Matthew Seiji Burns (Eliza) on Our Connection to Technolgy and the Allure of Interactive Fiction

Origin Story

Matthew Seiji Burns is a writer, director, composer, and game designer. With the help of Zachtronics game studio, he created Eliza a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it.

Prior to Eliza, Burns worked on a variety of games. He’s the creator of the interactive fiction projects Apology Simulator, The Writer Will Do Something, and The Arboretum. He’s also worked with Zachtronics to write and compose for titles such as EXAPunks, Opus Magnum, and more.

Burns has also worked as a producer at Treyarch, Bungie, and 343 Industries on titles such as Halo 3 & Halo ODST.

We talk with burns about our complicated, sometimes worrying, relationship to computers and why he's attracted to interactive novels.

Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp

Check out Matthew's website here.

Learn more about Eliza here.

Try out this recreation of Eliza chatbot here.

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Cover art and website design by Melody Hirsch

Origin Story original score by Ryan Hopper