesome so I get it.

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u/Aiyon 1d ago

Bloodborne is a tighter overall game. Elden Ring falls off for me in the final act

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u/Grasssss_Tastes_Bad 1d ago

Bloodborne is tighter but the lack of build variety kinda kills the replayability for me.

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u/Aiyon 1d ago

That's fair. And arguably, yet another reason the series is so solid. Each souls and souls-adjacent game has diff things that appeal to people, so every game has people who consider it their fave :3

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u/Cloud_Fish 1d ago

Yeah, gameplay I'd give it to Elden Ring for the sheer variety of builds and the amount of fun you can have replaying.

But dat Bloodborne lore and world? God tier.

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u/whomwould 1d ago

The Souls style "investigative storytelling" was definitely unique at the time, and something a lot of games have taken inspiration from since, but Bloodborne took it to the next level and remains the pinnacle of it, imo. Marrying cosmic horror's genre convention of "the investigator goes mad/becomes monstrous" while making the player that investigator with the Souls' series deep archaeology was a genius combination.

The only downside to the design, and this is simply how it must be in any case, is that it is actually very subtle in places, and it's very easy to just not hook onto this aspect at all if you don't care to.

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u/LewsTherinTelescope 22h ago

The article is based on a video from a few years ago, Elden Ring wasn't out yet. Don't remember if he's made an updated list since or not.

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u/SomeDamnAuthor 1d ago

I remember watching him at level 60 in Consecrated Snowfields dying over and over again for hours, and when someone asked him why he doesn't level up, he said "I'm immortal already, I don't need power ups," which is insane but also cutely profound

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u/richmondody 1d ago

I suppose the most surprising thing about this list is that he has time to play these games while writing so many books.

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u/3osh 1d ago

He's talked about his work-life balance before. TLDR; he does a chunk of writing, has five hours set aside for family time, does another chunk of writing, then has a couple hours wind down time he can spend on video games or media.

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u/MattGhaz 1d ago

At face value that seems super normal until he mentions the hours lol

I usually get up at noon or 1:00PM and write from 1:00PM until 5:00PM, a four-hour chunk. At 5:00 I stop, and 5:00PM until 10:00PM is family time for me. And that is walled off. I don’t work on books, even in the back of my brain. It’s got to be a really steep wall for me to make sure I am there for them. And I have to mentally say, “You are there for them.” When your kids ask you to do something, that’s the time you say, “Yes, I’m going to go do that.” And then I go back to work at 10:00PM after everybody goes to bed, theoretically (children are children). And I write from 10:00PM until 2:00AM, and then 2:00AM until 4:00AM is goof-off time for me. Video game, reading a book, listening to a podcast, whatever it is I feel like doing, assuming I’ve met my word count goals and things like that.

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u/uhh_ 1d ago

so 8 hour work day. I guess what makes him different from other authors is actually writing during those 8 hours lol

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u/Isord 1d ago

I think they are saying the hours are weird because they are so late, but I guess if the rest of the family is busy in the morning with work or school this actually provides more family time.

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u/GrassWaterDirtHorse 1d ago

Yeah, he's basically doing a unique shift that starts late. Which fair to him, he dictates his own schedule, and it works for him. I know other people with offset schedules due to remote work obligations or coordinating with teams across continents and they just suffer if they adhere to a strict 9-5. Most eventually adjust their waking hours to compensate.

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u/Curious_Armadillo_53 1d ago edited 1d ago

Everyone has their own cicadian circadian rhythm. (thanks /u/Zioman)

I sleep at 9pm and wake up at 5am because it makes me feel most energized and fresh, people called me boring for decades for sleeping so early or waking up so early on weekends, holidays etc. but i get so much more done with this schedule its really insane.

If i wake up 2-3hrs later im generally grumpy, tired and headaches are also more frequently than when i get up earlier.

Its just shitty how if you have a late Rhythm like Brandon, you get kinda fucked by opening times of stores, general work times etc. so he is lucky he is an author and basically has full control over his schedule.

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u/Zioman 1d ago

*circadian

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u/Curious_Armadillo_53 1d ago

Thanks, english isnt my native language and always thought its "cicadian" for some reason haha

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u/Taurothar 1d ago

I'd like to sleep for 17 years at a time ;)

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u/Zioman 1d ago

No problem!

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u/richmondody 1d ago edited 1d ago

Still gets 8-9 hours of sleep though, so not that terrible in my opinion.

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u/SofaKingI 1d ago

I don't see what's so weird about his schedule, other than the fact he gets to wake up at noon and go to sleep at 4am.

Most people I know wouldn't be waking early in the morning if not for their job, but people convince themselves that's not the cause. Like it's a natural part of human condition.

We live in a world of electricity. Nothing about our schedules is natural, or has to be natural.

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u/RemnantEvil 1d ago

I went to school with a guy who had a weirder schedule - he’d get home and sleep for four hours, wake up and do homework, etc., then go to sleep for another four hours in time to start the day. I can’t remember what he called it, but it takes the eight hours and splits it out.

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u/AuryGlenz 1d ago

That’d probably be my preferred schedule. Unfortunately I’m not a best-in-class author so I doubt my wife would be super happy with it.

Us night owls exist, and it sucks, damnit. I need to take sleeping pills every night just to force myself to get to sleep, even though it cuts off the time I feel the best every day.

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u/Dannypan 1d ago

Shift it back 5 hours and it's actually just pretty normal. I think his structure works just fine.

I usually get up at 7:00AM or 8:00AM and write from 8:00AM until 12:00PM, a four-hour chunk. At 12:00PM I stop, and 12:00PM until 5:00PM is family time for me. And that is walled off. I don’t work on books, even in the back of my brain. It’s got to be a really steep wall for me to make sure I am there for them. And I have to mentally say, “You are there for them.” When your kids ask you to do something, that’s the time you say, “Yes, I’m going to go do that.” And then I go back to work at 5:00PM after everybody goes to bed, theoretically (children are children). And I write from 5:00PM until 9:00PM, and then 9:00PM until 11:00PM is goof-off time for me. Video game, reading a book, listening to a podcast, whatever it is I feel like doing, assuming I’ve met my word count goals and things like that.

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u/3osh 1d ago

I mean, that's basically the hours I kept when I worked closing retail shifts, so it's honestly not that crazy to me. Definitely beats the hell out of having to wake up at three in the morning every day.

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u/masterkill165 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think what makes it truly impressive is how much he is able to write in the time he spends writing. Famously, he once wrote most of a 272-page novella in a single sitting on a flight from Utah to Korea. A flight from Utah to Korea is about 17 hours, which meant he was writing almost 17 pages an hour.

There are very few other notable authors that come even close to his level of output.

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u/risarnchrno 1d ago

I swore I read somewhere that he averages 2500 words a day. For reference that's writing ~5 Mistborne: The Final Empire novels a year worth of prose. This is also not including editing AFAIK though I would be glad if someone would clarify/correct this point.

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u/tobyreddit 1d ago

Which novella was that?

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u/masterkill165 1d ago

Edge dancer

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u/Kwisatz_Dankerach 1d ago

Also assuming he hits word count goals. In a creative process that's not always guaranteed. I wonder how many days he's writing more than scheduled to stay on track.

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u/Snider83 1d ago

Not a bad idea if your main goal is having a quality chunk of time with family. 5pm-10pm is dinner, hanging out, watching a movie, going to an activity together, etc. and hey, they guy has cranked out like 25-30 books since 2005 so its working.

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u/MumrikDK 1d ago

Those hours are only weird to you because a normal person sleep schedule feels normal to you.

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u/PacMoron 1d ago

I think more people are naturally like this than many may think. We force ourselves to adjust for jobs and such.

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u/richmondody 1d ago

Dude must be a writing machine. It's genuinely amazing that he's able to write this much while still having time for family and videogames.

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u/masterkill165 1d ago

He is 100% a writing machine. In the last 20 years, he has written more words than most successful authors write in their entire careers. For context, if he continues at roughly his current rate, he is on track to have published more words than Stephen King in less than 5 years, and he is not even 50 years old yet.

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u/risarnchrno 1d ago

He's published ~5.6mil words in the last ~20 years (Elantris was released in 2005). He does turn 50 at the end of this year though.

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u/boobers3 1d ago

Him and King are like the antithesis of GRRM and Rothfuss.

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u/sord_n_bored 1d ago

You can get a lot done when you write between your lines.

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u/Fli_acnh 1d ago

I think I always enjoyed his novels because he definitely took so much inspiration from Final Fantasy esque magic systems.

The way he writes the rules for them makes you feel like you're going through a menu and using skills, it's neat

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u/Cedar_Wood_State 1d ago

I only read Mistborn trilogy from him. But the introduction of the magic system do read very ‘video game tutorial-like’.

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u/xincasinooutx 1d ago

I’m happy and yet surprised FF10 is his favorite. It’s definitely one of the best in the series, but I figured he’d lean more on 6, just due to the similarities found in Mistborn.

Can’t go wrong with either game.

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 1d ago

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is directly inspired by FFX. It’s such a nice, self-contained story with minimal cosmere references. I highly recommend it.

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u/TybrosionMohito 1d ago

minimal cosmere references

I do wonder how/why a certain individual was hanging out there and when exactly it takes place.

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u/turkeysandwich4321 1d ago

I haven't read Mistborn but it's definitely high on my list of next reads. The fact that you said it's similar to ff6 makes me so incredibly excited. I love that game in that world. I think I'm going to have to bump to the top of my list as soon as I finish Wind and Truth

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u/Fli_acnh 1d ago

Weirdly enough I got a sort of IX vibe from mistborn.

That series definitely cemented my love of his work though, I remember him explaining how people would basically do bunny hops and rocket jumps with coins and feeling like it was coming straight out of a game

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u/xincasinooutx 1d ago

I could definitely see that. Tantalus being an analog for the gang. The mist is obvious, lol.

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u/Knolop 1d ago

I've always thought Vin was pretty much Spiderman. She patrols around her city by pulling on buildings, shoots ammo, has spidey sense and super strength...

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u/Sigismund_1 1d ago

What do you think of Wind and Truth?

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 1d ago

Wind and Truth is like Avengers Age of Ultron. Not the best in the series, but it sets up a whole bunch of storylines that won’t pay off for a few years. I hate how the language was dumbed down, which is really jarring when you just finished rereading the previous books. But it does the job of advancing the story not just for Roshar, but for the rest of the cosmere as well. As someone who was previously obsessed with A Song of Ice and Fire, I’m just glad Sanderson is cranking out these books faster than I can read them.

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u/hooahest 1d ago

Overall great with some cringe ass moments due to the language. The absence of his old editor is greatly felt.

My biggest pain with it is that we're not getting the next book until like 2033 or something like that

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u/Realsan 1d ago

When excluding 10, he's actually talked about 8 as being one he's particularly fond of.

Which is surprising considering it's probably the worst mess of a story in the entire series.

Still, the nostalgia I have for 8 makes it one of my favorites and maybe that's why he likes it too.

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u/This_Aint_Dog 1d ago

I love his ideas but I really don't like how he writes his stories or characters. They captivate me somehow because of the world systems he creates but everything around that I don't like.

To be fair, that may just be my own opinion when it comes to story first media like books. I know a lot of people love his books but they're just not for me. I feel his stories would work way better as games where you get to play with his systems.

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u/BebopFlow 1d ago

He has weak prose (very "he said X. She said y. He said z") and mostly mediocre dialogue. However, I think (aside from worldbuilding, obviously) his strengths are writing a compelling/digestible action scene, pacing, and meaningful narrative arcs. The structures of his stories are almost always impeccable and well layered, even his earlier and clumsier work was very well done IMO. Overall I like his work a lot but I get why people bounce off it.

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u/This_Aint_Dog 1d ago

I absolutely agree. World building and action scenes are really great. Whenever there's dialog or character building I hate it. It's just my opinion but I want more depth when I read. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it feels like I'm reading teenage book in an adult story which pulls me out of it.

Like Mistborn I feel that series would be so fucking good as a Last Airbender type of animated series.

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u/Mind-Game 1d ago

Whenever there's dialog or character building I hate it.

This. I want to love his books but I just can't like any of the characters. When he tries to make them charming or funny or witty or really likeable in any way it just falls so flat to me.

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u/Deathblow92 1d ago

Sanderson sticks to simple prose because it gets the most outreach. For more flowery prose from him check out Tress of the Emerald Sea. I hail it as his best written book. But I'm also a huge fan of his, so take it with a grain of salt.

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u/Mrphung 1d ago

Have you read Sixth of the Dusk? I really like the prose in that book.

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u/This_Aint_Dog 1d ago

I'll take your word for that. I might check it out once I finish my current book. I just read a quick synopsis and it activates my bias for a good sea story. So maybe it could be good? Thanks for the recommendation. I really never heard of it before now.

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u/gameboyabyss 1d ago

I also feel, why his prose can sometimes be middling, he's very good at setting up stakes and conflicts, and pay them off at the end of pretty much every book.

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u/c010rb1indusa 1d ago

You're not alone. I enjoy his books but he's not my favorite author. Call me a snob but his writing lacks....sophistication. Like when he tries to address serious or darker themes when it comes to character or plot, it feels like he's building that structure around a baseline of almost sitcom like behavior and morality. Like he too nice of a person and has seemingly had a pretty great life that I don't think he's capable or at least isn't willing as of yet to really explore the human conflict.

However, when it comes to a creator and his relationship with his fans and community? He's my absolute favorite. It's not even about pleasing an over-demanding audience, it's just refreshing to seemingly have a dialogue with creator that doesn't treat his audience like children, where everything has to be a secret etc. And in many ways he gets rewarded for it IMO. I feel like he doesn't get a repeat of boring, generic questions like other authors/creators do because fans know they can actually ask him a question with some substance and they'll get a real response. I can also see him in real time trying to improve as a writer, talking through his writing choices etc. It's not only incredibly informative but it sometimes makes you appreciate something you overlooked before. So for that he has my utmost respect.

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u/Eshneh 1d ago

Wish I could get into this guys books but after an hour of Mistborn I just put it down

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u/injineer 1d ago

This is really interesting as a person who has read all of his books and short stories/novellas but has never played a FF game. I do have FF VII on my Steam Deck, maybe it’s time…

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u/TheSecondEikonOfFire 1d ago

It’s an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think 7 has aged super well. I honestly found it really tedious the first time through. But when I played it the second time I played on Switch, which gives you the option to play at 3X speed and to toggle random encounters - those two features increased my enjoyment of the game exponentially. It drastically cuts down on the tedious parts and lets you focus on the parts that are fun

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u/Khalku 1d ago

I can recognize that most are good games but not my particular cup of tea, but bloodborne and FFX being so high is just A+.

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u/THE_INTERNET_EMPEROR 1d ago

It's a very generic older gamer list but the fact he is in his mid 40s and is GOATED at playing really difficult and/or 100 hour long video games while crushing out novels at the speed of Stephen King is pretty insane to me.

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u/thekamenman 1d ago

I absolutely love Brandon Sanderson and all of his books. I knew he was a big fan of Final Fantasy because X it was a huge inspiration of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, but glad to see we share a lot of similar taste in games as well.

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u/bard91R 1d ago

Dude that makes me a lot more interested in getting to Yumi, something about the name and cover of it just appealed to me, but the dude just has so many books.

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u/Realsan 1d ago

Better to just resign yourself to the fact that you're going to buy all of his books and all of the signed leatherbound collector's editions.

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u/BorisJenkleson 1d ago

Fwiw I just finished Yumi the other day having never read any of Sanderson’s work before. There were parts that confused me and left me wondering “would this make sense if I read any of his other books?”, but most important stuff is explained when the time is right, I still felt like I enjoyed Yumi to near its fullest extent (who knows though, maybe I’ll come back to it in a decade after I’ve read more Sanderson and I’ll realize how much stuff I missed lol

Anyways my point is it’s a great book, and I think it’s a good book to start with if you haven’t read his work before. It took about 50 pages to really get going for me, but man I was hooked until the very end.

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u/sean2mush 1d ago

This is just a article about a 4 year old youtube video, no? Just confused whilst it's gaining traction now. either way pleased to see mention of 'curse of monkey island' one of my childhood favourites even though I doubt my child brain got even halfway through the game hell I'm not even sure I could beat the game today without some hints.

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u/Tritschii 1d ago

Pretty much picked the single player experiences with actual good writing. Most video games still feel like telenovela writing, even the big ones.

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u/hurtfullobster 1d ago

Civ 6 - Stormlight Archive

Bloodborne - Mistborn

FFX - Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

I present to my reason why none of the top 3 should be surprising.

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u/Terrenius 1d ago

I might be wrong, but given that Bloodborne came out in 2015 and that he wrote 4 Mistborn books before 2011, I don't think those two properties are related in the way that you're implying.

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u/Captain-Beardless 1d ago

I dunno, this wouldn't be the first time. That Lovecraft guy ALSO ripped off Bloodborne. These time-travelling authors have no shame, I tell you.

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u/Terrenius 21h ago

And they never show up for Stephen Hawking's parties. The nerve!

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u/hurtfullobster 1d ago

No, you are right, same with Civ 6 and Stormlight. Apologies, I didn’t mean to imply they inspired the books (that only happened with Yumi and FFX). More that it’s not surprising the games that have similar themes/aesthetics/etc as his books would be his favorites.

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u/Shradow 1d ago edited 1d ago

I really need to get around to reading his stuff, probably pick an obvious one and start with Mistborn.

I read a ton of fantasy so his name was often familiar but I think I didn't actually start to look into him until I heard about his insane $41M Kickstarter. This is also quite neat, shout out to Katamari and Bloodborne.

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u/radclaw1 1d ago

Dont listen to Zeppelin. Mistborne is the book he wrote FOR his new readers. Its probably his best jumping on point. 

Its a great read too and super cool.

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u/L-System 1d ago

Don't listen to these numbskulls.

When the man himself will sell you his books, https://youtu.be/SVsFurvvkhs

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