Game Narrative Summit: It's Not in the Writer's Manual: A Q&A Session for New Writers

It's Not in the Writer's Manual: A Q&A Session for New Writers

Key Concepts: Game writing, narrative design, freelance work, interdisciplinary collaboration, player agency, pacing, branching narrative, world-building, soft skills, communication, creative process, AI in narrative.

Introduction

The session is a Q&A for new writers, focusing on practical advice and insights not typically found in writing manuals. The panelists are experienced game writers, narrative designers, and editors from various backgrounds (AAA, Indie, mobile).

Panelist Introductions

• Toya Christen Finley: Writer, editor, narrative designer, game designer, consultant. Works on AAA, mobile, Indie, and kids games. Author of The Game Narrative Toolbox, Freelance Video Game Writing, and Branching Story.
• Michelle KF: Game writer, editor, narrative designer with Narrative Co-op, Tail Spinner. Focuses on narrative outsourcing. Specializes in romance and sex in video games. Author of a book on sex in games.
• Evan Narcisse: Senior writer at Brass Lion Entertainment (working on an anime-influenced third-person action RPG). Journalist in recovery, transitioned from comics to games and animation. Credits include Rise of the Black Panther, Miles Ste Media 38th Anniversary Special, Batman Gotham Knights Gilded City, Ms. Morales game, War for Wanda expansion, and consulting on Gotham Knights.
• Emily Short: Freelance narrative designer working on a AAA project. Former creative director at Fail Better Games (Fallen London, Sunless Skies, Sunless Sea). Interested in narrative systems and underlying tech, including experimental AI.
• Nessa Canon: Games writer and narrative designer, primarily in the Indie space (Waves of Steel, Endoparasitic, Only Cans, Star Trucker). Passionate about branching narrative and Twine.
• Adonna Ned: Games writer and narrative designer. Currently writing for Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match 32. Also involved in games research on player interaction in virtual environments.

Transitioning from Prose to Game Writing

• Experiential Texture: Games prioritize mechanical experiences (button presses, jumps) over narrative. Words support the mechanics, not the other way around.
  • Evan Narcisse: "Games are different than Pros media...people are showing up for a different kind of experiential texture...what does this button press do? What does this where does this jump take me?"
• Multidisciplinary Approach: Narrative design involves collaboration with level designers, art team, and audio team. Storytelling vectors include ambient NPCs, set decoration, and environmental storytelling.
  • Evan Narcisse: "The words that you might want to get the ideas and plot beats that you might want to get through character dialogue, you might have to embed somewhere else."
• Careful Promises: Prose in games is "loadbearing," providing clues about player actions. Avoid off-hand details that players might interpret as commitments.
  • Emily Short: "You can accidentally make promises to players or say things that they think are going to be promised."
• Pacing: The amount of text a player can handle at once is much lower in games than in prose.
  • Nessa Canon: "The amount of text that a player can handle at once is so much lower than a Pros page or or a blog post or anything like that."
• Player Agency: Players are telling their own story, and the writer is a facilitator. Gameplay itself is a form of storytelling.
  • Toya Christen Finley: "When you're writing for a game...they don't care about your story, they're telling their story and you are a facilitator to help them tell their story."
• Player Motivation: Consider the player's motivation to act, not just the character's.
  • Michelle KF: "You have to think almost in terms of not just what is my character's motivation but like what is the player's motivation to do things."
• Visual Implications: Be aware of the workload created for other departments by visual descriptions in the writing.
  • Michelle KF: "Having an an understanding that the things that you write visually um can actually make for a lot of work and be a a lot more difficult to do than you might expect."
• Constraints: Be aware of constraints from other teams (art, design) and how they affect the narrative.
  • Adonna Ned: "We only have space for one boss fight in this game and you need to do all the narrative climactic stuff in this one boss fight."
• Unexpected Rewrites: Be prepared for significant narrative changes due to budget or other constraints.
  • Emily Short: "Imagine writing Pros when suddenly your editor comes in and it's like for Budget reasons we have cut chapter 2 to 5 you've got like a day to make the rewrites."

Unexpected Skills and Tasks

• Understanding Communication Styles: Adapt communication to different learning styles.
  • Toya Christen Finley: "Understanding the people you're working with, their communication and reading Styles because all brains learn differently."
• Flowcharts and Spreadsheets: Use visual tools to map out player arcs and world states.
  • Evan Narcisse: "I never thought I was going to spend so much time in Excel or equivalent programs in my life."
• Voice Direction: Provide context and guidance to voice actors during recording sessions.
  • Adonna Ned: "As a games writer you're going to be the source of Truth for all the narrative stuff."
• Business Skills: In Indie development, writers may need to handle pitching, investor relations, and marketing.
  • Emily Short: "I also needed to learn a whole bunch of extra business things that I had never anticipated."
• Soft Skills: Skills like youth coaching can be surprisingly useful for managing client expectations.
  • Nessa Canon: "Getting to the bottom of what people want in a way that feels very collaborative and very kind is something that I find myself doing way more than I thought I would do."
• Character Length Limits: Be mindful of character limits for dialogue boxes.
  • Michelle KF: "What I didn't realize how much of it was actually things like character length of a line."
• "What If" Scenarios: Anticipate player actions and plan for edge cases.
  • Michelle KF: "Having to dig down into the into our creative ability to ask like what if and specifically turn it to what if the player does this."

Structuring Narrative Design for High Agency

• Tools Not Fully Developed: Current tools may not fully support high-agency, emergent narratives.
  • Evan Narcisse: "The tools aren't there yet."
• Human Agency Still Needed: Human writers are needed to define the "buckets" of possibility and connect them narratively.
  • Evan Narcisse: "You're going to need to think about what the possibility spaces are how to connect through the rest of your narratives."
• World State Mapping: Focus on understanding the world state and mapping story moments to different states.
  • Emily Short: "How do we understand the world state of what's possible in this game...creating an entire sort of world story space in which things can happen."
• Space-Oriented Approach: Use a space-oriented approach to graphing and thinking about the narrative, rather than a linear one.
  • Emily Short: "A lot of it is about that very kind of um space oriented rather than linear oriented um approach to to graphing and thinking about it."

First Steps for Non-Narrative Comedy Writers

• Project-Specific Skills: Identify the skills needed for specific game types (hero shooter, open world, visual novel).
  • Evan Narcisse: "Knowing what you're going to need to bring to the table um about the kind of games that uh a studio or a team might be making like is is the first step."
• Character Profiles: Create character profiles to workshop skills.
  • Evan Narcisse: "Let me come up with like character profiles for like five or six characters."
• Bite-Sized Delivery: Practice delivering character insights succinctly.
  • Evan Narcisse: "How do you sketch out character um texture like in succinct ways?"
• Game Mechanics: Understand how the team's skill set relates to game mechanics.
  • Adonna Ned: "Knowing like what your team skill set is and how that's going to relate to the mechanics that you can make in the game is very important."
• Twine Experimentation: Use Twine to experiment with branching narrative and pacing.
  • Nessa Canon: "Open up twine and mess around...especially for comedy writers because comedy I I hate to like be like pacing again but comedy is really good pacing."
• Foundational Storytelling: Understand the fundamentals of good characters, story, and world-building.
  • Toya Christen Finley: "They just need to understand foundational storytelling before even you know trying to write a story."
• Consultants: Consider hiring experienced narrative designers as consultants.
  • Michelle KF: "There are often options where you can say bring in a more experienced uh narrative designer or gamew writer as a consultant."
• Start Small: Avoid ambitious projects like "Balder's Gate 4" at the beginning.
  • Nessa Canon: "Start small do not make balers gay four you will be miserable."
• Jackbox Games: Study Jackbox Games for examples of successful comedy in games.
  • Adonna Ned: "Maybe checking out specifically the jackbox games because there are a lot of funny."

Generating Creative Ideas

• Understand Your Brain: Identify how your brain works best (audiovisual, auditory, etc.).
  • Toya Christen Finley: "Really understanding how your brain works."
• Environmental Factors: Experiment with different environments (darkness, silence) and activities (running, listening to music).
  • Toya Christen Finley: "I like it completely dark late at night where I can paast back and forth listening to music."
• Floor Time: Dedicate time to lay down in silence and think about stories.
  • Adonna Ned: "I need like my floor time where I like lay down in complete silence and just think about like the stories I'm trying to like make."
• Anime: Watch anime for inspiration.
  • Adonna Ned: "I watch a lot of anime."

Conclusion

The Q&A session provided actionable advice for new game writers, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, understanding player agency, and adapting writing styles to the unique demands of game development. The panelists stressed the need for continuous learning, experimentation, and self-awareness in the creative process.