The first time I met Devinne Moses in person was on one of those sunny but sharply cold GDC days at the Yerba Buena Park. He was sitting with a friend of mine and I popped in to their conversation circle.

He had an aura of peace and calm about him which is rare at GDC (and in life generally). I was impressed. Shortly thereafter I found out that this laidback individual was also in the midst of an unbelievable project: putting out 12 narrative games in 12 months. I was shocked, I was amazed, I was awed—and maybe a part of me wondered if he’d really make it all the way to the end.

I watched as every month, he put out a new game (most alongside collaborating artist Estelle Stanilescu), never fizzling out or making excuses. It was an incredible, Herculean feat. Yes, these are short games, but… you try making 12 short games in one year! I spent the majority of the last year writing one short story.

When the project was finally complete I knew I had to reach out to Devinne and ask him to write about his experience for Narrative News, and he agreed! Below is a short review of his 2025. He kept dev logs so there are excerpts from each month included. It gives an interesting glimpse into the experience. If you’d like to dive into the games as well, you can find them on the Vine Moss website. They are also being published on Steam under the title Imagine We Were Human in June as one streamlined package. Wishlist available now.

January 2025 - In Time On Distance

A series of speed date conversations between two people willing to try and connect

From the Retrospective: “In Time, On Distance is the first ever game I charged money for, which is equally terrifying and fulfilling. I am incredibly proud of this game and what it means in the grand scheme of things for me and this studio, and I am constantly reminding myself of how much patience and effort is required for this long journey ahead.”

I set the bar for my studio with In Time, On Distance, especially with all the features I created for games down the line. I created a dialogue management system, established an art direction pipeline, and wrote many, many dialogue lines.

February 2025 - Doppelspeak

The ebb and flow of a difficult conversation, a study of what’s spoken and concealed, hidden or revealed

From the Retrospective: It’s hard to make the right decisions and find time to address all aspects of game development within a month - this medium is vast and fruitful but a daunting beast when it comes to the different challenges and pathways a developer can come across.

This was my sophisticated way of saying, “This is a dumb idea and I’m so behind.” Doppelspeak provided me with more hurdles than I could count, with bugs that kept me coding late into the night. Even then, I found a way to release the second game of the year, and this early test of resilience was just what I needed to face the upcoming months.

March 2025 - MND Anatomy

Amari Mallory’s mind-bending night, post dinner date

From the Retrospective: “I was extremely excited by this story and its cast of characters, but that excitement didn’t translate to an easy or consistent flow of dialogue lines.”

Delaying narrative tasks became a consistent pattern throughout this journey. I had to challenge my perfectionist habits and write through narrative paralysis while balancing a project’s other design tasks. I ended up with a witty and endearing story as a reward for my perseverance!

April 2025 - Hold On

A game poem on hugging and holding on

From the Retrospective: “This Vignette Break was a gentle, abstract meditation on loss that disrupted my intensive development process and brought welcoming energy for the journey ahead.”

Hold On was planned as a shorter, textless game to mentally reset after what felt like a sprint through three text-heavy narratives. To design and direct a game filled with heart and very few words was undeniably refreshing - like soup for the soul!

May 2025 - Remember Me Before Andromeda

A collection of memories and musings from a regretful man, told from the stars above

From the Retrospective: “I can’t wait for these games to get weirder, more polished, and more mechanically intricate as the year goes on…”

This is the sound of a refreshed, inspired developer! May’s game was a departure from the text-heavy games before it. These mini interactive moments - drawn from personal memories - felt engaging and genuine, and my emphasis on experimentation brought new energy to the rest of the year’s games.

June 2025 - Seconds Between Summer

A gentle swim through time, past and present

From the Retrospective: “The distinct narrative structure of this game required a different method for tracking… I utilized a tried-and-true tool to accomplish this goal: the spreadsheet.”

Seconds Between Summer acts like a point-and-click mystery game à la The Case of The Golden Idol. With several clues to track, plus different environments, characters, and a first-time collaboration with an artist, using a spreadsheet (rather than my go-to software Twine) was as much of a necessity as it was a welcomed change to my writing process.

July 2025 - After Wonder

An anniversary night made possible through a wondrous arcade cabinet

From the Retrospective: “There were a fair share of stumbling blocks for this game… I should have set the story in place before building out the arcade cabinet, but I let my interest in the shiny new game UI take precedent over the familiar but essential narrative components.”

During production, After Wonder’s story drifted in and out of focus because of my excitement for other aspects of the game. This resulted in rushed writing, narrative pivots at the end of the month, and overflowing stress I could have prevented with proper planning. I love this game, but it took a lot of my July to get it ready for release.

August 2025 - Liminal Strangers

A game poem about unspoken desire for connection in close spaces

From the Retrospective: “We move so fast. We pass comfort in strangers. We walk through the same unknown spaces. Slow down and say hi to someone new.”

This game was another rest stop between three-game sprints, yet it stands out as the most visually ambitious project of the group. I digitally separated 150+ background pieces across three different levels of digital paint, pixel art, and hand-crafted felt from our collaborating artist. This wistful quote captures a strong thematic throughline for Vine Moss Games, and I wanted to pull out all the stops for this textless mosaic.

September 2025 - Incoherence

A collection of small encounters for a man limited in language

From the Retrospective: “I’m proud and happy with the short stories I got to share in INCOHERENCE, but I know I had a lot more intended for the game’s narrative than what was released.”

I remember how stressed I felt during this project last September. I missed my internal narrative deadlines, and I spent a few days in October catching up and trying to revive the overarching narrative I had planned for this game. It honestly didn’t come together in the end, but I learned to make peace with what I made and release it to the world. The world has been very kind to it since.

October 2025 - No Room For Sharks

Anna’s attempt at escaping her nightmarish family through a series of rooms

From the Retrospective: “this game is about a woman that flees her family, yet her family returns in her dreams much too often, hurling insults and inflicting emotional wounds… each family member was an opportunity to craft a truly menacing character that pushes the protagonist’s buttons in different ways. It flips the script on familiar horror games, and allowed me to approach writing in a different way than I have been so far this year.”

This quote still rings true. No Room For Sharks is the darkest game I made in 2025, and it was a unique challenge to design and write cruel, disturbed characters like these. Each dialogue line was carefully crafted, and I hope players felt a bit of a chill as they came across each family member.

November 2025 -Within Rotation

Chance Encounters... A Turn Away

From the Retrospective: “Meet 8 strangers… distinct in their personality archetypes. Discover unique conversations as Within Rotation shines a light on universals experienced in life: fate and friendship.”

I loved creating strong personalities for the previous game so much that I kept the trend going and made a bunch more! This game was energizing for my writing, and it reminded me that fun-loving characters often brought fun to my entire development process

December 2025 - We Disentangled One Day

A game poem about unraveling an entrenched relationship

From the Retrospective: “The final vignette break and final game of the year is here. We Disentangled One Day shows the unraveling necessary after a relationship runs its course.”

By this point, after an entire year of rigorous game-making, I didn’t have much to reflect on for this game. Whether it was exhaustion, the winter season, or letting this game simply speak for itself, my initial thoughts on this game are lost in the past. If anything, I very much like We Disentangled One Day now!

There’s so much I could talk about regarding these games, this massive decision to embark on this journey, and my growth as a creative person. It wasn’t all perfect - as some of the devlog excerpts highlight - but I will always be proud of the step I took to make strange narrative games about what makes us human.

Vine Moss Games helped me travel and attend different conferences and expos, meet so many designers and supporters of experimental narrative work, and share my story to students and veteran designers alike - Narrative News readers especially! Thank you Rose for the support and the space to reflect on these games, and I hope everyone reading feels a little more inspired to take that risk and make the narrative game(s) you want to see in the world!

Thank YOU, Devinne! I am certainly inspired, even though I know for a fact my pace is a mite slower than yours. I think one of the lessons I’ve taken away from Devinne’s journey is to make more small things. Better to have a bunch of small finished projects than one large, sprawling forever unfinished beast.

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers. We’ll be back mid-month with resources, jobs, and opportunities listings.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an unannounced AAA game. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup twice a month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Hello all!

The job market in games, particularly for narrative designers, continues to be awful, with layoffs of many extremely talented and experienced writers (including some very talented former colleagues from Pixelberry, where I started my games journey). Even Brenda and John Romero say they’ve never seen it be quite this bad, and they were around for the 80s crash. But, on that cheerful note… at least there are quite a few new job and internship listings this month. Here’s hoping that one of the jobs or opportunities below is a good fit for you!

jams + comps

• (No) Dialogue Jam accepts submissions until May 1st. This year, you can make an interactive fiction game that features only dialogue, or NO dialogue at all. Intriguing.

• Make sure to read and vote for your favorite Spring Thing entries!

events

• Narrascope, the one and only North American narrative-focused games conference, will run June 12th to 14th in Albany, New York. Shameless plug: I will be speaking! On making a career in narrative design, what else?

• If you’re in New York, check out this IGDA talk: Marissa Koors on game editing, April 21st.

• Note: Ludonarracon will not be a spring event this year! We’ll have to wait until October.

resources

• Kelsey Beachum talks about writing Outer Wilds (the best game ever?) on The Examined Game podcast with Steven Lake.

• Check out Danny Homan’s views on entering the industry in these wild, AI-crazed times.

• In case you weren’t aware, Amir Satvat has created this amazing game jobs resource that updates every few days. A new version just came out and it. is. helpful.

opportunities

• Black Tabby, the geniuses behind Slay the Princess, are starting a publishing arm! And from the sound of it, they’ve got a great ethos about publishing.

jobs

• Narrative Design Intern at TapBlaze LA-based. “This is a 10 week internship where you’ll work directly with the game and design teams to ideate, write, and refine in-game dialogue, event arcs, and character moments.”

• Game Writing Intern at Gamexcite Germany-based. “We are looking for a motivated intern to actively support us in the area of game writing for at least 3 months, if possible even longer as a permanent member of the team!”

• Quest Designer Intern at Guerrilla Games Netherlands-based. “The discipline at Guerrilla has four pillars: narrative design (not writing), level design, visual scripting, and encounter design.”

• Writer at Digimancy Remote but EU hours. “It's a paid, fully remote position on a B2B contract for at least the duration of the project (2+ years).”

• Game Script Writer at Jalan Journey Singapore-based. “Inspired by JudgeSim, ‘In Confidence’ is a narrative-driven simulation game where players step into the role of a youth counsellor at a fictional early intervention centre.”

• Game Writer at GSC Game World Remote EU or UA possible (with business trips) “We are looking for a talented Game Writer to join our narrative team and help craft compelling stories within the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe.”

• Voice Over (VO) Writer at Hazelight Remote possible within CET +2 “We’re looking for a freelance Voice Over (VO) Writer to collaborate with us on an ongoing, flexible basis.”

• Quest Designer at Blackbird Interactive (12 mo. contract) Remote within Canada. “Blackbird Interactive is looking for an experienced Quest Designer to help build and deliver high-quality narrative content for an established science fiction universe.”

• Narrative Designer & Writer (Contract) at Icefall Interactive Nelson, Canada-based. “Work with multidisciplinary team members to help define and deliver on the creative vision.”

• Narrative Designer at ARVORE (VR startup) Remote within Sao Paolo. “ARVORE seeks a creative NARRATIVE DESIGNER to design the narrative elements of our experiences and to champion story within the development process.”

• Narrative Designer at Tentworks Interactive Bengaluru, India-based. “This role will be responsible for creating the narrative structure, writing screenplay, dialogues and assisting with implementation of cutscenes / quests inside the game engine (Unity).”

• Narrative Designer at Mad Head Games Remote possible. “As Game Writer, you will be responsible for content development of significant scope and complexity.”

• Narrative Designer - New Project at Magic Tavern Remote. “As a Narrative Designer at Magic Tavern, you will be the primary architect of our game’s universe during the crucial Scripting Phase.”

• Scriptwriter (Assassian’s Creed) at Ubisoft Quebec City, Canada-based. “As a Scriptwriter on the Assassin’s Creed Franchise at Ubisoft Quebec City, you will help shape the narrative heart of the game.”

• Senior Creative Writer (World of Tanks: HEAT) at Wargaming Warsaw, Poland-based. “Wargaming is looking for a Senior Creative Writer with outstanding English skills to join our team.”

• Lead Writer at Guerrilla Games Amsterdam-based. “Our writers are driven to push the boundaries of storytelling in games.”

• Lead Writer - Project Vanguard at Torpor Games Berlin-based. “The Lead Writer is the primary creative authority for writing on Suzerain: Project Vanguard.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Duolingo Seattle-based. “We’re looking for a Narrative Designer to add delight and depth to our characters.”

• Narrative Lead at Turtle Rock Remote within North America. “This role is ideal for someone who is extremely creative, well organized, and hands-on in all narrative related aspects.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Virtuos Shanghai-based. “Lead and mentor a pod of narrative designers across projects.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an upcoming AAA project. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Ashe Cove, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup twice every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

I adore a good craft book.

I love to hoover up narrative tools that can improve my writing and design skills. However, most of the time I find that I am reading a book where one good kernel of advice is stretched out over a hundred or so pages. The page to wisdom ratio is not ideal. Imagine my delight at seeing the release of The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope—over a hundred short essays on games writing, collated by one of my favorite all-time narrative designers, Jon Ingold.

It was, as the kids say, a must-cop. So, cop I did—and it did not disappoint. I’ve already instituted a few nuggets of wisdom in my writing practice, and plan to re-read the essays for inspiration regularly. Plus, it’s interactive. At the end of each essay there are branches leading you to other related essays. It’s a delightful mechanic that feels so fun you can’t believe more books don’t employ it. Classic Ingold. As I said, I’m a massive fan.

Then I once again realized I have a newsletter and can simply ask one of my favorite narrative designers for an interview—and he agreed! It was an interview that left me positively beaming. Read on to gather even more pearls of narrative design wisdom.

Ed. note: Interview edited for clarity and length.

The book you collated, The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope, has kind of an addictive quality to it. You can't really just stop at one essay. It's so similar to how I feel about Inkle games. Do you have any tricks for keeping people reading compulsively?

I think the reality, if we're honest, is it's mostly about not overestimating the attention span of your audience. When we were outlining the idea for the book, partly I wanted to make sure that none of the contributors were doing too much work because I wasn't expecting anyone to make any money and writers do too much unpaid labor anyway. But partly I wanted to show by example that it's possible to say something interesting in a very short space of time.

I think also, quite honestly, there's a kind of balance when you're writing anything, whether it's an article, whether it's a game—between how much you can convey and how much trust you've earned from the reader in the first place. I think that balance is quite often somewhat more conservative than people realize.

A screenshot of Sorcery! (an Inkle game)

Text is something we engage with primarily on a visual level first. You see a wall of text, and your brain says that's going to take me about this long to read, and that's before you actually go into the words. You do it very quickly, but it does happen.

When I'm writing, I'm always thinking about the presentation of the text that's coming up and trying to keep things so they fit on a single screen or a single panel or in just one box. The number of lines is hugely important to me because it's about the rhythm and how much you're asking of the reader in this given moment. I never stop thinking about pacing, timing, momentum, and that kind of sense of ‘have I earned the player's attention in this paragraph?’

I think you feel that as the player. You feel very respected and that's common to all of the games that I love. You feel like, ‘oh, the designer has put a lot of work into this and they've thought about every single moment. So I'm going to play and read every single moment just as intently.’

I often think about improv theater as a kind of model for the interaction design. So if you're doing an improv scene with someone, you can't just start talking for 10 minutes and leave the other person hanging. That's extremely uncool. But you also can't offer nothing. You have to offer just enough to throw the Frisbee back to them. And then they catch it and then they throw it back to you. And the fact that the Frisbee keeps going is the thing that makes improv interesting. It's not what individual people actually say. And I think it's the same thing with games. It's the fact that it keeps trading back and forth that is the delightful aspect of it, not actually the virtuosic performance of the writer or the incredible play of the player.

That leads to another question I was going to ask. Are there things like that—like improv, or maybe tabletop games—that are good practice for a narrative designer?

Having spoken to about a 100 narrative designers recently about this kind of thing… I think it's very dependent on the person, in reality. There are narrative designers out there who really think about cinema and film and the language of film. When I was in the AAA industry about 20 years ago, everyone was like, well, you need to watch these seven movies and then you can be a narrative designer. And I was a bit like, well, okay, fine, but like actually for me, books are incredibly important and I think about them a lot.

80 Days—a classic story with an interactive steampunk twist.

I don't think there's a particular art form which is inherently good for games, but I do think that thinking about other media is how we get to think about games better. Because games are such an amorphous amalgam of different things that if we just play games [for inspiration]—it doesn't work. We need to be thinking about media where the writing part is more crafted and valued and considered so that we can see how to bring those elements into games. If we just start from games, we build space invaders and forget to put a new story in it.

This is a bit of a funny question, but have you ever seen the 'Narrative of video games’ article on Wikipedia? It cites a lot of people saying that games are not a compelling medium for storytelling. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that partly because that page needs some quotes to counterbalance that opinion.

Firstly, I don't think there has ever been a medium, which isn't a compelling mechanism for stories as long as it's told in the right way. You can tell a really compelling story on the back of a box of cereal, if you know what you're doing.

As for what kind of fascinated me about [interactive fiction] from quite an early age… it’s the sense of creating a very real instant in time. I like the idea that what we're doing in game stories is we're sort of luring players into believing that in this moment anything can happen.

An instant in time in Heaven’s Vault.

I get the most excited when you're in a conversation with a character in a game, you’re five or six choices deep, and then a prompt will come up where you really want a particular outcome. It’s being on the cusp of the moment that I find really exciting.

When someone is enjoying a game of blackjack, or a game of poker, they are feeling exactly the same feeling. I want this card to be an ace. I hope it's an ace. I think it's going to be an ace. And that moment when you turn the card over and you find out whether it is or not. Only, I would argue that narrative gives us an enormous spectrum of ways to do that, whereas cards give us a small spectrum of ways to do that. So narrative is just an extension of the same thing.

I'm pretty cowardly as a player and left to my own devices I will pick the safe options. But I do feel with your games that I am gently guided into doing more interesting things, is that accurate?

I think in terms of what we're trying to do across the games in general, it’s moving people away from this idea that when you go into a game world, you're you. Personally, I find that boring as hell because we're stuck being ourselves all the time anyway.

For me, the point of stepping into another person's shoes is to see what they see and to feel what they feel. And if that's just constantly being a good and wonderful person and having everything fall into place around you, what the hell kind of world is that? I think that's even possibly kind of dangerous to encourage this idea that if you just play by the rules and you're good, then everything will work out fine because, well, it isn't true. And it definitely doesn't speak to the problems that are in the world that are real and we should recognize.

Overboard! encourages you to bend the rules.

I'm much, much more interested in saying, here is a person in a time, in a place, in a situation, and you are going to have to do the best you can at being that person. And that will come with challenges and risks and rewards and moments where you get to do something thrilling that you could never do in real life and moments when you're completely stuck and trapped because that's the reality of life for that person. Expelled! and Overboard! are both quite feminist games, essentially, with a strong thesis about how women, especially in the early half of the 20th century, really have to play the system quite cleverly to succeed within it.

When you’re planning a game, do you start with a meaning, like the feminist meaning in Overboard! or Expelled!?

I've never been able to start with a meaning and generate a story from it. It ends up too constructed, too forced. I kind of lose the thrill of it. I think for me, one of the joys of writing is discovering the meaning in everyday things. So, for writing something like Overboard!, I started with the idea of wanting to do something that was kind of Agatha Christie-like. I thought a boat was a good setting because it was compact and limited. I like the title. And I like the idea of this character who is very much a kind of 1940s femme fatale Lauren Bacall kind of character, but humanized and the joke is that everybody thinks she's this devil in a dress, but actually she's just making it up as she goes along and she's in a state of panic the whole time. And I thought that was funny. Then you just start writing that and seeing where it goes. After a while, you look at it and find the meaning emerging. And then you can reinforce that, and you can go back through the narrative and make sure that everything is supporting the thesis that you've discovered.

Similarly, when you plan things out, do you organically let the branches flow or are you more of a planner?

I'm the first one. I'm very organic about it. I usually have a sense in my head of where I can't allow the branches to go. I cannot allow you to stab Miss Mulligatawney in Expelled! because I need her to still exist. Okay, fine. So that's off the table. But in terms of the moment to moment, what I tend to do is I try to just be in the moment and say, well, what do I want to say? What would this character want to say? What's reasonable, what's realistic, what's fun? What expresses the different emotional reactions that someone might have? How do I give the player the sense that there's variety but focus in the choices that they have? And then what does the other character say in response to that? So I tend to organically explore the space of the conversation, but not organically explore the shape of the plot, if you see what I mean.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for your responses! [Additional gushing about how 80 Days by Ingold and Meghna Jayanth changed my life redacted].

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an upcoming AAA project. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Ashe Cove, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup at least once a month.

I didn’t make it to GDC this year, but thankfully the talented and thoughtful Jake Kriegman, narrative designer at Cold Iron Studios, was able to attend—and was happy to share some nuggets of wisdom. Thank you, Jake! I know we are all excited to feast on some concise bullet points.

But first! I need to shout out a few timely and interesting resources:

• Early-career games people, IGDA’s Questline program is currently open for applications. The deadline is March 27th. This program was formerly known as the Virtual Exchange, and is one hundred percent free. It pairs participants with an industry mentor and provides lots of cool talks and networking opportunities. I myself attended and the connections I made have lasted to this day! If you’re thinking about applying, definitely do.

• Related, the IGDA Game Writing SIG, headed up by Andrea Saravia Pérez, has created this amazing useful resource aggregation sheet.

Now, on to the GDC news!

Jake’s overall GDC takeaways

• The energy at GDC was mostly positive. Despite uncool shit like taking over the Yerba Buena Gardens and not doing a good job communicating that it was open to the public, folks that I spoke with reported having a fantastic time.

• Fantastic time aside, it seemed that everyone had it in the back of their mind, and often the forefront, that so many of our fellow devs were unable to attend this year. Attendance was down about a third (20,000 in 2026 vs 30,000 in 2025) which could be for many reasons but surely the finger needs to be pointed at ongoing international conflict and safety concerns due to people’s identity and/or ethnicity.

• For those of you thinking of going to GDC for the first time next year, prioritize depth of connections over breadth. Handing out your business card to 500 people will have meant nothing when they all throw it in the trash. Connect with people on a human level and you’ll find that networking (derogatory) feels less transactional, is easier, and is more rewarding. People don’t always remember what you talked about, but they always remember how they felt. Make sure that they felt valued.

Narrative Design Talks

Page to Booth: Table-Reading and Performance Recording Live Demo

Alexa Ray Corriea (Gearbox), Sam Maggs (Critical Role), Ben Starr (Independent), Jennifer Hale (Independent), Khris Brown (Vox Point LLC), Amanda Rose Smith (Independent)

• If you are anywhere involved in the chain of delivery for voice over, this talk is a MUST WATCH. It was a fantastic walkthrough step by step of how to diligently prep for table reads and subsequent recording sessions. Crucial to save everyone’s time and money.

• Best practices and etiquette for voice over sessions:

  • No arguing.

  • No interruptions.

  • No laughing (unless it’s supposed to be funny).

  • Take notes, and wait for feedback until the end.

  • Be judicious about who attends.

• Writers and directors, make sure you have time to connect prior to recording to go through the lore and design of the game.

• It’s so, so important that every single piece of feedback to the actor from the room is channeled through the director. An actor’s performance is heavily influenced by their comfort and it’s everyone’s job to make sure they are accommodated!

• Jennifer Hale and Ben Starr had fantastic performances reading a smutty Clive X Femshep script, but it was really clear just how much better their performances were when they were both reading together rather than separately as so many actors often are.

Turning a “Dead” Genre into a Breakout Hit: The Story Behind ‘Dispatch’

Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart (AdHoc Studio)

• AdHoc Studio’s Dispatch was a smash hit this year, and the talk reflected that as latecomers were turned away at the entrance due to the room being full.

• Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart walked through how they made key decisions, their failures and successes, and a little bit of the history of the studio.

• Typically in Telltale games story choices were about life and death. AdHoc wanted to create something that was more about hope than loss.

• Dispatch had many different art styles (even being a FMV game at the start) but landed on something that felt stylistically grounded to make the world feel real and relatable.

• Gameplay needed to be a ‘low-friction design’ which meant removing things like required QTEs, visible RNG that they tweaked on the back-end to feel more rewarding, and no right/wrong/failure states. AdHoc also removed silent options, as they knew from data that those options were chosen 1% of the time, typically because the timer ran out.

• If you want to dive more into Dispatch’s origin story and decisions but can’t wait for the GDC vault to open up, I recommend listening to the Game Maker’s Notebook Podcast Episode with Nick Herman.

Creating Player Expertise [Microtalks]

Monica Fan (Pipework Studio), Ian Schreiber (Independent), John Ryan (Independent), Michael Jones (Independent), Lauryn Ash (Stealth Startup)

• I walked in a little late to this one, but what I caught from Ian Schreiber were some great slides about preventing cognitive fatigue in players. Simplify mechanics, and don’t teach things you don’t need to.

• Lauryn Ash’s lessons on tutorials spoke to taking a player-driven approach to triaging information based on importance and urgency. Players should always know why they failed. One day she may release her game tutorial matrix back into the wild (help us out, Lauryn).

• Monica Fan’s points were very cogent. Tutorials don’t turn players into geniuses, and it’s all about finding the sweet spot between mastery and variety of skills that ensure a game isn’t too boring or challenging. Her final words were fantastic: “Ask less, give more, go deeper.”

• John Ryan spoke on narrative coherence, which he defined as keeping the player informed and invested in a game’s narrative. To focus the player’s attention, it is extremely important to create safe zones away from moment to moment gameplay. The genre’s expectations play a large part in how this can be done. Testing is very important to see why/when players get lost or disengaged.

• Michael Jones gave a fantastic talk about using audio to facilitate player expertise (despite tech issues preventing that audio from playing)! Through SFX that draws players to something they must interact with, to musical motifs that communicate environmental shifts or pacing changes, Michael showed how audio in Double Fine’s Keeper plays a vital role in developing player expertise.

Writing Games for a Distracted, Polarized, Media-Illiterate World

Adam Dolin (Independent), Alexa Ray Corriea (Gearbox)

• We live in a world that gets more and more polarized by the day, and one in which belts are being tightened and risks are being discouraged. Here are just some of the many, many takeaways from this fantastic talk about how to survive this climate:

  • Figure out what you want to say.

  • Let players participate in the meaning, rather than lecturing them.

  • Don’t try to please everyone.

  • Use data to defend your values (check out Adam Dolin’s core value quiz, better on mobile).

    • The talk cited this study about players who experienced Kara’s storyline in Detroit: Become Human had greater cognitive empathy for gendered violence victims.

  

  • Trust your audience to be capable of nuance.

  • Trust yourself and ignore any ‘discourse.’

  • Teach players to read between the lines.

  • Lean on the writer’s toolbox of skills (subtext, satire, analogies, etc.)

  • Evaluate your own ability to reflect critically on the games you play.

The Digital Red Pen: From Draft to Edit to Triage

Joshua Rubin (Subverse Interactive Narrative), Marissa Koors (Ape Law LLC), Diandra Anne Lasrado (iwot games)

• This talk was fantastic in displaying how editors are such a helpful but underutilized asset for narrative in games that can be leveraged to safeguard the player experience.

• In what certainly can be referred to as ‘Narrative QA,’ editors reduce the cost of re-records, act as a second brain for leads/directors, and help shape the details of the player’s experience and make those experiences meaningful.

• A good bit of this talk was also spent on how to fix narrative when you don’t have editors, here are some rapid-fire takeaways from that:

  • Cut exposition, focus on emotion.

  • Align the player and character motivation (better to change the character motive than the player).

  • Inject curiosity (and emotion in the process) with tools such as found narrative objects.

  • Write backwards, “players can’t X until Y until Z until etc.” Often this is easiest as a “who dun it” mystery.

Ed. note: Well, that was great. Maybe I don’t even need to go to GDC anymore! Maybe I just read Jake’s notes forever (if he’ll let me).

Narrative News will return with a new issue at the beginning of April. Until then—enjoy the nice spring-y air!

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an upcoming AAA project. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Ashe Cove, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

I judged a Columbia University game jam and all I got was Impressed

Actually, I also got a t-shirt, a keychain, and a sticker so thank you for that, Lion Jam!

I don’t know what I was expecting when I headed to the Lion Jam, because all I knew was that these students were likely very smart (Ivy League) but also potentially not pursuing games careers specifically (no games program at Columbia). What I found was an astonishing level of creative talent and a remarkably seasoned set of young developers many of who made their own engines?! I suppose I should’ve focused on the Ivy League part. Both the winning title and the runner-up had delightful depth of narrative theming, so I’d like to shout them out.

First up there’s SteelDusk, a beautiful mech game that employs Undertale-style battle mechanics and has a cool backstory.

Coming in second place was Eunice, a visual novel inspired by Doki Doki Literature Club that centered on a fascinating conundrum: would you still fall in love with someone if you knew your time together would kill them?

In fact, I’d recommend you check out all the games from the jam.

Is it time to finally get that MFA in games?

Ah, the perennial question: should I go back to school?

We’ve all been there. Wondering if it’d be worth to invest time and money into a specialized degree. Well, I bring answers. A wide array of them.

I’ve tapped into my network of games friends and colleagues to provide a collection of thoughtful quotes about why they chose the path they did, and whether or not they’d recommend it. It may not provide you with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but at least it’s food for thought!

Thank you very much to all who responded to my post on LinkedIn or my interpersonal pestering.

I attended a games program!

I chose to pursue an MFA in Game Design to improve my game design skills. I felt that my Computer Science degree didn’t prepare me for the games industry because it lacked design skills. Also, I knew that getting an MFA would open the door to teaching game design, which is more stable than a regular game development job.

I’m happy I got my MFA because it gave me structure and direction for approaching game design and another career opportunity in games.

I would only recommend a MFA if you are interested in teaching a subject in games and/or want to have an in-depth and academic overview of your game niche. My gaming niche was a mixture of narrative and game design and game programming hence a MFA was the way to go.

To me, education is important because it provides structure and direction for the subjects we want to pursue in games.

-Valencia Coleman, Gameplay Engineer and Adjunct Professor

MFA, Game and Interactive Media Design at Savannah College of Art and Design

I chose Game Design and specifically Narrative Design because writing was always my passion when I was a kid, but I've loved video games since then too. I've always wanted make games and share experiences with other people. Especially after I played Mass Effect and learned just how much narratives can impact play-throughs.

Something I'd recommend? That's tricky. I hate that gaming became a "have a backup plan" job, but it essentially has. I've never had a full time job in the industry and my jobs keep changing time and time again. It's not the steadiest industry and I've had more job scares than job successes. It's a real downer of an industry right now, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you've got a steady back up plan or until something changes.

-Lawrence Marable, Narrative Designer

MS, Game and Interactive Media Design at Full Sail University

I entered the game development industry first, then I got a degree in game design. From this perspective, I can say that while I did learn some new things in school, none of them were really that necessary to design games or to get a job (that being said, it was almost 10 years ago).

It definitely helped prepare me to teach game design at the university level (although my non-gaming MS is the one schools always ask about). I don't regret it, but I also don't see it as necessary.

For people who are only now entering the industry, I would say that a degree can be helpful, but it's just a small part of the work they will need to put in before their resume is strong enough to be noticeable to recruiters. That work is, in a sense, the great equalizer; even if financial realities don't allow someone to attend college, they can still get in through determination alone.

-Barbara Kciuk, Senior Narrative Designer

BA, Game Design, Wyższa Szkoła Europejska im. Ks. Józefa Tischnera

I don't think I would've made it so far without my degree. Being in a bit of a crucible surrounded by equally motivated and talented people accelerated my learning. And the alumni network opened doors.

-Jarory de Jesus, Founder & Director

MS, Interactive Entertainment, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

i got my mfa in game design at the nyu game center - and i chose to do it because i was coming off of spending some time at uchicago where i was studying / consulting regarding games as educational tools and was interested in reentering / growing my skillset in making games in addition to researching / analyzing them. i am incredibly glad i did - being at the game center absolutely made me a more engaged and intentional creator, and it also gave me the opportunity to discover my love for teaching through TAing, and even gave me, unbeknownst to me initially, the credentials i would need to begin my career as a professor in games, which is where i’ve landed now!

i quite literally could not be where i am if not for the game center at present and so am infinitely grateful and glad to have gotten my mfa in games!

-jd (vel) calvelli, Assistant Professor & Game Designer

MFA, Game Design at New York University

I did not attend a games program!

My degree focus on Old and Middle English helped me get my first job working on Crusader Kings. I think having unique niches is more valuable than standardised game education.

-Baudelaire Welch, Narrative Lead/Director

Never went to Uni, studied graphic design at college. Worked as a designer. Wanted to write comics. Got lucky with my first… kept writing. I left school with ‘meh’ results because I hated exams (I was bright enough). Everything I’ve achieved I’ve had to do without further education helping me beyond a 2 year BTEC in graphic design.

Had a burning desire to write… had to do it the hard way and learn around the job, writing comics, then writing games. Got enough projects and reputation under my belt to be considered experienced.

Now written for 2000AD, Rebellion, Steamforged Games, Warhammer, Bandai, Sqaure Enix, Wargaming, Supermassive Games, I’ve written for some big name Hollywood types too.

-Andi Ewington, Game Consultant and Narrative Designer

As you get older you begin to see that some of the doors you thought were open to you were, never really were. I always loved the aesthetic of an ivy-covered institution of higher learning but struggled with my ADHD in an academic setting. For me, being a working writer felt easier and more intuitive. Plus, I needed the money. So, I spent most of my twenties as a journalist before deciding to follow my dream of writing for games.

I admit to ogling the NYU Games MFA page many times, but with the aforementioned ADHD and the eye-watering cost, I vowed to try as hard as I could to become a narrative designer without an MFA, and if I didn’t manage to nab a job in a few years, I’d reconsider. Thankfully, I did land a job. Many, in fact. I jumped from QA to content design to where I am now—a narrative designer on a AAA game. In the end, I see my journey really never could’ve been any different— and I wouldn’t have wanted it to be. I’m not cut out for academia, but I can always visit an Ivy League, grab a coffee, and pretend to be Rory Gilmore for free.

-Me (Rose Behar), Narrative Designer

games degrees did not exist before, and by the time they existed i was already doing stuff. also i didn’t finish college because it cost money and i was spending time in class working on my first game. i realized my time was better spent actually working.

-Sam Eng, Game Developer

[Ed. note: no, he didn’t specify when ‘before’ was, this is Sam we’re talking about.]

There were a few reasons that I picked this direction. My love of games is what got me down the path of programming and computer science. But when it came to higher education, I decided to stick with a less narrow degree since even back in 2001 I knew the games industry was rough. There also weren’t as many good options for game degrees back then. Though I do remember looking into Digipen briefly.

When I graduated in 2005, I was again thinking practically and got a run-of-the-mill web development job. But after a decade of that I was feeling creatively unfulfilled. Luckily I had built up enough of a nest egg at that point that I could dramatically reduce my web development hours to dedicate time on my own to learning game development. It also helped finding a supportive community of other game developers here in New York.

At that point I did consider doing an MFA at the Game Center, but decided it wasn’t worth the cost given how many resources there were online and within my community. Also at this point I had figured out that I’d much rather work on my own games than get a job in the industry, working on someone else’s game. So the potential employment benefit of a degree wasn’t really there for me.

-Jonah Wallerstein, Game Developer

Resources

• Manny Hagopian posted a really cool look at an internal video he made to help get across the idea of the story of Highguard.

Opportunities

• Baby Ghosts is running a Cooperative Foundations program that offers two months of cooperative studio pre-formation education and development support for those in Toronto. Applications are still open until March 6th! Sounds like an amazing opportunity.

• Free webinar alert! “D6 Learning is inviting you to a live online event on Writing Short Stories for Video Games with experienced writer & narrative designer Anthony Jauneaud, whose credits include Night Call, A Plague Tale Requiem, Dordogne, Harmony: Fall of Reverie, and Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes.”

Jobs

• Narrative Design Intern at Balio Studio Belgium-based. “Only candidates currently enrolled in a school curriculum related to video game creation will be accepted.”

• Junior Narrative Designer at Volka Cyprus-based. “We are looking for a talented and motivated Narrative Designer to join our team and help expand the world of Taonga.”

• Writer at INTERIOR/NIGHT Remote within UK. “INTERIOR/NIGHT is looking for a writer based in the UK to join our narrative team.”

• Writer at Cubicle 7 Remote. “We’re looking for freelance writers who know and love The Laundry Files.”

• Story Writer at Melbot Studios Remote. “Melbot is looking for a seasoned comedy writer, ideally with experience in episodic indie animation and narrative design (It’s a lot to ask, but hey, if it’s you, we’re golden).”

• Story Writer at Eleon Co Remote. “Our team is hiring a full-time contributor to a video game writing team.”

• Narrative Designer at Jam City Remote. “We are looking for an experienced Narrative Designer to bring their expert writing and game design skills

  to help build a new game within our Narrative studio.”

• Narrative Designer at Respawn (Star Wars Jedi) Hybrid in a variety of North American locations. “Reporting to the Lead Dialogue Designer, we're looking for a Narrative Designer who will embrace our philosophy.”

• Narrative Designer at Stillfront (BitLife) Miami-based. “Is your sense of humor a bit off-the-wall? We're looking to expand our writing team at Candywriter.”

• Narrative Designer at Smoking Gun Interactive Vancouver-based. “As a Narrative Designer with Smoking Gun Interactive, you’re a talented, passionate individual with at least 3 years of industry experience in narrative design.”

• Narrative Designer at EA (Iron Man) Montreal-based. “In this role, you will work in close collaboration with the Narrative, Art and Mission teams.”

• Narrative Designer & Writer at Icefall Interactive BC-based. “Are you passionate about writing stories, creating compelling characters, constructing memorable scenes, and servicing the needs of the game before all else?”

• Senior Writer at TARA GAMING (The Age of Bharaat) Remote. “You will craft compelling dialogue, narrative documentation, and codex entries with minimal supervision.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Dambuster Studios UK-based. “You will take ownership of important narrative projects and drive them forward, ensuring a high-quality result.”

• Lead Writer at CD PROJEKT RED (Project Sirius) Boston, US-based. “CD PROJEKT RED is seeking a highly skilled and visionary Lead Writer to join our team working on Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Dambuster Studios UK-based. “Dambuster Studios - creators of […] Dead Island 2 - has an exciting opportunity for a Lead Narrative Designer.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Virtuos Shanghai-based. “Lead and mentor a pod of narrative designers across projects.”

• Head of Narrative and Design at Protagonists! Remote (within EU). “We're assembling our founding team and looking for a Head of Narrative & Design to own the quality and fun of our games.”

• Narrative Director at 2K Brighton, UK-based. “Hangar 13 is seeking an experienced Narrative Director to lead our Narrative team and collaborate across disciplines.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an upcoming AAA project. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Ashe Cove, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Manny Hagopian’s Nexus Theory

Last month, I popped over to the symposium part of Game Critics Awards (in the cold and sleet, no less) for the chance to see a few interesting talks. One, in particular, piqued my attention: ‘The Daily Show: TV Comedy is Different from Games Comedy,’ with Manny Hagopian, former narrative director at Respawn, alongside Daniel Radosh and Devin Delliquanti from The Daily Show.

While there were some interesting insights about comedy writing (including “a pun is not a good joke”), I was most fascinated by a games narrative theory put forward by Hagopian. He noted that great narrative design lies at the nexus of narrative, gameplay, and player. “Once you sync those,” he said, “you can accomplish anything.”

That may sound like pretty vague advice, but he gave an extremely helpful example from a game he’d worked on: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. At the beginning, Cal Kestis, the player character, can’t use his powers. Both Cal and the audience want to be able to use his Jedi powers, but he is in hiding from the Empire and cannot. The player and the player character are both frustrated, which at surface-level may seem contrary to how you’d like your player to feel, but it’s crucial to the next step of player-player character unification because it all builds to a single moment.

When Cal’s friend Prauf is in danger and Cal must use his powers to save Prauf, the player’s desire, the character’s desire, and the gameplay sync seamlessly. The player wants to be able to use the Force, Cal wants to be able to use the Force, and the player finally gets to use the Force—and for good reason.

From then on, the player and the player character continue to be in sync. The player has bought in, emotionally, and they share Cal’s struggles and successes as their own.

Designing for this kind of emotional-syncing moment is clever for multiple reasons. Not only is it a good way of thinking about fulfilling player fantasies, it also seems like this approach would encourage a more cross-team collaborative approach to design.

Anywho, just had to share! I know I’ll be tossing this into my narrative toolbox for future pitches.

Resources

• For those who weren’t able to make the free workshop, you can now view Trope Informed’s talks on Dialogue and Agency in Games online!

• In other exceptionally exciting content drops: ZA/UM has released a devcast on narrative!

Opportunities

• If you haven’t been able to nab a GDC pass but you’d like to, IFTF has some free conference passes to give out! Apply here before Feb. 7th.

• Exciting IF opportunity! During London Games Week there is a new side event called Strange Play taking place from April 18th and 19th at Theatre Deli in central London. Right now until February 15th, they are accepting submissions for experimental games to showcase, primarily narrative led games.

Jams and Competitions

• If you’d like to submit to the Spring Thing interactive fiction competition you must register your intent by March 1st.

• Submissions for the Text Adventure Literacy Jam open on March 1st.

Jobs

Contract Writer (3 months fixed) at KRAFTON Amsterdam-based (potentially remote possible) “We are looking for a Contract Writer to support the team working on PUBG: Black Budget, our new extraction shooter.”

Freelance Game Writer (romance) at Crazy Maple Studio Remote. “Chapters Interactive Stories is seeking experienced content writers, romance authors and narrative game designers to join our Paid Creator Program on a work-for-hire basis!”

Freelance Narrative Designer (3 month contract) at Ash Games Remote. “This is a narrative-heavy role ideal for someone who thrives in structural design, branching dialogue, and building lore-rich universes.”

Narrative Technical Designer at Cloud Imperium Manchester-based. “As a Narrative Technical Designer based in Manchester you will be a member of the Social Team helping in pushing the story side of Squadron 42.”

Narrative Designer at Jam City Remote. “We are looking for an experienced Narrative Designer to bring their expert writing and game design skills to help build a new game within our Narrative studio.”

Narrative Designer at Grid Games North Holland-based. “You will work closely with the Creative Director and the Design Team to ensure our world feels grounded and believable, staying true to established lore and world logic.”

Narrative Systems Designer at Epic Cary, NC, US-based. “Epic Games is looking for a character-focused Narrative Systems Designer to join our dynamic team.”

Narrative Game Designer at HandyGames Giebelstadt, Germany-based. “For our current in-house game project, which is set in a gothic-inspired science fiction world with a focus on story and combat.”

Mid/Senior Narrative Designer at Asobo Studio Bordeaux, France-based. French fluency necessary. “Sous la supervision de Clémentine, Lead Narrative Designer, tu évolueras au sein d’une équipe composée d’un Level Designer, d’un Level Artist et d’un Level Builder.”

Senior Narrative Designer at People Can Fly Montreal-based. “Take ownership of narrative structure, systems, and content from concept through implementation and iteration.”

Senior Game Writer at Frontier Cambridge, UK-based. “We’re looking for an experienced Senior Game Writer to join our internal writing team.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Stormind Games Remote. “We are on the lookout for an enthusiastic Senior Narrative Designer to join a highly motivated team.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Dambuster Studios Remote within UK. “Dambuster Studios - creators of the number one BAFTA-nominated smash hit Dead Island 2 - has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Narrative Designer.”

Lead Narrative Designer at Dambuster Studios UK-based. “Dambuster Studios - creators of the number one BAFTA-nominated smash hit Dead Island 2 - has an exciting opportunity.”

Lead Narrative Designer at Longdue UK-based. “We are seeking a talented Writer to help craft an immersive, multi-layered RPG experience for our computer RPG in its early stages.”

Principal Narrative Designer - Unpublished R&D Product at Riot Games LA, US-based. “As Principal Narrative Content Designer on the MMO team, you will help prove an innovative game concept in the early stages of development.”

Narrative Director at Hangar13 Brighton-based. “This is a unique opportunity to contribute to prestigious, story-driven IP alongside a team renowned for delivering world-class cinematic game experiences.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

A Day in the Life of a Narrative Designer

What does a narrative designer on a Triple-A project actually do every day? I can’t speak for everyone, but I can share the details of what I do. Mind you, due to the game I’m working on still being in development I will not share any real examples of its content — instead, I’ve made custom examples that show generally the sort of apps that narrative designers use, the format of our scripts, and the sort of schedules we have. Hopefully this will be instructive as I know there is a real lack of practical information on WHAT narrative designers do all day and HOW they do it. As I mentioned, I can’t speak for all narrative designers, but at least you’ll be able to see one writer’s day-to-day experience in this industry.

Subscribe now

Part I: Meetings

My day begins with meetings. There are the half-hour or less types: stand-ups, team-wide update meetings, playtesting kickoffs, 1:1s, and then there are the longer 45 min-to one hour types: cross-team syncs, reviews/line editing sessions, and brainstorms. The brainstorms are the most fun type of meeting — these are our writers rooms. On our game we have a narrative team of roughly five, and most days we meet to either sync or brainstorm. The brainstorm might be on a broad topic, like (fake example) ‘what is culturally important to this faction of space warriors?’ or it might be specific, if one writer is having trouble with an element of their story (‘why does she leave her mother behind when she could easily have brought her along?’) We employ a technique that my manager, the inimitable Rayla Heide, introduced in which we write out a bunch of ideas silently for 3-5 minutes and then take turns pitching our ideas, allowing for new ideas to pop up conversationally and jotting them down in turn. This helps to make sure that the quieter members of the team still have their voices heard.

I’ll often have 3-4 hours of meetings a day (the Principal Narrative Designer and Narrative Director have much more than this). On really quiet days I’ll only have about an hour of meetings. The trick is to cluster the meetings together as much as possible, so that you have some big blocks of time for writing. Which brings me to the next part of my job…

Part II: Writing

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I write every single day at my job. What kind of things do I write? Well, there are two main categories:

Briefs

Think of these like world-building lore you might craft for a TTRPG — it’s very similar (and that’s why the best practice you can get for being a narrative designer is running TTRPG games).

There are two main types of brief, in my experience: the ones written for other departments, which are generally shorter and more purpose-specific, and the narrative briefs, which are longer and provide more detailed lore.

A narrative brief might look a little something like the below, which I threw together using lore about the Jem’Hadar of Star Trek DS9 fame (thanks to the fan wiki). A real narrative brief is much longer, with many more sections, but this shows the essence of it: a simple Google doc (it could also be on Confluence, Notion, or another text-based platform) that provides information about a culture, location, character, or thing.

Most important: the logline and the pillars. These, realistically, are what the other departments in the studio will read and latch onto the most (though some cherished game and content designers might read your lengthy lore section, if you’re lucky). Pillars are meant to triangulate your intentions for the culture/character/thing you’re writing about. They should encapsulate the most important aspects of the brief’s subject. You can have more than three pillars, but only if it’s truly necessary. Best practice is three, without any repetition between the three. Pillars are hard, but extremely important for getting everyone on the same page. Many major studios use pillars, though I couldn’t tell you whether all of them do (if they don’t, they’re missing a trick).

Dialogues

Once you’ve nailed down a character brief (which takes many, many revisions), you’ll consult with your content design partner to turn the lore and story you’ve come up with into a quest. Together, you’ll make a quest brief plotting things out. Just like the narrative brief, this is nothing too fancy — it can just be bullet points laying out what happens at each step of the quest. The content designer may do some visual mapping as well. Once this is in progress, you can go ahead and start writing dialogue. Most studios that I’ve worked at have used Google Sheets for this part of the process.

Sometimes it’s difficult inserting branching options into Google Sheets… there’s no great, industry-wide solution to this. For simple, rudimentary branching it’s fine, but once you get more in-depth you’re probably switching to a custom software or a program like Twine or Ink.

Part III: Implementation

Not all studios require their narrative designers to implement their dialogues in-engine, but it’s always a bonus if you're willing to get your hands dirty and implement your own work. Usually, this isn’t a difficult process.

Generally the studio has purchased or built a dialogue tool for Unity or Unreal and so the only difficulty is figuring out how that tool works, and then making sure you don’t step on anyone’s toes when submitting your changes. I consider implementation a nice break from writing, even if it always takes longer than I think it will. I would note, however, that this is the thing I do least often — probably ten percent of my time, or less.

And that’s it! That’s a day in the life of a Triple A narrative designer: meetings, writing, and occasionally implementing (it’s not a daily occurrence for me). I hope this was helpful, and please feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments. Now, onto the resources!

Resources

• Free workshop alert! Dialogue and Agency in Video Games by Matt Gibbs of Talespinners.

• The amazing Kelly Bender has written an article on ‘How to Apply the Three-Act Structure in Video Games’.

Opportunities

Narrascope, the narrative-focused games conference, is now accepting talk submissions for the 2026 conference. It is also accepting submissions to its games showcase!

Jams

• ShuffleComp runs until January 19th. “ShuffleComp is a musical interactive fiction competition where you make games based on songs, which are submitted by other entrants.”

• Sealed With a Kiss Jam runs until February 1st. “In this jam, you are tasked with creating a fantastical romance narrative game or visual novel.”

Jobs

• Screenplay Writer at Dreamaloid Studios Remote. “Hi! I'm Jamie. I am gathering applications for a screenplay writer on our indie game at Dreamaloid Studios.”

• Story and Writing Consultant at Shiny Shoe Remote. “At Shiny Shoe we are seeking an experienced story and writing consultant to contract with us to craft our next original game after Monster Train 2.”

• Freelance Writer - The Laundry Files at Cubicle 7 Games Remote. “We’re looking for freelance writers who know and love The Laundry Files.”

• Narrative Designer/Game Writer at Cherrypick Games Remote. “The project needs someone who's not just a writer, but understands narrative design as a game design discipline.”

• Narrative Designer at Alkimia Interactive Remote. “Our alchemists are focused on creating a remake of the legendary Gothic game for next gen/PC.”

• Narrative Writer at Uncommon Games Remote. “Animalkind takes place on a quaint, cozy island that has friendly vibes combined with quirky and humorous animal characters.”

• Game Designer and Writer at Foundry VTT Remote. “In this role you will work with our team of incredibly talented artists, developers, writers, and designers to create Ember, a revolutionary digital roleplaying campaign setting, and Crucible, an innovative digital roleplaying game system.”

• Narrative Designer at Microfun Beijing, China-based. “Prior games industry experience is a plus, but not required. What matters most that you're passionate about writing slice-of-life stories and thrive in a collaborative creative environment.”

• Narrative Designer at Jam City Remote. “We are looking for an experienced Narrative Designer to bring their expert writing and game design skills to help build a new game within our Narrative studio.” Note: the role looks Harry Potter-related.

• Narrative Designer - ARC Raiders Stockholm, Sweden-based. “As a Narrative Designer, you will be the key link between the story and the gameplay.”

• Mid/Senior Narrative Designer at Asobo Studio Bordeaux, France-based. Must know French. “We are looking for a Narrative Designer to stage the narrative and bring the levels of our next action-adventure game to life.”

• TFT Senior Writer (Apex Legends) at Respawn Entertainment LA, Vancouver, or Madison, Wisconsin. “Apex Legends is seeking a Senior Writer to join our team as a Maternity Leave replacement.”

• Senior Game Writer - Varsapura at HoYoverse Remote within US. “We are seeking a skilled and dedicated Game Writer to join our talented development team.”

• Senior Game Writer - TFT at Ripple Effect Studios LA, US-based or Vancouver, Canada-based. Working on Battlefield. “Senior Game Writer owns sections of the narrative under the guidance of the Narrative Director.”

• Senior Narrative Designer (Project 12) at 11 bit studios Warsaw, Poland-based. “Your responsibilities [include] designing, writing and implementing story arcs.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at TapBlaze LA, US-based. “You will be the final narrative authority for Good Pizza, Great Pizza and related franchises.”

• Senior Lead Narrative Designer at Certain Affinity Toronto, Canada-based. “Would you like to work on some of the greatest franchises in gaming history? What about contributing to our new original IP?”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Hangar 13 Brighton, UK-based. “As a Lead Narrative Designer you will lead on the shape of the narrative delivery of our next open-world action-adventure title.”

• Narrative Production Lead at Longdue Games Remote. “We’re looking for a Narrative Lead with both creative and production instincts — someone who can shape Hopetown’s story while helping to build the systems and structures that make great narrative work possible.”

• Narrative Director - Unannounced Title at Scopely Remote within US. “We are in the early stages of development on an ambitious, unannounced AAA mobile game.”

• Narrative Director at Gameloft Montreal, Canada-based. “We are looking for a Narrative Director for our studio and our PC/console projects.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Readers, over the past month I became absolutely bewitched, besotted, and bewildered with the perfection that is The Séance of Blake Manor by Spooky Doorway. I’m a mystery fanatic and SOBM is something I’ve never played before: a mystery game where the mechanic really is investigation rather than just puzzle solving. It’s a revelation. I’ll be honest, I was wondering how I could inveigle my way into a conversation with the narrative designer of this masterpiece until I realized I ran a narrative design newsletter and could simply ask for an interview. I asked on LinkedIn at a totally unreasonable time and Dave McCabe, in a karaoke bar in London, promptly agreed. I can’t thank you enough, Dave, for making the time and providing generous and thoughtful answers! Readers, you’re in for a treat.

RB: I’m going to start out with a pretty broad question: how did you organize and plot things out in SOBM?

DM: I guess we can start way back at the beginning. We originally did the whole thing as a chapter-by-chapter linear story and then, about a year into production, we were like: this is just very flat feeling. We knew before we even started that we didn’t want it to be a linear thing—we just didn’t have the time and the budget to make it non-linear. But then we went, “well, we’ll just do it anyway and see what happens. Hopefully that will convince them to give us more time and more money.”

RB: Them being the publishers?

DM: The publishers, yeah. We did that and immediately felt that it was much better. There are a lot of things out there in the world that are detective games, like our previous titles are detective games in that you play a detective, but they’re not detective games in any real sense. They’re puzzle games. We wanted this to be more in the vein of a detective game. We wanted you to have agency to navigate the space your own way, follow the leads you want to follow and ideally have more than one thing to follow at the same time so that you have choices. Some of your main investigation, your main way to detect, is going: “out of these leads, which ones do I want to follow and how do I want to use my time?”

So we started with the linear story, then we broke that day into events and figured out which ones had to follow other ones, which ones could happen out of order. We broke them out across the days and then, earlier this year—once we had sign off on adding individual character stories—we plotted those out. We already knew what all went on with each character but we fleshed them out to be a mystery that you could resolve rather than just a statement of facts about their lives. We worked backwards from the confrontation statement to figure out where you would find the clues. All that was done as flow charts on Miro. We used Notion for the original linear kind of writing.

RB: And at that point, had you also decided to use the time system? [Note for those who haven’t played: I’m referring to the time management system wherein investigating a clue or speaking to someone reduces your time, thus forcing players to use their time judiciously.]

DM: About a year into the project, we decided on the time system and we then spent maybe eight months converting the linear story into this non-linear version, or semi-linear. We spent that time turning the core storylines, the main mysteries, into non-linear goals. What if you did this first? How would that ripple out? What would that mean? And so on and so forth. Then from this year on, we started cracking into the cast stories. Expanded them out from, again, non-solvable, not entirely interactive stories, into mysteries that you could interact with and solve.

RB: It’s very interesting that all the very innovative design parts came out of a pivot. I would’ve thought it was designed with those systems from the get-go.

DM: There were a few things we knew from the beginning. We knew we wanted to tell a Gothic horror and we wanted to talk about Irish history and mythology and all this sort of stuff. We knew we didn’t want to have a twist ending, like ‘the ghosts that were summoned were you’, for instance. We wanted to have a mystery that you couldn’t guess in the beginning because it was multilayered and we knew we wanted this interesting place to explore. We wanted to dig into its history and the history of the other guests in some way, and we just iterated our way through to where we are now.

As I say, we reached maybe a year into the thing and went, look, it’s just not feeling very exciting. The space is great and we think we have some interesting characters, but we’re not really letting you play with that space. We’re going: chapter one, resolve this; chapter two, resolve that. It felt more like you were playing through a crime novel but in a very restrictive way. It was still all puzzles. So we went back and talked about what we would do if budget and time weren’t issues. We looked a lot at other media and board games, especially, I mean the core game is essentially Guess Who? Does the culprit have big curly hair, does the culprit have red lips?

RB: Can you tell me more about your board game inspirations?

DM: We took a bit from Cluedo, we played games like Modern Detective and Chronicles of Crime and looked at how they were handling the time stuff and you know, in those games you have a limited amount of time and the things you do take these actions. But yeah we pulled from various things. And Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective as well We wanted to pull together as many bits as we could and see how they tackle it in different ways and then find what worked for us. The hard part is failure in a narrative adventure. We had to find a way that it didn’t feel terrible. Our save system was designed so you could go back to any part of the game for that reason.

RB: I think you and the writing team in general did a good job at making every character’s voice sound very distinct. Any tips for that?

DM: On one hand: take acting classes, take improv classes, play tabletop roleplaying games and ideally run them. On the other hand: we just kicked the characters around a lot. We did have some characters who felt very same-y or wall-flowery or who didn’t have a strong reason for being there. We just reworked them and iterated on them and read the voices out loud and all these kinds of things until we felt they were coming across distinctly enough. And then again, it’s down to testing. Do these characters sound like one another? We brought in some QAs with narrative backgrounds to go through each character and go, do they sound distinct? Do they have a distinct identity? Do we think there are places where their dialogue could be interchangeable and can we change that? We got lots of different opinions and we tried lots of techniques. Voices helped too. We could only do parts of the script because of time and budget, but it helps because once you get those couple of lines right by the actor, the character comes alive in a way. You’re then reading the lines in that person’s voice in your head.

RB: That’s a lot of meticulous work, and you can really sense that when you play SOBM. Thank you so much for your time!

Resources

• Gaetano Leonardi has posted storyboards from his work on Spongebob Squarepants: Titans of the Tide. So cool to see the methods used on published projects! See below.

• Here’s a juicy resource… BBC has a free-to-access script library where you can peruse high quality scripts to hone your own talents.

Jams + Competitions

• The IF Short Games Showcase 2025 is open now until December 31st. “The Short Games Showcase is an opportunity to show off shorter interactive fiction works made in the past year (Jan 1, 2025 to Dec 31, 2025), regardless of whether or not they are previously released.”

• Winter Visual Novel Jam 2025 is open for submissions now until December 31st. “You can use the jam to complete a project you’ve already begun working on, so long as it fits with the jam’s theme of winter.”

Opportunities

• Women in Games NYC will be offering GDC passes to some members this year! If you are a woman in gaming in New York, get in touch! I’d do so regardless, it’s a wonderful organization.

Jobs

• Freelance Game Writer (romance) at Crazy Maple Studio Remote. “Chapters Interactive Stories is seeking experienced content writers, romance authors and narrative game designers to join our Paid Creator Program on a work-for-hire basis!”

• Game Writer at Cloud Imperium Manchester, UK-based. “Cloud Imperium Games is looking for a talented Game Writer to join the Narrative team to craft unique and fun story experiences for Star Citizen.”

• Narrative Writer at VOID Interactive Remote. “We’re VOID Interactive, the kick-ass team behind the best-selling FPS game Ready or Not.”

• Narrative Designer at Octo Games Studio Remote. “Netherlands-registered, fully remote studio making PC/Steam titles with a strong focus on Adult (18+) visual novels and narrative-driven games.”

• Narrative Designer at Grid Games Weesp, Netherlands-based. “Our fast-growing team of multi-national talent is using Unreal Engine 5 to build a revolutionary MMORPG that blends traditional philosophies with trailblazing innovation.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at 8Bit Remote within Europe. “We’re looking for a Senior Narrative Designer to join our client’s team and help define the narrative heart of a new category of narrative-driven RPGs.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Infinity Ward (Temp) Woodland Hills, California-based. “As a Senior Narrative writer, you will act as one of several key contributors to the story of our games.”

• Specialist/Senior Narrative Designer at CD PROJEKT RED (Witcher 4) Warsaw, Poland-based. “We are seeking passionate storytellers with boundless creativity.”

• Principal Narrative Designer at Creative Assembly Horsham, UK, or Sofia, Bulgaria-based. “As a Principal Narrative Designer, you will be tasked with creating and implementing engaging dialogue and compelling characters.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at 2K Brighton, England-based. “As a Lead Narrative Designer you will lead on the shape of the narrative delivery of our next open-world action-adventure title.”

• Narrative Game Designer at HandyGames Giebelstadt, Germany-based. The studio is looking for a narrative designer “for our current in-house game project, which is set in a gothic-inspired science fiction world.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

I know I promised more on portfolio building — and more there shall be — but for this issue I’d like to share an ‘interview’ with my friend Sam Eng on writing his game Skate Story, out December 8th.

This ‘interview’ had to be attempted multiple times because, as anyone who knows Sam Eng can tell you, he’s not fond of a straight answer. However, we persisted and I think his advice and thoughts on writing is extra interesting because it’s the element of game dev that he’s perhaps least fluent in. Don’t get me wrong, he’s annoyingly talented in every way, but, like many very talented game devs he’s found that the story part of making a game proves devilishly hard.

The funny thing is, most professional writers feel the exact same way. And even the most talented of famous writers are capable of getting things wrong. Personally, I find this relieves some pressure. Some hucksters may tell you there is a formula to great writing, and they’d be wrong. There’s a formula for mediocre writing. There is no formula for great writing because great writing is also interesting writing. And finding what is interesting is a challenge that doesn’t have one solution, but many.

In Sam’s case, his interesting story is about a glass skater who descends into hell (which looks suspiciously like dark-mode Brooklyn) in order to complete a pact with the devil to swallow the moon. Sounds cool, huh? Spoiler: it is.

Without further ado, here’s the ‘interview’, culled from a series of different text message convos.

RB: Do you consider yourself a writer?

SE: A writer is just someone who writes. So if you want to write your story then congrats, you’re a writer.

RB: Do you draw mainly from personal experiences when writing?

SE: No I draw from everything. Well, draw from everything I experience… so maybe everything is personal experience.

RB: What’s the best advice you have about writing for a linear game? The advice you wish you knew from the beginning.

SE: I wish someone told me it doesn’t have to be complex, just playable.

RB: Did you follow a particular framework? Three-act structure? Kishotenketsu?

SE: I’ve probably shoved my story into every framework I found online. Three-act, four-act, story circle, Kishotenketsu… I think I was too obsessive and kept trying to follow the rules. Gotta save the cat at the right moment, gotta hit this beat and this beat. But then I kept running into stilted writing and also it wasn’t that fun shoving my stuff into a box. But eventually I realized these frameworks are good “rulers” or measuring devices. They should be treated more as descriptive than prescriptive.

[Sam proceeded to send the following meme.]

RB: How many Seinfeld references are there in your game?

SE: Two to three. Thousand.

Short, but sweet. Check out the trailer for Skate Story below.

Now, on to the regular roundup of narrative design resources, jobs listings, and miscellany!

Resources

• Anna C. Webster has released yet another super helpful video — this time on game writing tests!

• Candle Craft’s latest (and last) installment on game writing covers the difference between ‘good’ and ‘okay’ choices.

Conferences + Meetups

• AdventureX, the UK’s only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming is running from November 22nd to 23rd in London.

Jams + Competitions

• “Feeling nostalgic about the golden age of text adventures? Relive those days by participating in PunyComp 2025!” This jam runs from November 2nd to December 1st.

• Submissions for the IF Short Games Showcase 2025 begin on November 23rd and close on December 31st.

• IGDA’s Game Writing special interest group is hosting ‘Arcjam’ from November 21st to November 24th.

Opportunities

• Level Her Up Presents: Intro to Unity & Game Design is a free two-part workshop that runs on Saturday, November 15th.

• The Digra 2026 Conference has opened up a call for submissions. The theme is ‘Intersectional Pleasures.’

Jobs

• Narrative Design Intern at Tapblaze LA, US-based. “We’re looking for a Narrative Design Intern to join our creative team and help bring new stories to life in the Good Pizza, Great Pizza and Good Coffee, Great Coffee universes.”

• Narrative Design Intern at Blizzard Irvine, US-based. “All interns will receive a meaningful project and an unparalleled experience. We’ll provide the tools and resources you need to learn.”

• Narrative Design Intern at Respawn Entertainment (Jedi) LA, US-based. “Reporting to the Lead Dialogue Designer, we’re looking for a Narrative Dialogue Intern who will embrace our philosophy and work with design leadership, writers, designers, and other departments to help us create an incredible experience for our players.”

• Game Writer at Stunlock Studios Skövde, Sweden-based. “At Stunlock Studios, we’re crafting the immersive and thrilling world of V Rising, a vampire survival game that has captivated players worldwide since its launch on PC and Console.”

• Narrative Writer at VOID Interactive Remote. “This role involves crafting immersive narratives, developing memorable characters, and enhancing player experience for their best-selling FPS game, Ready or Not.”

• Narrative Designer at CCP Games Reykjavik, Iceland-based. “CCP Games is seeking a talented Narrative Designer to join the EVE: Frontier team.”

• Narrative Game Designer at Handy Games Giebelstadt, Germany-based. Write on a game set in gothic-inspired science fiction world with a focus on story and combat.

• Lead Writer at CD PROJEKT RED Boston, US-based. “In this role, you will be responsible for crafting captivating narratives, compelling dialogues and innovative quests for a brand new adventure set in The Witcher universe.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at CD PROJEKT RED Boston, US-based. “Seeking a highly skilled and visionary Lead Narrative Designer to join our team in Boston, working on Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher.”

• Senior Narrative Designer (Temporary) at Infinity Ward LA, US-based. “As a Senior Narrative writer, you will act as one of several key contributors to the story of our games.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Highdive Montreal-Canada-based. “This is a rare chance to work on a new IP. This position of Narrative Designer would be to help craft narrative moments throughout our levels according to the game’s narrative vision.”

• Senior Designer/Writer at Two Point Studios Farnham, UK-based. “Two Point Studios is seeking a Senior Designer/Writer to join our team and help bring our wonderful and charming world to life.”

• Principal Narrative Designer at Creative Assembly Horsham, US-based. “As a Principal Narrative Designer, you will be tasked with creating and implementing engaging dialogue and compelling characters.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Recently I’ve been speaking with an up-and-coming writing talent through the IGDA-F Mentorship program, and she pointed out to me just how little actionable, step-by-step advice there is on the internet about making narrative design portfolios. We decided to team up to explore this subject, so I’ll kick things off today by answering some frequently asked questions about portfolios, and in the near future she will guest post on this newsletter and show how she crafted her portfolio as a new face in the industry.

What kinda stuff do I put in there?!

Generally, I put in one example of interactive, branching fiction; one example in a screen-writing type format; and one piece of prose. This will and MUST shift depending on the role I’m applying for, however. I have never used the same portfolio twice.

Example: I’m applying for a job at a place that is really serious about branching content and is a light urban fantasy — we’re talking lots of variables, lots of if-thens, lots of story paths. In this case, I’ll use one prose piece in a light urban fantasy style, one outline that shows my ability to consider multiple branching paths to completion, and one Twine or Ink script that shows off my interactive work in action (preferably in the same urban fantasy style).

How many samples can I add?

No more than three. People don’t have time to go over anything more than that.

But what if I don’t have the right samples?

Here’s a little tip: just make them up!

This is something I didn’t figure out until more recently in my career, but you don’t have to rely on your published or ‘biggest’ projects to flesh out your portfolio. Often, a studio will be more interested in seeing whether you understand their tone, style, and genre than if you have a cool credit that is completely unrelated to what they’re working on. And if you don’t magically have it on hand, just make it! That might sound daunting, but keep in mind — samples are meant to be short.

Should it all be online?

It probably can’t be, especially as your career progresses. Once you’re in the industry, you’ll have so many projects under NDAs that it’ll be impossible to show what you’ve really been working on all this time on your personal website. In these cases, however, you can ask your former employers whether it’s okay to show your work samples privately with prospective new clients/employers and they’ll generally allow it. So, your real portfolio, the one you submit to jobs becomes a private document. Me personally, I use a Google Doc that I copy and alter depending on the gig.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t have a personal website that displays your projects — you should! Just don’t count on using it to submit for jobs. Your real portfolio should be curated depending on the job and should only contain three samples, rather than everything you’ve ever worked on.

Any super secret tips?

YES.

And I wish more people would heed this advice as it is extremely attractive to employers.

Show. Your. Work.

Remember back in school when teachers would tell you to show how you came to your answer for a math problem? Do the same with your portfolio. Don’t just give your prospective future employer three samples with zero context. Provide information about team size, project goal, and your role on the team. Talk through your process. Insert screen grabs of the spreadsheets and tools you used to achieve the final product. Show your prospective employer that you understand the fine art of game balance. Make it clear to them that you are not just a writer (of which there are plenty), you are also a designer.

BONUS TIP: Add plenty of pictures, GIFs, and videos. No one dislikes visual supplements!

The above tips and guidelines have resulted in several successful applications for me, and I hope they bring the same results to you. I know it’s not easy starting out in the narrative design world, but there will be an opportunity if you have enough persistence, and if you pair that with adaptability and a learner’s mindset, you’ve got the perfect recipe for a great narrative designer.

Now, on to the regularly scheduled programming!

Resources

Greg Buchanan is putting out some amazing free content with his narrative designer interview series. I’m learning tons.

Narrative Gravity with Greg Buchanan

INTERVIEWS: "How do you write romance in games?"

On an older iteration of this blog, I ran several interview series with other writers from throughout games and other media. I’m porting them over across the next few days: we’ve just had ‘How do you get your ideas?’ with answers from indie all the way to AAA output from Ubisoft, EA, and more. Each of these articles revolves around a particular question…

Read more

8 months ago · 4 likes · Greg R Buchanan

The romance interviews were particularly interesting to me, as I’ve never been a strong romance writer, but look at the latest, too.

Narrative Gravity with Greg Buchanan

INTERVIEWS: Writing Telltale Games

On an older iteration of this blog, I ran several interview series with other writers from throughout games and other media. I’m porting them over across the next few days: we’ve just had ‘How do you get your ideas?’, ‘How do you write romance in games…

Read more

8 months ago · 4 likes · Greg R Buchanan

Yup. Writing Telltale Games. Suffice it to say, you should go subscribe to his Substack.

In other news, Alexander Blum relates how he became a writer at Santa Monica Studio.

Jams + Competitions

• IFComp 2025 submissions are published and now is the time to vote on the best ones! Voting ends by Oct. 15th, so get in there while you still can.

• The Bare Bones Jam runs until November 1st and is for games that are specifically very visually bare bones. Entrants are not allowed to change the formatting of the chosen program. Sounds fun to me!

• ECTOCOMP 2025 runs until October 31st. Join in with your spooky season interactive fiction in any language!

• Folklore Jam is an analogue game jam (TTRPGs etc.) that runs until October 31st. They recommend creating a game based on folklore or myths from “your own culture or a place you belong.”

Opportunities

Got a weird experimental game you’d like to show to the world? Submit to the Experimental Games Showcase for GDC 2026. This is often the best part of the whole show, to be honest. Submissions open until Oct. 24th.

Jobs

• Remote English Writer - Narrative Specialist at BigWord Game Localization Remote. “We currently have project requirements with an average volume of 35,000 words per writer. Candidates who pass the test will undergo immediate training and be assigned to tasks.”

• Writer at League of Geeks Remote within Australia. “This is a hands-on writing role; you’ll be responsible for the creation and maintenance of narrative documentation and scripts to service localisation and VO pipelines, as well as the implementation of written content into gameplay.”

• Junior Scripter at Larian Dublin, Ireland-based. “Take internal narrative pitches and analyze them, to create potential gameplay sequences that prioritise player agency and a fun experience.”

• Scenario Writer, AA Project, Athena Dept. at KRAFTON Seoul, SK-based. “We are looking for talented colleagues to join us in creating a mobile collectible RPG with a cheerful, light anime style and attractive content for subculture genre gamers.”

• Game Writer at HoYoVerse Remote. The makers of Genshin Impact. “We are seeking a skilled and dedicated Game Writer to join our talented development team.”

• Narrative Designer at the Marshmallow Project Paris-based, French and English required. “As a Narrative Designer, you will play a crucial role in developing and bringing to life a brand new type of content for children.”

• Narrative Designer at VOID Interactive Dublin-based. “We’re now looking for a Narrative Writer with strong creative writing skills, a deep understanding of game storytelling, and the technical know-how to work within Unreal Engine.”

• Narrative Designer at Tencent Tokyo-based. “LightSpeed Japan Studio is a game development studio dedicated to crafting original AAA action game titles for global audiences.”

• Narrative Designer at Grimlore Games Munich, Germany. “As a Narrative Designer, you will help us craft a unique, innovative campaign experience and an unforgettable story.”

• Narrative Designer & Writer at Icefall Interactive Nelson, BC, Canada-based. “Do you recognize that constructing and implementing an effective narrative consists of far more than just writing a cool plot and kick-ass cutscenes? If so, this role could be for you!”

• Senior Writer at Santa Monica Studio Remote in the US. “If you love collaborating with talented developers to create genre-defining games, join us as we embark on a new journey.”

• Senior Narrative Realization Designer (Project Hire) at That’s No Moon LA-based. “As a dev, this person will be an experienced generalist who has significant experience working in mixed agency spaces, comfortable with the work required to craft narrative content at the highest level of quality.”

• Senior Technical Narrative Designer at People Can Fly Montreal, Canada-based. “This role involves building complex quest structures, branching dialogues, and interactive narrative elements using scripting systems.”

• Specialist/Senior Narrative Designer, Open World at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw, Poland-based. “We are seeking passionate storytellers with boundless creativity to fill our game world with believable and exciting content consisting of open world quests and events that players will encounter.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Probably Monsters Remote. “This preproduction role involves significant creative ownership, working closely with art, design, and engineering to develop a compelling science fiction experience.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Hello fellow narrative designers,

Along with the monthly roundup of resources and jobs, I thought I’d wade into a topic that has us narrative designers all in a tizzy lately: AI.

I read a post on Substack recently that asked whether we couldn’t all be more ‘normal’ about AI. What an interesting suggestion! While I suspect it’s ultimately impossible to be ‘normal’ about the most sci-fi progression of society to date, I do somewhat take the author’s point. AI is not going away. It’s highly unlikely we will have a Butlerian Jihad — at least not for a while. In the meantime, what will this look like for us? For narrative designers, for workers, and for the world in general?

Certainly, there will be horrors. There already are. Did anyone else read that heartbreaking NYT piece on the couple who lost their son to the suicidal encouragements of ChatGPT? AI’s open nature will assist in any number of crimes and mental delusions. The only way to avoid this is with safeguards that would severely reduce its usefulness. Perhaps this will happen, but more likely it won’t. When has the US dabbled in the helpful art of moderate regulation?

Then there’s the environmental side of things. Indeed, this will harm the environment further, especially as users grow, though our sudden righteousness on this point sometimes feels misplaced as this has already BEEN an escalating problem — even with Google searches or smartphone charges. We were always paying a growing environmental cost for existing more and more in the digital world than the real one, and now that price is skyrocketing. The way that we tax the earth with our digital consumption is in no way normal, ecologically speaking, and there’s no real way around that.

But the environmental element is just one aspect of the discourse swirling around AI — another major, and more philosophical side of the debate is whether AI art is bad for the soul of humanity.

If we were to be ‘normal’ about it, we might say: generating some initial layout concepts for a piece of visual art or asking ChatGPT to help you brainstorm place names for your novel isn’t anything to be worried about. AI isn’t good at creating a cohesive piece of art in a way that makes sense to human brains, and it’s not clear whether it will ever be — but it can be a tool. This is what I call ‘The Tool Argument’, and The Tool Argument is compelling. Proponents of it would have you believe that AI is like PhotoShop or Unity, and that our generation making a fuss about AI is just the same as the older generation grumpily critiquing email.

Alas, I do not think the gravity of what’s happening right now with AI can be dismissed so easily. AI has ‘replaced’ quite a lot of jobs in tech and games already — even if those jobs are quietly being added back in the form of AI editors and consultants. Human usefulness is being diminished by this invention, even if that’s only because we collectively agree that it can be diminished — that we have no need for fine details if amorphous shapes will do.

But will approximations of art — hazy, half-baked, vibes-based amalgamations — replace real art in a satisfactory way? To answer this, I think we must consider what role art plays in society. I’d suggest art is how we define and organize ourselves: it is the stories we tell about our existence, our hopes, and our fears. Art is our our myths, our legends, our biblical stories, our theories, our credos, our hot takes, and our deeply held beliefs. We will never find these things superfluous for they are actually the only things that matter to us, the only way we make order from chaos.

AI cannot replace human art. What it may replace is the most derivative and data-based types of content. Our goals as writers must be, then, to make things that are utterly unique and wondrously human. As we progress through these next few decades of radical technological and social change, never before has it been more important to use one’s own brain. So, even if we can’t quite be ‘normal’ about AI, I’d suggest not panicking, either, or falling into despair. Instead, I hope you all engage in the radical act of thinking for one’s self — goodness knows the servers could use a break.

After failing that attempt at being normal about AI, onward to the roundup of resources, jobs, and events!

Resources

• Susan O’Connor of The Narrative Department is offering a free seminar on the hidden jobs market in games — meaning the jobs that don’t get listed on job sites or LinkedIn. The word-of-mouth type jobs. She’s a great educator, definitely worth tuning in!

• Greg R. Buchanan posted some short, simple, and good tips for hooking players with an early choice.

• Oh look! It’s Rose Behar and Shelby Moledina’s talk on writing absorbing stories for short attention spans! How’d that get here? Mild chaos caused by tech issues, but we have some good nuggets in there.

• Plus: find all the other amazing talks available for free online — how lucky are we?!

Events

The massive Tokyo Game Show runs September 25th to 28th! I may ask some pals to document the most interesting narrative news from the show, stay tuned.

Jams + Competitions

• Voting has begun for IFComp 2025! This is always a very exciting time. There’s so much good interactive fiction to feast on! Check the games out here.

• The Bare-Bones Jam is running from October 1st to November 1st. This is a MANDATORY text-only jam. In fact, you’re not even permitted to change the formatting of your chosen program.

• The Spooktober 7th Annual Visual Novel Jam is running from September 1st to September 30th and then will be judged during Spooktober— I mean October. Scrounge up a team and make something cool!

Jobs

• Associate Narrative Designer at Vetkoek Studios Seemingly remote. Sept. 3rd last day for submissions. “We need someone who is familiar with writing dialogue, has a passion for telling local stories and is comfortable working in the Unity game engine.”

• Visual Writer, Universes Beyond (Contract) at Wizards of the Coast Renton, Washington-based. “Can you write art briefs and dive deep into some of the worlds biggest IPs, while keeping your head in both the Fun and the Future of gaming? The Magic Studio has an exciting opportunity for a contract Visual Writer on our emerging Universes Beyond product line!”

• Narrative Writer at VOID Interactive Remote. “We’re now looking for a Narrative Writer with strong creative writing skills, a deep understanding of game storytelling, and the technical know-how to work within Unreal Engine.”

• Writer, Dune: Awakening at Funcom Oslo, Norway-based. “You will be responsible for dialogue, lore, item descriptions, cinematic scripts and radio content that fits within the universe of Dune.”

• Regular/Senior Narrative Designer at Dambuster Studios UK-based (open to remote within the UK). “We are seeking a talented Narrative Designer to help bring our narrative vision to life through quests, narrative systems and cinematic experiences.”

• Narrative Designer, Witcher 4 at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw, Poland-based. “We are seeking passionate storytellers with boundless creativity to fill our game world with believable and exciting content consisting of open world quests and events that players will encounter.”

• Narrative Designer II - AAA Narrative/Open World Game at Pipeworks Studios Remote. “This is a design-and-implementation role (not a writing position) focused on building story-driven gameplay using visual scripting and in-engine tools.”

• Senior Narrative Designer (Temporary) - Infinity Ward at Activision LA-based. “The ideal candidate will have previous experience in TV, Film and game writing. In addition, they should have outstanding communication skills, excellent understanding of story and game structure, and the ability to work within established narrative canon and gameplay goals.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Highdive Montreal-based. “This is a rare chance to work on a new IP. This position of Narrative Designer would be to help craft narrative moments throughout our levels according to the game's narrative vision.”

• Narrative Design Lead at Companion Group Remote. “This is not just a writing role — you’ll be designing gameplay features, systems, and mechanics that drive and reinforce the narrative.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.

Hi fellow narrative designers,

I recently found the work of Rasheed Abueideh, a Palestinian game developer, and was profoundly inspired. His first game, Liyla and the Shadows of War, is an impactful and necessary piece of art deserving of widespread recognition, and yet it has been faced with adversity and censorship instead. When Abueideh published Liyla back in 2016, Apple infamously banned it, only to later reinstate it after public outrage. Now, Abueideh is working on a game called Dreams on a Pillow, a video game about the Nakba, a horrific event that began in 1948 and resulted in around 750,000 Palestinians being expelled from their lands through violent means.

I feel strongly that this is something we in the games community should support however we can. Post about the game, support Abueideh’s crowdfunding campaign. It’s never too late to get involved with a cause of this importance. Telling the real story of Palestine can — and hopefully WILL — have massive real-world impact. Narratives are how we humans understand the world, and efforts to erase history serve to reduce our collective empathy for one another (this is a purposeful tool employed by colonizing powers). Telling interactive stories isn’t just a past-time of little consequence, it shapes the world. Writing can be revolutionary.

For more on how to raise your voice for Palestine at this crucial moment, check out protest times, UNRWA donations, or just keep up to date with what’s happening — my favorite source for that is Foreign Exchanges because it comes straight to your inbox. Oh, and if you know of any other Palestinian devs, please share their work in the comments!

Now, on to the resources, opportunities, and jobs.

Resources

• Check out this very useful series of videos from games industry vet Chuck Beaver:

• An encouraging post from Manny Hagopian:

  

• You really should check out Greg Buchanan’s Substack on game writing, if you haven’t already. Full of gems.

• Also… loving the Candle Craft Series. The ‘Spider Test’ is kinda brilliant. Check it out here.

Events

There are quite a few notable conferences this month — definitely worth hitting up if you can afford it. If you can’t, there are likely many after-hours free events happening around these conferences that anyone can attend!

• SeriousPlay, America’s largest dedicated games and learning conference, runs from August 13th to 15th in Rochester, NY.

• Gamescom, the MASSIVE yearly games trade show and conference in Cologne, Germany, runs August 20th to 24th.

• PLAY.nyc, a very fun indie games showcase that I will be attending, is running from August 22nd to 24th.

• Seattle is hosting a brand new indie games event called SLICE on August 27th.

• After that, you can hit up PAX West, a gaming and gaming culture conference in Seattle that runs August 29th to September 1st.

Opportunities

Ooh, Pixelles (an amazing Montréal-based organization) has opened up applications for its Pixelles Makes Games Program! “The Game Making Program is a free, 8 week workshop series designed to help twelve gender-marginalized people make their first game.” Deadline for applications is August 20th.

Jams + Competitions

• Y’all, it’s time to finish up your IFComp 2025 submissions because the deadline is August 28th. Note that you must have registered your intent to enter in order to submit.

• Single Choice Jam 2025, a jam where you give only one choice to the player, is running until August 16th. One choice, fewer branching headaches? Try it out and tell me how it goes.

• The deadline has passed already, but I’m keeping my eye on this investigative journalism game jam by Floodlight Gaming. Hopefully it’ll become a regular thing!

• Early heads-up for the 7th annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam. It runs from September 1st to September 30th.

Jobs

Editor/Rules Manager at White Wolf Stockholm-based. “Craft clarity in the shadows: Be the guardian of narrative logic and mechanical precision across a rich, evolving universe.”

Narrative Game Designer (Part-time) at GameName Remote. “GameName LLC is seeking a Narrative Game Designer to help design and structure an animated branching story game told entirely through visuals, sound effects, and music--no written dialogue, no voiceovers, no subtitles.”

Senior Dialogue Designer at Naughty Dog Santa Monica-based. “The ideal candidate possesses proven success in both creative and technical work, as well as a sharp sense of cinematic aesthetic, an attention to detail, and a compelling passion for narrative, storytelling, as well as systemic dialogue.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Scopely, Unannounced Project Barcelona-based. “Scopely is looking for a Senior Narrative Designer to join our unannounced project in Barcelona on a hybrid basis working 3 days a week from our hub. We can support with visa sponsorship and relocation assistance.”

Senior Narrative Designer (Temp) at Infinity Ward LA-based. “As a Senior Narrative writer, you will act as one of several key contributors to the story of our games.”

Senior Writer at CD PROJEKT RED (Cyberpunk 2) Remote in US or Canada. “In this role, you will be responsible for crafting captivating narratives, compelling dialogues and innovative quests for Cyberpunk 2.”

Expert Writer at CD PROJEKT RED (Cyberpunk 2) Boston-based. This is a more craft-focused role, according to Mary Kenney.

Narrative Director, Unannounced Title at Blizzard Irvine, CA-based. “As the Narrative Director, you'd be joining a world-class team to be instrumental in the leadership and storytelling of the game’s vision.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hello fellow narrative designers!

An exciting bonus treat for you: Alessandro Mascellino of the amazing Substack newsletter Neon Vigilance offers up his thoughts on the recent Develop:Brighton conference from a narrative design perspective.

I’ve also appended some exciting new game writing job offers at the end. See you again at the beginning of August, friends.

DEVELOP 2025: NARRATIVE HIGHLIGHTS

DAY ONE: SOUND, SYSTEMS AND STORYTELLING

Sam Hughes, audio lead at Metacore (Merge Mansion), opened the narrative thread with a strong position: audio is a pillar of game design, not a polish pass. He emphasized that audio isn’t “just sound design” but intersects with narrative, UX, and feature development—especially when audio designers are treated as collaborators, not service providers.

Mobile games, Hughes noted, rarely get to “sell moments” with audio—players usually play with sound off. Yet this shouldn’t mean audio is neglected. In fact, “when visuals are minimal, sound carries the narrative torch.” His concept of "audio moments"—inviting players to turn sound on temporarily for a narrative beat—emerged as a powerful tool, especially in mobile.

The success of Merge Into My Heart, originally a “cheesy side project,” proved his point. It became Merge Mansion’s highest-performing video in 2024. “Data is useful, not divine,” Hughes said. The campaign worked because it trusted feeling over formula and reclaimed the “wouldn’t it be nice if” instinct so often buried by metrics.

Stark Holborn, writer on Shadows of Doubt, spoke about the challenge of authored narrative in procedural worlds. The team initially started with a traditional script and mission structure, but over five years of development, they scrapped it entirely and leaned into dynamic systems. The final storytelling approach blends static content (like lore snippets and short-form writing), dynamic systems (like their in-house DDS—Dynamic Dialogue System), and AI-driven characters that operate based on programmed stages and trait models like HEXACO.

Holborn stressed that procedural narrative is less about controlling outcomes and more about embracing unpredictability. “Sometimes it’s just about embracing the jank,” they said, arguing that edge cases often generate the richest stories—the ones players actually talk about.

Amy-Leigh Shaw of Sweet Baby Inc. rounded out the day’s narrative thread by spotlighting narrative ephemera—NPCs, artifacts, or interactions that don’t gate progression but deepen immersion. These are the overlooked threads players choose to pull on, which reward curiosity and expand the emotional landscape of the game.

In her work on the Afterlife EP, she created 50+ optional NPCs purely for world-building. She outlined how these characters can serve roles like tutorialisation (guiding lost players in-world, as with Spinch in Breath of the Wild) or fourth wall breaking (like Resetti in Animal Crossing, used to confront or surprise the player directly). “There shouldn’t be more NPCs,” she said, “but more space for ideas.” Ephemera offer an efficient way to do that.

DAY TWO: COLLABORATION, CULTURE AND INTIMACY

The day’s narrative lens continued with a keynote conversation between GamesRadar’s Sam Loveridge and Sam Lake, writer and creative director at Remedy. Reflecting on 30 years in games, Lake spoke candidly about the evolving role of creative leadership, saying it was “supposed to be a slight detour from novels” that became a career.

From Max Payne to Alan Wake 2, he emphasized that even with larger teams and multiple directors, “it’s always been about the team.” The weight of directing, Lake admitted, would’ve been overwhelming without a creative partner to bounce ideas off of. And while he now leads, he still can't let go of the writing—he simply brings the team into it earlier.

Lake also spoke to the power of cross-medium storytelling, from graphic novels and in-game TV shows to original music and film. Even ideas that didn’t initially work (like a musical sequence planned for Control) were later reincorporated in other forms. “Games,” Lake said, “are the most advanced form of entertainment humanity has created.”

He also urged devs to draw from their own cultures, as he’s doing with Finnish myths and settings: “Even if we feel they’re clichés, many have never been seen outside the country. It makes games stand out.” As for the Remedy multiverse, Lake described it as an echo chamber of past work—“a sandbox”—rather than a strict canon. While some on his team worry about creative constraints, he believes it opens new paths.

Later, a panel on intimacy coordination (hosted by Josh Weeden, PitStop Productions) explored how ethics, safety, and consent can be embedded into narrative and performance pipelines. Rosanna Normanton, the coordinator on the panel, explained how her work supports teams with choreography, risk assessment, and legal language, especially when narratives touch on romantic or adult themes.

The speakers —Liam Kenrick, Project Manager at PitStop Productions, Antony de Fault, Narrative Director at Mad Head Games, and actress Leader Looi—shared candid reflections. “You don’t want to become someone’s horror story,” Antony said, explaining why they hired Rosanna early. Looi added that even as someone outgoing, seeing “18+” on a script can be confronting—but knowing they could back out at any time changed the experience. “Not saying don’t try—but be aware you can always change your mind.”

This panel wasn’t just about protection; it was about enhancing creative trust and performance quality. “Perhaps it made the voice acting better,” said Antony, “because actors felt more comfortable.”

DAY THREE: DIALOGUE, BREATH AND IMMERSION

On the final day, Paola Velasquez, senior dialogue designer at Sony, traced the evolution of a role she helped define. Starting as a sound designer, she shaped a discipline that now includes script wrangling, recording, editing, localisation, dialogue FX, and integration with animation systems.

Dialogue designers, she explained, ask key questions: How long has the project been in development? What tools and pipelines are already in place? What level of code support is available? From there, they design systems that support the tone and emotion of the game.

Her comparison of two breathing systems—in Helldivers 2 and Until Dawn Remastered—illustrated the difference between cost-effective immersion and scalable narrative tools. The former was fast to implement but harder to scale; the latter, modular and deeply integrated. The choice, she said, depends on scope, tech, and storytelling needs. Her advice: adapt quickly, leverage expertise, and treat failure as a design tool.

Christopher Morrison of Reality closed the narrative highlights with a deep dive into VR/XR storytelling, still an under-explored space. He framed narrative in XR as experiential and relational, with potential to go beyond self-contained events into community-engaged ecosystems.

In The Werewolf Experience, an 8–12-minute VR narrative, the player uses voice (no controller) to influence branching outcomes—experienced seated or standing. The game was the top attraction at the Neuu XR space in Shinjuku for three months. Morrison argued that successful XR stories are fun to watch from outside, and that creators should bring VR to people—to festivals, domes, art centers—instead of waiting for adoption.

His long-term view? The future of narrative in XR is not headsets, but glasses—and it's coming sooner than expected.

CONCLUSION

Even as Develop 2025 spanned genres, disciplines, and platforms, this focused lens on narrative revealed something vital: game stories are no longer just written—they’re built, layered, and lived. From sound and systems to intimacy and immersion, storytelling now demands collaboration across every part of the pipeline. These talks showed that narrative design isn’t limited to writers—it’s happening through breath, voice, choice, and presence. And if there’s a thread tying them all together, it’s this: meaning doesn’t emerge from structure alone, but from the space players are given to discover it.

Jobs Roundup

Freelancer at Blazing Griffin Glasgow-based. “At Blazing Griffin we work on a wide variety of projects ranging from high end photorealism in Virtual Production and game to stylised indie feeling games and apps. We regularly look for temporary support from external contractors and freelancers.”

Game Audio Adaptation Writer at the Brightskull Entertainment Group Remote. Contract. “We’re seeking an experienced Dub Script Adaptation Writer to transform scripts that have been translated into English from Mandarin Chinese into polished, performance-ready American English dialogue.”

Sci-Fi RPG Writer at Redshift Panda Remote in Canada. “Think deep dialogue, careful diplomacy, Trekkian ethics, and unintended consequences.”

Extra Resource

Check out this great video from Anna C. Webster about labor history in the US as it relates to the game industry!

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

There has been an influx of new subscribers, so welcome to all! Narrative News is a monthly roundup of resources, jobs, and opportunities—along with a smattering of state-of-the-industry commentary or tips.

This update is and will always be free to access, however, some kind subscribers opt for a paid subscription, which is extremely appreciated and has allowed me to commission some gorgeous art from a Canadian artist named Callum Isaac for the newsletter. It even comes with a lovable blue mascot called Noo! Thanks to Alex Laney for the name suggestion.

Below, find three more brand new heading illustrations featuring Noo in some truly odd situations. I adore them, and am so grateful to Callum for giving Narrative News a glow-up.

There may also be some new subscribers who have found themselves in the horrible situation of having been laid off recently by extremely ill-managed companies making cruel and often poorly considered decisions. I am so sorry, if that’s the case. I hope the newsletter can be of some help.

Without further ado, I’ll jump into a review of the recent Narrascope conference for narrative games, which was a resounding success on all fronts — congrats to the organizing team. This year, Narrascope hosted its first ever showcase, and I was lucky enough to be a judge! Special shout out to the winner of the Best Experimental Work (the segment I voted on) called The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms. Taking the form of a Wiki, this game has LEVELS. Can’t recommend it enough.

In fact, I highly recommend playing all the winners:

• Best in Show: Perfect Tides: Station to Station

• Best Narrative: night confessional

• Best Student Work: Road Trip to the End of the World

And another special shout out to another wonderful student work, Payload, which is a devilishly challenging puzzle game with a great narrative hook.

Grabbing short attention spans

While at Narrascope, I was honored to give a presentation with Shelby Moledina, my former collaborator on Ashe Cove and a games industry legend with over 30 shipped titles under her belt. Recently, she’s produced and directed a lot of short form internet video content and it was upon her suggestion that we decided to create a presentation called ‘Writing Absorbing Stories for Short Attention Spans’ — although my brother pointed out that this was potentially not the most attention-grabbing title, ironically, so I am retroactively titling it: “Grab ‘em by the throat and the heart will follow.” IS THAT BETTER, FRANK?

Anywho, I won’t post the entire presentation here for the sake of brevity, but I will give you the bullet points of my portion.

• Attention spans are SHORT, especially on mobile, but telling a good story is still possible

• As my new and improved title suggests, you’ve got to find a good hook

  • Merge Mansion’s tagline “What is grandma hiding?” is an excellent example, even if the follow-through isn’t quite there.

• Our hook for Ashe Cove? A PI named Ivy gets drawn back into the strange, supernaturally-charged small town she left as a child after her estranged sister sends an SOS.

• Now, you’ve got the hook, how do you deliver story in bite-size chunks to a forgetful audience who plays hyper-casually?

  • The tendency is to focus on getting as much plot and recapping in to each quest as possible, but…

    • Being lectured at is not fun

    • Character-rich dialogue and banter is fun

    • And your game has to be FUN before anything else

• So, put fun first. Whether it’s jokes, pathos, or jump scares — whatever makes your game fun to the demographic it seeks out — make sure every line rings out with your particular brand of fun.

  • And test that it is, indeed, fun before you go all-out on world-building and plot.

I have a few other tips up my sleeve that I’ll share in future posts, and if we get permission, I’ll also show Shelby’s video of her half of the presentation, but for now… on to the jobs and resources!

Events

Conferences

• Develop Brighton is coming up, and there are several really interesting looking narrative sessions, including Amy-Leigh Shaw of Sweet Baby’s “Cut an NPC and Your Whole World Bleeds: The Importance of the Ephemeral in Interactive Storytelling”. The conference runs from July 8th to 10th.

Meetups

• The Bay Area Interactive Fiction meetup will be meeting on July 12th in-person and online to play a few games from ParserComp 2025.

Jams + Competitions

• Registration has begun for the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. That means you have until August 1st to register your intent to enter. This is IFComp’s 31st year, an amazing feat, and I would highly recommend any writer to give this a go — it doesn’t matter where you rank, it’s the submitting that counts!

• Single Choice Jam runs until August 16th and short unranked jam where there is only one restriction: writers can give players only one choice or action in the game. Fascinating!

• The Anti-Romance Jam runs until July 22nd and is an “exploration of all the messy spaces and sensations that exist against and around romance!” As someone who is not-the-best at writing romance… my interest is piqued!

• The GMTK Game Jam is a major game jam and a great opportunity to get your work in front of lots of eyes. Find a team and give it a go! It runs from July 30th to August 3rd.

Jobs

Gameplay Content Designer at Classy Games Studios Remote. “We’re looking for a Gameplay Content Designer with a flair for surreal humour, quirky worldbuilding, and logic-friendly design.”

Technical Narrative Designer at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw-based. “CD PROJEKT RED is seeking a mid-level Technical Narrative Designer to bridge the creative and technical aspects of storytelling within our next title, Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher.”

Narrative Designer at Epic Games Cary, NC-based. “Epic Games is looking for a character-focused Narrative Systems Designer to join our dynamic team.”

Narrative Designer (Overwatch 2) at Blizzard Irvine or Albany-based. “The Overwatch Team is seeking an imaginative, resourceful, and technically proficient Narrative Designer to join our team.”

Lead Narrative Designer at Wargaming Warsaw-based. “As Lead Narrative Designer, you will partner closely with the Game and Creative Directors to craft a rich and immersive storytelling experience for our multiplayer PvP game.”

Lead Narrative Designer at Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro) Raleigh-Durham, NC-based. “Atomic Arcade is seeking a visionary Lead Narrative Designer to join our exciting AAA Action/Adventure project.”

Senior Story Editor at Larian Studios Guildford, UK-based. “As Senior Story Editor you’ll read through submissions, and sourced pitches and scripts, and identify those that have the right ingredients for an outstanding narrative.”

Story Department Lead at Larian Studios Guildford, UK-based. “As the Lead of this department, you will drive our world-building and storytelling initiatives.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hello fellow narrative designers,

First off: happy Pride month! The games industry is and has always been a very queer and gender diverse space. Here’s to keeping it that way — and standing up to anyone, at any level, who threatens the security, safety, and support of our LGBTQ+ colleagues.

Which leads nicely into the topic I thought I’d muse on this month: what is worth fighting for at work, and what isn’t? What can you let go and what must you hold on to, as a creative writing on someone else’s project? I have a few thoughts on the matter after writing on game projects professionally for roughly five years now. Mind you, this advice is specifically for writers working at studios, not for those working on their own independent projects — but hopefully it’s of use, even if only to keep in mind for the future.

What to let go of, as a narrative designer

• Most creative decisions: Unless you are the general manager of the entire project or the CEO, the buck does not stop with you. You were hired to provide dazzling suggestions. Suggestions that are just SO good they must be enacted. If your boss wants the main character’s hair to be chestnut rather than cobalt blue, well… so be it. You can certainly explain why blue makes more narrative sense but don’t expect to force the matter. It isn’t really your project at the end of the day. It’s the team’s project, and the vision for it is held by the general manager/CEO.

• Petty squabbles with other writers: What if the person who wants to change your brilliant vision is not your boss but your co-worker, someone you are on a perfectly even footing with? Can you push back then? Well, you can but… most of the time they’re probably right. They’ve identified a problem, even if you don’t care for (or employ) their suggested solution. Consider it a blessing: you have a test reader making your stuff better before it reaches the desks of the higher-ups.

• Preciousness about process: Forget inspiration, forget complex routines, and forget privacy — sometimes as a professional games writer you will have to write when you’re tired, sans tea, and on the spot in front of several other people. This was horrifying to me once upon a time, but one can get used to anything over time. Every draft has to start somewhere. It’s okay to show your coworkers that you’re not a genius on your first try. Chances are, they aren’t either.

• Self-deprecation: Another tip I would’ve been loathe to hear when I was in my twenties — you should sell your ideas as though you believe in them one hundred percent. Don’t get me wrong, you can hedge and say that your idea is rough or a work in progress BUT that will only start your pitch off on the wrong foot. Give your audience something to be excited about! And if they aren’t, well, that’s where you employ the first few bullets on the list, stow your ego away, and work with them on a creative direction they like better.

What’s worth fighting for, as a narrative designer

• Recognition of your work: You may be inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to accidentally omitting your name from a document. I’m here to give you permission to be harsh on that matter and firmly demand a correction. And I’m not just referring to a game’s credits, I mean credit for everyday tasks. Make sure your work is being tracked in Jira. Announce it clearly and loudly in stand-ups. Make sure that people know what you are doing and how much you are doing. This makes it much harder for any potential manipulators to attempt to sway opinion on your work ethic or take credit for your work.

• Matters of conscience: No job is worth betraying your moral compass — it’s far too high a price. If the powers that be want to go in a direction that is wrong-headed, mean-spirited, or in any way bigoted, speak up. You won’t regret it.

• Your voice to be heard: Not all writers are yappers, contrary to public opinion. However, speaking as only a medium yapper myself — stay in the conversation. Even if other writers have offered ‘enough’ ideas already, offer your own. Your voice is valuable, and your employer is paying for it. Perhaps you are the slow and thoughtful type. That’s more than alright. If you add your thoughts last but they’re well fleshed-out and interesting, you’ve done exactly what you should.

That’s it, that’s all I’ve got… Agree? Disagree? Let me know below.

Now, on to the resources and jobs!

Events

Conferences

I am very excited that Narrascope is finally upon us! The yearly celebration of narrative games runs June 20th to June 22nd in Philadelphia and also, online. I’ve been having the most wonderful time playtesting games as part of the Narrascope Showcase jury and I am excited to announce that the shortlist has been announced! I’ll be diving more deeply into those games in the next edition of Narrative News, but for now check that out and, if you’re planning to attend, considering checking out my talk with the wonderful Shelby Moledina on Writing Absorbing Stories for Short Attention Spans.

For those in Toronto, check out Toronto Games Week, which runs June 12th to 18th and features quite a few activities to intrigue a games writer.

Meetups

The SF Bay Area Interactive Fiction Meetup is meeting in-person and online on June 7th and will potentially play The Little Match Girl Approaches the Golden Firmament, one of the Spring Thing best in show winners.

Jams + Competitions

• The IntroComp is an annual competition where “participants develop excerpts of interactive fiction, gain feedback from audience reactions, and (hopefully!) use this feedback to release a fantastic final product.” You can register your intent to enter until June 30th.

• Submissions for the REALLY BOOGALOO BAD IF jam are due by June 30th. With a name like that, how could you not give it a try! “Bring your terribly written, bug-riddled coded, nonsensical-story games along!”

• The Neo Twiny Jam encourages participants to create an interactive fiction game of 500 words or less.

• Heads up: the GMTK Game Jam 2025 is coming up! Consider creating a team. It runs from July 30th to August 3rd.

Jobs

Associate Localization Writer at Nintendo Redmond, USA-based. “Under direct supervision, write and review game text, voice scripts, manuals, package copy, and marketing materials for Nintendo products and services through launch and beyond.”

Technical Narrative Designer at CD PROJEKT RED Remote possible. “Seeking a mid-level Technical Narrative Designer to bridge the creative and technical aspects of storytelling within our next title, Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher.”

Narrative Designer at Epic Games Open to multiple locations across US. “Epic Games is looking for a character-focused Narrative Systems Designer to join our dynamic team.”

Narrative Design Lead at Lucid Games Remote within Great Britain. “We are looking for a creative, passionate and experienced designer to join our team on a 12 month fixed term contract.”

Narrative Design Lead at Lunacy Games Remote. “We're looking for a talented & experienced Narrative Designer who can step in at a relatively advanced stage in the project.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Cloud Chamber Montreal, CA or Novato, USA. “Cloud Chamber is looking for an adventurously creative Senior Narrative Designer to join our global development team.” *Note: This has been up for a while, not sure what that means.

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

A very festive hello to all my fellow narrative designers!

It has officially been two years since the S.S. Narrative News set sail on the turbulent waves of ones and zeros that comprise our vast and turbulent Internet. Our mission? To share resources, jobs, and opportunities for writers in the video game industry — or those hoping to wedge their foot firmly in the door. I’m pleased to say we are now nearly 1,000 strong in this jolly crew, a number that grows with each edition published.

As a special treat, I’ve collaborated with a wonderful Canadian illustrator and pal, Callum Isaac, to create a custom banner. It’s so nice I must post it twice.

That little blue guy is Narrative News’ official mascot! I love him dearly. He does need a name, though, so please comment with your best ideas. Over the next few newsletters, more custom headings featuring the amiable little fellow will appear throughout the newsletter.

Polaris Mini-Talks at GDC

I wasn’t able to attend many talks this past GDC but I did make it to two fascinating Polaris sessions, the first of which I’ll write about in this edition, and the second of which I’ll write about in June.

For those who don’t know, Polaris is an invite-only game design retreat where exceedingly smart and talented devs come together to ponder game design problems and subsequently release detailed papers that cover these issues in-depth.

The first session I hit was a series of micro-talks by various Polaris attendees that was just crammed to the brim with insights. If you’re curious beyond my blurbs, I’ve linked the accompanying papers (note: there was a team of individuals behind each report, click through to find full credits).

Enriching Your Game with Disobedience

First there was Alexander ‘Droqen’ Clair Tseu Martin on how a disobedient NPC can improve immersion in a game by making the world feel real. Additionally, it adds some systems suspense; it tells the player that the game is willing to break even its own rules. Lastly, it makes one consider their position of power as a player, a meta lever to pull that enhances the emotional resonance of the game’s themes. Are you really always in control? Should you be?

There is No Wheel: A Framework for Creating Emotionally Resonant Game Mechanics

Next, Rayla Heide (shout out/editor’s note: my wonderful boss!) spoke on creating emotionally resonant game mechanics. She reminds us that mechanics are not neutral. Whether you intend them to or not, they tell their own story — the question is, do you want them to be emotionally dissonant or consonant with the narrative of the game? Both approaches are valid, but they’re important to consider. For instance, swinging a hammer is an act of frustration, while picking a flower is an act of relaxation. Mechanics influence emotions, so consider carefully how you’d like to use them in your game to produce the intended effect.

Notes from the Boundaries of Interactive Storytelling

Jurie Horneman spoke about dynamic casting, which refers to injecting game elements (locations, people etc.) into authored content at run-time. Essentially, this allows you to craft a library of content that can be used across the map — an incredibly useful thing for a large game that requires tons of flexible content. How does it work, you ask? You replace fixed people/locations/things with roles. For instance, an NPC who has lost their pet and needs your help finding it. When activating that content, you’ll cast elements from existing libraries into those roles.

How to Design Collective Decision-making Systems

Next up, JC Lau spoke on how to design collective decision-making processes, meaning decisions that must be made by two or more players together (think Split Fiction, for instance). Their team came up with a clever framework for designing these collective decisions called DECIDE (shown below).

Expanding Player Impact in Social Spaces

Rosa Carbó-Mascarell spoke about the high rewards of letting players make contributions in social games, despite the accompanying risks. She pointed out that all social interactions are based off of trust and consent. In the case of these games, trust is built through reciprocation loops. At higher levels of trust, players are given more power to contribute to the game world.

Designing Creative Game Loops (not the real title — report not yet released)

The last speaker, Theresa Duringer, spoke about designing a game loop for a creative game, which is trickier than it seems. Games tend to reward efficiency over playfulness, but with creative games, the desire is to reward playfulness, and the loop must reflect this or players WILL resort to skilled mastery tactics. (Note: this report may not be published yet — I couldn’t find it online).

I highly recommend checking out this talk on the GDC Vault, if you have access and if you don’t — just read the wonderful reports for free on the Polaris website!

Events

Conferences

• Alert! Alert! LudoNarraCon is a free and extremely edifying online conference about game writing. It runs from May 1st to 5th. Find the list of talks below:

Also coming up, Narrascope 2025, a hybrid in-person/online conference also dedicated entirely to game writing and interactive fiction. I’ll be speaking on writing absorbing stories for short attention spans! It runs from June 20th to 22nd.

Meetups

• The SF Bay Area Interactive Fiction Group is playing some games from the Spring Thing together online and in-person at The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland.

Jams + Competitions

• Games from the Spring Thing are now available to play and vote on! Enjoy a whole plethora of brand-new interactive fiction.

• The Dialogue Jam runs until May 1st. It’s a month-long unranked jam all about communication between characters.

• The Parser Comp runs until June 30th. ParserComp is for previously unreleased, parser-based text games: games which take a free-text input, parse it, and produce an output which typically is more text.

• The Text Adventure Literacy Jam runs until April 30th. The aim? “Write a text adventure that is suitable for beginners to this genre. The game must include an in-game tutorial.”

Jobs

• Narrative Design Intern at EA Stockholm-based. “You will report to the studio's Narrative Director and work within a multi-studio narrative department, contributing to multiple experiences across the Battlefield franchise.”

• Technical Writer (Contract) at Riot Games Shanghai-based. “As a Technical Writer on the Wild Rift Shanghai team, you will help shape the quality of all player-facing text.”

• Writer at Mob Entertainment Remote. “The studio behind indie-horror gem Poppy Playtime, is seeking a remote, full-time, Writer to help the Creative Development team build and expand our flagship IP.”

• Lead Writer, Webcomics (Tragedy Mystery Drama, Boys’ Love genre) at Storygrounds Remote. “For this project, we are creating a contemporary drama series set in a University, where the core story centers on the aftermath of a friendship, years after the death of a childhood friend.”

• Support Writer Specialist (Story Team) at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw-based. “The ideal candidate is a person who can work with both English and Polish texts, is well-organized, detail-oriented.”

• Technical Narrative Designer at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw-based. “Seeking a mid-level Technical Narrative Designer to bridge the creative and technical aspects of storytelling within our next title, Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher.”

• Senior Narrative Designer at Lakysha Digital Remote. “We are looking for an experienced Senior Narrative Designer (UK time zone preferred but not required) to join the team. This is a fully remote 6-month Freelance contract starting in June 2025, with the possibility of extension for another 6–12 months.”

• Principal Narrative Designer at Lakysha Digital Remote. As above, but with a bit more experience required (at least seven years as a narrative designer).

• Narrative Lead at Polyarc Seattle-based. “Polyarc is searching for an experienced Narrative Lead to define our narrative workflow and ensure our storytelling thrives within every possible channel.”

• Narrative Director at EA Stockholm or Guildford-based. “The Narrative Director will be responsible for directing our efforts to create a coherent fiction for [Battlefield].”

• Narrative Director at Sega Irvine, CA-based. “The Narrative Director will assume an active role in collaborating with the narrative team (at SEGA Japan HQ and/or with an external Western developer) to shape the characters, story, dialogue, and VO for select SEGA games.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hi fellow narrative designers!

Currently writing this newsletter while listening to a playlist of California-themed songs and thinking about this year’s Game Developers Conference. The experience varied from attendee to attendee of course, but I certainly noticed smaller crowds and a more subdued atmosphere. Some posts on LinkedIn claimed there was a feeling of hope in the air. I’m not sure I felt that hope. When I looked in my fellow game devs’ eyes I just saw exhaustion and determination. Don’t get me wrong, determination is a wonderful thing, and it makes me very proud of us, as an industry. The determination to go on making art in an industry ruthlessly sacking us and hoping AI will fill the artistic void is admirable. Astounding, even. But man, the industry does stink right now.

To that end, the CWA announced a direct-join nationwide union for game developers. I think it’s a smart idea—after all, it’s difficult to unionize at many games companies because teams are spread apart in various countries across the world, ruled by various labor laws. A mass of workers joining this union could build power, leverage, and funds that meaningfully help American game workers in the future. You can check it out here. It’s an unusual method, but it may be effective. We can only hope so!

In other news, I saw some fascinating GDC talks that came out of the Polaris Game Design Retreat, which I’ll summarize in an upcoming post.

Aaand my last order of business before getting to the meat of the newsletter: I am looking for someone talented in the arts of graphic design and/or illustration to help me jazz up this here newsletter, for real $$. If you have suggestions or would be interested yourself, let me know in the comments or via LinkedIn, my one social media platform for some reason.

Meetups & Conferences

• Narrascope, the only conference I know of that is dedicated wholly to narrative design and interactive fiction, is coming around the corner! Running from June 20th to 22nd, it’s a hybrid online/in-person conference that’ll take place at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Shameless plug, I’ll be speaking and judging the showcase with some other illustrious narrative design people. Speaking of, you can still submit YOUR game to the showcase until May 1st here! Do it!

• Just in general, this website is a great tool for finding games conferences near you—it lists all of them, worldwide, and is extremely comprehensive.

• Big congrats to the Bay Area Interactive Fiction Meetup as they have officially been a group for 15 WHOLE YEARS! Dan Fabulich, you are a rock. On April 12th, they’ll be meeting up to play some Spring Thing games. Highly recommend joining them either online or in-person.

Jams & Competitions

• Read and vote on Spring Thing games starting April 9th — there’s always some incredible work in there.

• Text Adventure Literacy Jam submissions are due by April 30th. Quoth the itch.io page: “Write a text adventure that is suitable for beginners to this genre. The game must include an in-game tutorial.”

• Dialogue Jam 2025 submissions are due May 1st. This jam is focused on, you guessed it, dialogue!

• It’s worth noting that jams in other languages are frequently posted on the Interactive Fiction Wiki. For instance, this month you can find jams for French, German, and Russian writers!

• If I had more time on my hands, I’d certainly look for a team to join for Mystery Jam 2025 — you can’t craft a good mystery without a skilled writer!

Opportunities

The Limit Break Mentorship, which supports underrepresented people in the UK games industry, is open to applications from April 7th to April 25th. The program provides recipients with an industry mentor for (at least) six months.

Jobs

Narrative Design Contract at Tome & Blade Remote. 6K total budget. “Tome & Blade is seeking a skilled narrative designer to assist our lead writer in developing the narrative foundations for our upcoming political role-playing game, Archon.”

Writer (Fixed-Term Contract) at Dambuster Studios Remote. Due to conclude Dec. 2026. “Dambuster Studios - creators of the number one BAFTA-nominated smash hit Dead Island 2 - has an exciting opportunity for a Writer to join our highly talented Narrative team on a fixed-term contract.”

Game Narrative Designer at Yotta Games Shanghai-based. Not too much detail in this job listing.

Writer at Hazelight Studios Stockholm, Sweden. The creator of It Takes Two and Split Fiction is looking for a writer on their next project.

Lead Writer, V-Scroll Webcomic (Supernatural Drama) at Storygrounds Remote. “We are currently seeking a contract Writer to work on an original Supernatural Drama webcomic.”

Narrative Designer (Merge Mansion) at MetaCore Helsinki, Finland-based. “We are looking for a talented and technically adept Narrative Designer to join the Merge Mansion team.”

Senior Narrative Systems Designer - Sanzaru Game Studio at Meta Remote. “In this role, you'll craft immersive game-wide features, transforming abstract ideas into detailed rules and models that drive the player experience.”

Senior Narrative Designer (Frostpunk 2) at 11 bit studios Warsaw, Poland. “Your responsibilities: Designing, writing and implementing story arcs; Finding interesting ways to communicate outside the usual dialogue format.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Studio Elevation Remote within the UK. “nDreams Studio Elevation are re-establishing the boundaries of VR. We are looking for a Senior Narrative Designer to play a key role in shaping gameplay experiences.”

Senior Narrative Designer, World of Warcraft Irvine, CA. “Story is at the heart of everything we do in World of Warcraft, and we're seeking a Senior Narrative Designer to join our team and help craft unforgettable story experiences.”

Senior Narrative Designer at Cloud Chamber Remote in the United States. Also posted in Montreal, Canada (French proficiency required). “Cloud Chamber is looking for an adventurously creative Senior Narrative Designer to join our global development team.”

Senior Writer at Avalanche, Warner Bros. Games Salt Lake City, Utah. “Avalanche a division of WB Games, Inc., is looking for an experienced writer and talented storyteller with a deep understanding of the wizarding world.”

Lead Designer, Narrative at Avalanche, Warner Bros. Games Salt Lake City, Utah or Burbank, CA. “Join the team behind the blockbuster open world, action RPG Hogwarts Legacy as we create what’s next!”

Narrative Director at Studio KRAFTON Montreal Montreal, Canada (remote possible within Quebec). “We are working on a AAA game based on an acclaimed intellectual property set in an enthralling medieval fantasy world with a rich narrative and strategic gameplay.”

Narrative Director, Diablo at Blizzard Irvine, CA or Albany, NY. “As a Narrative Director, you will be responsible for overseeing the development of the story and campaign of exciting, memorable Diablo content.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hi fellow narrative designers!

GDC (the Game Developers Conference) is approaching and it’s sure to be a strange one. I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in San Francisco this year, but with the shocking number of jobs lost in our industry just this past year (never mind the past three years), the mood is sure to be pensive. The question on everyone’s minds: what do we do, as an industry? And, even more pressing, how do I personally survive as someone who loves this work?

I don’t have answers, per se, but I do have a bit of time to chat. If you’d like to schedule a quick 30-minute in-person meeting in Yerba Buena Gardens, add something to my calendar here. This is mainly for aspiring narrative designers and students who are just starting out on their journey — if you know me already, please reach out directly. And if you have business offers for me regarding AI, please do not.

I would also like to gauge interest in a meetup related to the Writer’s Guild of America. In the UK, game writers and narrative designers are part of that country’s respective Writer’s Guild, offering certain benefits and protections. I’m curious if such a model might work here in the US, as I’m sure many of you are as well.

If you are not able to make it to GDC (which is understandable — I myself could only afford the plane tickets and will not be attending the conference proper), then I’ll make sure to provide whatever news I can in the next roundup. Now, let’s get to the current batch of jobs and resources.

Meetups & Conferences

• For those who can’t make it to GDC, check out #notGDC, a free online event.

• For those who can make it to GDC, check out this comprehensive list of events and parties that take place during the conference, and GIG’s GDC Guide, which has TONS of useful advice.

Jams & Competitions

• Spring Thing 2025 submissions are due by March 30th.

• Dialogue Jam begins April 1st until May 1st and is a “month-long unranked jam all about communication between characters. Whether through verbal dialogue or written correspondence, this jam aims to bring discussions forward.”

• Text Adventure Literacy Jam is running until April 30th. “Write a text adventure that is suitable for beginners to this genre.”

• NaNoRenO is running until April 2nd. “NaNoRenO is an annual month-long game jam in which developers are challenged to make a visual novel from start to finish. It was originally inspired by the more famous NaNoWriMo (National Novelist Writer's Month, which takes place in November).”

• This month’s bitsy jam is themed “Orbit”. Bitsy is a wonderful, small, and simple engine for creating narrative games — especially if interactive fiction doesn’t tickle your fancy.

• If you’re eager to work with (or lead) a team, try reaching out to folks partaking in RPG Maker Game Jam, The Outbreak Jam, or Road Trip Game Jam. These are all the type of jam where a strong narrative will be appreciated. If you need a push: I’ve led several game jam groups as a narrative designer. It’s possible, and it usually leads to great results.

Resources

• David Kindregan has a whole YouTube channel full of videos on game writing, including this one above.

• David Gallaher writes about how a premise alone isn’t enough (so true).

• Meanwhile, Danny Salfield Wadeson notes that writing does not equal narrative design (also, so true).

• Lots of good articles this month: narrative designer James Cavin speaks about his work on limited time events in Temple Run Legends.

Jobs

Note: This month I’m reducing the jobs section to just junior and mid-level jobs, as the senior level jobs haven’t been clicked much in the past. If you’d still like to see the senior level jobs in Narrative News, drop a comment below!

Narrative Internship at Serious Point Games Remote. “We offer guidance to aspiring and passionate game developers through our work experience programs, ranging from 2 weeks to 6 months with flexible, no-minimum-hour schedules. It's worldwide, so even if you are outside of the UK, you are welcome to apply!”

Narrative Designer (Freelance) at SOFTGAMES Remote but based in Central Europe. “SOFTGAMES is the leading instant gaming company. We develop casual, truly social games that can be played instantly across all devices.”

Technical Narrative Designer at Take-Two Interactive Remote. “Our studio designed and released award-winning games, such as System Shock 2, BioShock and BioShock Infinite. We are currently working on our next project and would love for you to be part of our team.”

Writer at CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw, Poland-based. “We’re looking for a Writer to join the CD PROJEKT RED team dedicated to crafting the studio’s first-ever original IP and video game, codenamed Project Hadar.”

Writer for ReelShort, Elastic Heart Studio at Crazy Maple Studio LA-based. “We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Writer to join our team for the production of many Reelshort Mobisode Series with Elastic Heart Studio.”

Writer and Narrative Designer at Failbetter Games Remote (within three hours of UK time zone). “You’ll be working on Fallen London, a somewhat unusual narrative browser game. It’s 15 years old this year, with over four and a half million words when we last counted.”

Writer at Santa Monica Studio Remote. “Santa Monica Studio is seeking a Writer for the development of a new unannounced title! If you love collaborating with talented developers to create genre-defining games, join us as we embark on a new journey.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hi fellow narrative designers,

Just as I thought we were beginning to see some stabilization in the game industry jobs market, we were hit again with layoffs from some big names: Ubisoft, Bioware, Jam City, and Netflix, to name the ones I’ve seen. It’s rough out there, and the truth is that no is immune, no one is entirely secure. Especially not in the narrative department — the 2025 State of the Game Industry report revealed that one in ten respondents were laid off last year, with roles in narrative the most highly affected at 19 percent. To which I say: great idea, lay off all your writers. That’ll make for some really fun games in the future I bet.

But, more importantly, if you’ve been laid off and you are in any way taking personal responsibility: do not. This is about poor executive decision making — not you.

If you’re in need of support and community, reach out to your local indie communities, get involved in game discords, find jams and friends on itch.io, do anything you can to make human connections among all these inhumane cuts. I’ve been there once or twice (okay three or four) times, and it’s the only thing that’s kept me afloat. If you’re not sure where to start, I jotted down some quick ideas below.

In-person Indie Communities

Most cities around the world have some form of in-person indie game community. In New York there’s more than one, but I have to admit I’m biased toward GUMBO, a non-profit indie games co-working space that holds numerous events every month (I’m a drop-in member). In LA, there’s Glitch City, a similar organization. In Toronto, Dames Making Games is a wonderful community resource. There are many more in the States and across the world and I don’t have a comprehensive list, but I’d recommend searching “indie game dev collective [insert city here]” and seeing what pops up!

Conferences

Of course, games conferences are also a valid way to network but don’t feel you need to shell out $$$ to attend one if you don’t have the funds. If you’re in San Francisco around GDC, there are plenty of free events to attend without purchasing a ticket to the conference itself. There are also less expensive conferences, like NarraScope, which not only offers the opportunity for in-person networking, but also a lively Discord.

Online Communities

If you’re not in or near a city, do not despair! Game devs are some of the most online folks around. There’s the online Games Industry Gathering that happens each month for 24 hours straight; the IGDA-F, which offers programs for people trying to get into game dev that are all remote-friendly; and there are game jams — tons of ‘em — hosted on itch.io, all of which host Discord servers where you can meet and work with tons of indie devs from around the world.

The DIY Approach

If all else fails, there’s always the DIY approach — perhaps an indie game dev meetup in your town could produce opportunities for collaboration. I know, I know, it sounds a little cringe, but all good things start out cringe, and even if the event is a failure you’ll get something out of it. Trust the girl who started a Nancy Drew Book Club at the library in her village at age 12. The important thing is, I made some cool puzzles that afternoon.

On to regularly schedule programming…

Jams & Competitions

• Emotional Game Jam 2025 runs from February 4th to February 6th and is about creating “a unique experience around emotions.” It is hybrid (online and in Laval, France) and offers some small prizes.

• Mini Jame Gam #39 is a “beginner friendly game jam for people who want to have fun, meet new people and learn game development.” It runs from February 7th to February 9th.

• Smoochie Jam, a Valentine’s interactive fiction jam, runs from February 1st to March 1st.

• SeedComp! is a yearly interactive fiction game jam that takes place in two rounds: planting and sprouting. The sprouts are due by March 1st.

• The deadline for intents to enter the annual Spring Thing Interactive Fiction Festival is March 1st.

Resources

• Sasha Kudryavstev reposted their amazing list of free narrative design and game writing resources. Highly recommend perusing!

Opportunities

• NarraScope is looking for pitches for talks, due February 7th, for the upcoming conference to be held June 20-22 in Philadelphia. The conference is also hosting a showcase of narrative games for the first time, and offering a small honorarium. The submission deadline for the games showcase is May 1.

Jobs

• Not specifically narrative design, but Valnet is hiring gaming writers and I happen to know many of the folks over at these media properties are quite cool!

• Editor at Sudden Snail Remote, +/- 3 hours from CET timezone. “Contract position at a small indie studio working on their first game. This is a narrative focused game with heavy inspiration from TTRPG’s such as Dungeons and Dragons and contemporary CRPG’s such as Disco Elysium and classics like Planetscape: Torment.”

• Junior Script Writer at Highdive Montreal or Toronto-based. Part of the NetEase Games portfolio. “To continue to scale our growth in Canada, we're currently seeking a Junior Script Writer for our next AAA project to assist the Narrative Director.”

• Writer at Naughty Dog US-only remote. Would work through a contract staffing company. “Naughty Dog is offering a rare opportunity to join our writing team working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet!”

• Narrative Designer at Unknown Worlds Remote. “Unknown Worlds is seeking a talented Narrative Content Designer to work on Subnautica 2.”

• Narrative Designer - FC Southam, England. “We are looking for someone who understands football and our game to work in our growing design team with the Design Director and Senior Game Designer to develop narrative systems and to create something new and something exciting for our players.”

• Game Narrative Designer wanted via a recruitment post by Australian recruiter Bronwynn Lusted. She writes: “remote Australia or USA/Canada time zones
  Must have 2 years experience as a Games Narrative Designer & at least one published title (MMO open world game genre)”.

• Senior Game Writer at EA Studios - Cliffhanger Games Kirkland, Washington-based. “Cliffhanger Games is a newly formed Seattle Studio focusing on blockbuster action-adventure games and pioneering next-generation emergent storytelling beginning with Marvel’s Black Panther.”

• Senior Writer at CD PROJEKT RED Boston-based. “In this role, you will be responsible for crafting captivating narratives, compelling dialogues and innovative quests in Project Orion - the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077 and the next major video game in the Cyberpunk franchise.”

• Lead Narrative Designer at Jam City SF-based. “We are looking for an experienced Lead Narrative Designer to bring their expert writing and game design skills to our hit mobile game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.”

• Principal Narrative Designer at Elsewhere Entertainment (Activision) Santa Monica-based. “Elsewhere Entertainment is looking for a Principal Narrative Designer to join the development of a new IP.”

• Narrative Manager at Wizards of the Coast Renton, Washington-based. “Magic: The Gathering is seeking a Narrative Team Manager to define and grow our Universes Beyond team!”

• Narrative Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France-based. “As Narrative Director on a project not announced yet, you will be responsible for establishing and driving the development of the overall story, characters and settings together with other colleagues.”

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.

Hey fellow narrative designers,

I hope you’ve all enjoyed some rest this holiday season! Heading into this new year, I’m plotting away on how this newsletter can improve. Expect a much more attractive product with more developed community offerings in the near future. I’m very grateful for the support of all of you kind readers, without which I would never be able to do such things. Rest assured, this will all be done while maintaining free access to all content.

In other news, in the last newsletter I asked that the community send in the narrative-driven games they’d created, and they delivered! I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see so many high-quality fun and fascinating narrative indie games submitted, and I’ve had SUCH a good time playing them all. I hope our readers will too. As the industry continues to constrict and major companies lack the bravery to produce truly original and ground-breaking content, we need to support and bolster indie production.

Without further ado, the games (in alphabetical order)!

Main Showcase Picks

Bundle of Joy

Bundle of Joy is a short minigame romp with contemplative narrative vignettes about parenthood, overcoming self-doubt, and self-care. Based on studio lead Nicholas O'Brien's personal experience, Bundle of Joy is an intimate yet playful look at the struggles of facing the unknown and doing your best even when you think that isn't enough.

Rose’s note: This game is a colorful, tactile, and vibrant adventure into parenthood. The fun and frantic mini-games are the perfect counterpoint to the story of a man entering into fatherhood. I played this first at Narrascope 2024 and since then, Nicholas O’Brien and his team have been hard at work adding more mini-games and updating the content.

Lupercalia

Rose’s note: This is a gorgeous work of interactive fiction. The author, Aren Givens, hasn’t left an introductory paragraph on itch.io, but I’ll say on their behalf: it’s a detailed mythologically themed work with quite a bit of mechanical heft behind the narrative — the perfect type of game to sink your teeth into on a cold winter’s day.

Night Owls

Serenity Scott was last seen on October 22nd, 2004. To this day, her whereabouts are unknown. No evidence suggests there was foul play.

Night Owls is a ~20 min unsettling narrative that marks the 20-year anniversary of the disappearance of a 20-year-old woman.

Rose’s note: I’m not easily scared, but this beautifully rendered narrative horror game succeeded in making me shiver. The dialogue is relatable and builds a wonderful investment in the character and her world, making the dread all the more potent. Also the visual design… brilliant! Shout out to Devinne Moses for successfully scaring me (and making a gorgeous game).

Thank You for Your Time

Thank You for Your Time is a visual novella that I made with Ren’Py as a solo dev. It’s a surreal parable about audition purgatory, and about a difficult question: how long will you wait for your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

Rose’s note: Another solo dev, Alex Laney, crafted this compelling and atmospheric experience. I love anything surreal, but a surreal take on auditioning is extra poignant right now, at a time when so many talented writers are feeling unheard and unappreciated. I was absorbed throughout.

The Ouroboros Express

Play as Vivienne Sanssouci, a daring journalist who has been tasked to review the Ouroboros Express. She quickly notices that this is not your regular train—and a devastating secret changes her life forever, and that of the other passengers…

Rose’s note: Trains, mystery, mind flayers, and philosophical pondering about the afterlife? Sign me up! The characters are well-rendered and easy to form interesting relationships with, while I enjoyed the main character’s Lorelai Gilmore-style quick wit. Plus, it features a great cast of talented voice actors! What a treat. Congrats to Najmah Salam, Tiago Da Cunha, Salvador Bas Folch, Kyle Smith-Laird, Andrea Saravia Pérez, and the entire team on this game.

Plus: Exciting Upcoming Projects

Take Us North

Take Us North is a narrative adventure survival game that follows the journeys of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the US-Mexico border.

Inspired by real-world stories, Take Us North aims to foster greater awareness and empathy about some of the most crucial global issues of our time.

Rose’s note: This game hasn’t launched yet, but it’s certainly worth putting your name down to get notified by Kickstarter when it does. This is a subject that deserves real artistic attention, and from what I’ve seen so far, the execution looks brilliant.

Worldseekers

We're blending some of our favorite elements of location and GPS-map games and card games with a sprinkling of narrative on top!

Rose’s note: A first version of this is actually available for Android players. I’m very intrigued by the idea of adding more narrative to a Pokemon Go-type GPS-map game. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one.

Jams

• ShuffleComp 2024 is a “musical interactive fiction competition where you make games based on songs, which are submitted by other entrants.”

• PunyComp 2024: “Feeling nostalgic about the golden age of text adventures? Relive those days by participating in PunyComp 2024!”

Resources

Check out this amazing resource — Lauri Donahue’s list of screenwriting opportunities, arranged by deadline throughout the upcoming year.

Kelly Bender has outlined the various phases in which narrative designers might be brought on to a project. On point, as usual!

Jobs

Games Writer at Alternate Games Remote. “Our company not only wants to support the LGBTA, POC, and disabled community, but give them opportunities in the industry.”

Writer (Contract) at PlayStation Global LA-based. “The Writer (Contract) position at PlayStation involves contributing to the development of a new, unannounced game title.”

Writer/Screenwriter at G5 Games Kazakhstan, Armenia, or Georgia-based. “G5 Games seeks a talented Writer/Screenwriter to create engaging and concise game texts, scripts, and dialogues.”

Technical Narrative Designer at Cold Symmetry Remote. “We're seeking a Junior to Mid-Level Narrative Designer to work closely with our Narrative Director, helping bring narrative events to life in Unreal Engine.”

Narrative Game Designer - Star Trek Fleet Command at Scopely Dublin-based. “Scopely is looking for a Narrative Game Designer to join our Star Trek Fleet Command team on a hybrid/remote basis.”

Narrative Systems Designer at Activision Poland-based. “Activision seeks a Narrative Systems Designer to contribute to a new AAA open-world RPG.”

Contract Senior Narrative Designer at Bungie Approved Locations. “Bungie seeks a Contract Senior Narrative Designer to join the Destiny 2 team.”

Senior Writer at Haven Studios Montreal-based. “As a multi-player GaaS game we are looking for a candidate interested in finding innovative ways to deliver narrative content.”

Senior Writer at CD PROJEKT RED Boston-based. “In this role, you will be responsible for crafting captivating narratives, compelling dialogues and innovative quests in Project Orion - the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077.”

Senior Narrative Designer, World of Warcraft Irvine-based. “We're looking for an experienced narrative designer who loves to collaborate with peers across multiple disciplines to achieve our story goals.”

Principal Narrative Designer at Activision Santa Monica-based. “The Principal Narrative Designer will lead the development of key narrative systems and features for a new IP at Elsewhere Entertainment.”

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About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on a new IP. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Cell to Singularity, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.