Narrative News August 2024: Jobs, Jams, and More!
Looks like we're headed back into hiring season.
Hi fellow narrative designers!
It’s been a head-spinning past month.
The lows: yet more layoffs including Bungie and Jam City — which, fun fact, already had the privilege of laying me off a scant two years ago. The latter studio blamed industry trends for their layoffs, which really gives big “everyone else is doing it” energy.
The highs: both Bethesda and the World of Warcraft workers unionizing. These are both incredibly massive achievements that took immense work. Before Bethesda, it was unprecedented to see an entire large studio unionize across all departments. It’s an incredible feat, that was surely set in motion by the QA workers’ labor organization. Good work to all! It’s amazing to see workers creating a united front capable of wielding leverage against corporations that previously held all the power and control. It may just prove very useful given our dire economic prospects for the next little while (particularly in the US).
And, with that, let’s head to our roundup!
Events
Gamescom is running from the 21st to the 25th of this month. Located in Cologne, Germany, it’s a great opportunity for learning and networking!
Jams + Competitions
IFComp registrations are closed, so if you’ve submitted your intent to enter you have until September 28th to actually upload your game. Can’t wait to see the results! For those who aren’t familar, IFComp is the largest annual interactive fiction competition. Voting begins on September 1st.
The massive GMTK Game Jam begins August 16th and runs until the 20th. Reminder that joining jam discord servers and advertising your services as a narrative designer/writer is super valid and appreciated by other disciplines!
Resources
The wonderful Kelly Blender, who you should really follow on LinkedIn, has published a wonderful piece on Medium about the three-act structure in video games.
The Corner of Story and Game podcast interviewed Lucas Loredo on messing with narrative structure.
I missed the live debut of this course, but there’s a workshop about duet TTRPG games hosted by the Storytelling Collective. Duet games are created for a single player. I think this is massively applicable to creative narratives for single-player video games and fully believe that TTRPG writing and DMing is the BEST practice any game writer can get.
Jobs
Junior Narrative Designer at United Tech Remote. A rare junior ND role, but warning: it’s at an AI company because of course it is. Still, if you can garner experience here, more power to you.
**EDIT: Someone at the company reached out to me— the AI usage is only in the art department. There is no AI being used in narrative.
Assistant Narrative Designer at United Tech Remote. Ditto the above.
Writer (Contract) at PlayStation LA-based. “We are 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.”
Associate Story Ops Manager at Pocket Gems SF-based. “As an Associate Story Ops Manager on Episode, you will work with our creators and team to develop best in class mobile storytelling processes.”
Narrative Designer at Ubisoft Mainz, Germany. Work on the Anno franchise. This is a parental leave cover role until the end of Aug 2025.
Narrative Designer at Loco Players Remote (seemingly), part-time role as a freelance consultant. They’re looking for someone experienced who can evaluate the current narrative, preferably who speaks Spanish.
Narrative Designer at Fatshark Stockholm-based. Most well-known for developing Warhammer: Vermintide. Looking for a mid to senior-level narrative designer.
Narrative Technical Designer at KRAFTON Montreal-based. Working on an “acclaimed” medieval fantasy IP. Looking for an experienced ND.
Narrative Designer at Escape Velocity Remote. Everything is kept pretty vague, but you can find a little more on their website.
Quest Designer at CD PROJEKT RED Remote. Key responsibilities include “creating the storyline on a detailed level” and “designing quests and implementing them using Unreal Engine 5.”
Quest Designer at Ubisoft Bordeaux, France-based. “As a Quest Designer at Ubisoft Bordeaux on an Assassin’s Creed Game, you are responsible for designing part of the missions of the game.”
Quest Designer at Ubisoft Annecy, France-based. “As a Quest Designer at Ubisoft Annecy, you’ll play a central role in bringing the project to life. Ultimately your mission will be to design and implements players’ interaction with our story.”
Writer at Larian Warsaw-based. “Write and test complex branching dialogues that have player agency throughout and fulfill the narrative requirements set by Design, Writing, and Narrative Leads.”
RPG Designer at Larian Dublin-based. “Design narrative and gameplay content within an area of the game, take ownership of the area throughout implementation, and responsibility for its final quality.”
Lead Writer at Cloud Imperium Games Manchester-based. “Our Narrative team are looking for a talented Lead Writer to join our Manchester Studio to craft unique and fun story experiences for Star Citizen.”
Principal Writer at Tencent Irvine, USA-based. “You’ll play a key role in crafting the game’s open-world narrative experience, imagining characters, mission content, and contributing to the world bible for a new IP.”
Senior Writer at Cloud Chamber Montreal-based. “Cloud Chamber is looking for a talented Senior Writer to join our hard-working Narrative Team to bring the world of BioShock to life once again!”
Senior Narrative Designer at Riot Games Shanghai-based. “As a Senior Narrative Designer in Research & Development working on an early stage product, you will help decipher one of Riot’s next big bets.”
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 Ashe Cove by Double Loop Games, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup every month.