DZ-126: Secrets and Clues

Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure!

“Getting information puts your character in danger. And danger rewards your character with information." — One of three ideas we steal from game design in this episode. In this two part series, we talk about how secrets, clues and hidden information motivate characters and may (or may not) help you plot from a character perspective. Part One (this episode) looks at WAKE UP DEAD MAN; while Part Two looks at SIDE EFFECTS, and the pilot episode of SHRINKING.

The other two (related) ideas are:

Landmark information (characters just have it), Secret (they know it's there, need to unlock it), and Hidden (invisible until they pay the cost)

Narrative velocity — are characters pushed forward or are they pulled forward?

To that end, in this episode Stu, Chas and Mel start with the murder mystery (ostensibly the easier deep-dive): Rian Johnson’s WAKE UP DEAD MAN. But this is a complex film made even more complex by being a dual-protagonist film. Uhuh. Benoit Blanc is pulled through the story by his need to solve the case; Father Judd pushed through, against his will, to prove his innocence. Breaking down how that plays out — and why it matters for the kind of escalation each character can sustain — is the heart of the episode.

And inevitably we go on some tangents: pointers, plants, and underpinnings (from our Everything Everywhere All At Once episode) fair play in locked-room mysteries, Narrative POV (as always) and node-based plotting and what dungeon-crawl game design has to do with writing a web of clues.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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→ Read the transcript for this episode.

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"Information puts players in danger and danger rewards characters with information, right? That's kind of the loop with like thriller game design." — Stu Willis @ 00:05:40

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CHAPTERS

00:00:00 – Cold Open

00:00:18 – What do we mean by Secrets and Clues?

00:04:17 – › Landmark, hidden, and secret information defined

00:08:10 – › Narrative velocity as push and pull for characters

00:13:22 – WAKE UP DEAD MAN

00:17:56 – › Key learnings preview: push-pull and narrative velocity

00:32:33 – › Mapping character awareness of secrets through WAKE UP DEAD MAN

00:58:21 – › Distinguishing secrets, clues, and hidden information

01:13:17 – › Benoit Blanc's character arc and the choice of grace

01:22:50 – KEY LEARNINGS & WRAP UP

01:24:22 – › Character drives how secrets are hidden and revealed

01:25:34 – › Narrative velocity and escalating stakes reveal character

FILMS

WAKE UP DEAD MAN (2025) — (w) Rian Johnson

SCRIPTS

Study the script: WAKE UP DEAD MAN (2025) — Rian Johnson

LINKS

Read: DIY & dragons: Landmark, Hidden, Secret

Read: The Alexandrian » Advanced Node-Based Design

Read: Ascii Dreams: The Quest for Quests (Part 1)

Read: Ascii Dreams: The Quest for Quests (Part 2)

Read: Mel's KNIVES OUT: A Rose by Any Other Name Would Not Clue Us In

EPISODES IN THE SECRETS AND CLUES SERIES

DZ-126: Secrets and Clues

DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation

RELATED EPISODES

DZ-90: Setups & Payoffs in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2026/dz-126/