Grab 'em by the throat and the heart will follow | Narrative News July '25
Reporting from the front lines of Narrascope 2025 + jobs, resources, and more!
Hi fellow narrative designers,
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.
Hooray for Ashe Cove for being FUN!! And that's thanks to you, Rose!
I love the new title! ;)