Narrative News July 2024: Jobs, Opportunities, and Addressing the State of the Industry
It's hard out here.
Hello fellow narrative designers!
It seems every month, every week, every day of the last two years or so in the games industry has been on a spectrum ranging from demoralizing to heartbreaking. It feels like the industry is dying—but it’s not.
The popularity of live service games over freestanding games notwithstanding, gaming is an overwhelmingly popular pastime and we’re not even close to the peak of its popularity in the long view of things.
So what is happening? An under-regulated industry bent on maximizing profits at any cost is making working in this field so relentlessly punishing that it breaks the wills of even the most passionate devs.
People Make Games made a particularly rousing video about this subject, and Chris Bratt put it much better than I ever could. Please do watch it!
What strikes me about this situation is how powerless we all feel, but how powerful we all actually are in consideration of the fact that we power a multi-hundred-billion dollar industry worldwide. We don’t have to sit passively while the suits ruthlessly strip-mine us to power their AI engines in order to produce soulless dog crap that no one, ultimately, likes.
We can unite. We must. And whether you like it or not, we will. We are the generation who are going to make these changes. It’ll be hard, but it’s necessary.
To that end, a few links:
IATSE is still conducting its game workers survey and has released some preliminary results.
The union Chris Bratt was speaking to is IWGB in the UK, find them here.
For narrative designers specifically, it may be worthwhile inquiring and showing interest to the Writers Guild of America.
With that all said, let’s get to the jobs, opportunities, and resources!
Meetups + Conferences
Develop:Brighton is coming up shortly and there are a few interesting narrative talks that look well worth checking out including “Testing Branching Narrative at Scale: Lessons from Mask of the Rose” by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin of Failbetter Games.
By the way! If costs are an issue, Ustwo & Into Games are collaborating on a travel bursary that seems to still be open to submissions, if you’re low on funds!
Jams + Competitions
The Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp) is now open for creators to register their intent to enter until Aug. 1st. Once you’ve registered intent, you have until August 28th to upload your entry.
Submissions for the Anti-Romance Jam are open until July 22nd, 2024. This is an interactive fiction jam that exists in “charged intimate rivalry” with Smoochie Jam.
You can vote for your favorite games from ParserComp until June 30th!
Resources
Check out ‘Creating Modular Poetry for Turn-Based Combat’ by Jesse Calder, creator of Battle Poet.
Free zine download! Michael Iantorino created a zine about game preservation efforts in Canada for this years’ Canadian Game Studies Conference.
A great roundup of game development grants and funding.
Internships
Latinx in Gaming & Riot Games 2024 Summer Mentorship deadline is July 5th. “Applications are open to all, no matter where you are located, though optional events will be hosted at Riot's campus in Los Angeles.”
Jobs
Note: This sort of dearth of postings is common for the mid-summer season, unfortunately. Things start to speed back up in the fall and winter!
Junior Game Writer at Cozy Bee Games Quebec-based. “Cozy Bee Games, a small indie studio based in Montreal, Canada, is seeking a creative and passionate Junior Game Writer to join our team for an exciting project, The Ranch of Rivershine.”
Associate Game Writer at EA Toronto-based. “Covet Fashion is seeking a Game Writer to join our Live Ops team. Reporting to the Head of Content, you will be responsible for generating weekly written content for our game.”
Associate Writer: In Game Copy at Rockstar Games Edinburgh-based. “Rockstar North are looking for a talented associate writer to produce in game copy that reflects the many distinctive voices of the characters and entities that populate our vast, thriving multimedia worlds.”
Narrative Designer at Series AI Remote. “Series AI is seeking a talented Narrative Designer who will help concept, write, script & implement story content for our upcoming story releases.”
Lead Narrative Designer at MY.GAMES Amsterdam-based. This studio has “developed or produced games including War Robots, Hustle Castle, Rush Royale, Left to Survive, Tacticool, Grand Hotel Mania, HAWKED – and many more.”
World and Narrative Manager at Eleventh Hour Games Remote. “As the World and Narrative Manager for Eleventh Hour Games you will be key in defining and executing the game’s narrative strategy.”
Narrative Realization Director at PlayStation Global LA-based. “As the Narrative Realization Director, you ensure the narrative goals of the project are successfully realized through an effective combination of cinematics, gameplay moments, visual language, pacing, and dialogue.”
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.