Narrative News November 2023: Opportunities, Jobs, Resources and More!
All the news that's fit to print in the narrative design community.
Hi, fellow narrative designers!
We’re back with another edition of Narrative News. Since I’m recovering from a long, terrible flu and since I’ve decided to move forward with just one free post per month for now, enjoy access to the paid content from October! PLUS new content for this month.
P.S.: Sorry, I have no strength for GIF finding… this month we’re going spartan, yet functional.
Without further ado…
Events
Meetups
SF Bay Area Interactive Fiction Group meets on November 4th as a hybrid event at 3pm PDT.
Jams + Competitions
The Bare-Bones Jam is ongoing until November 1st. Try it out if you’re looking for a simple text-only game jam. No graphics and no formatting changes allowed!
inkJam 2023 just concluded, but you can always play and vote for your favorite submissions!
IFComp games are still open to play! Until Nov. 15th. Give ‘em a go, and give ‘em a judge!
Opportunities
Jobs
Scriptwriter at Your Story Interactive
Scriptwriter (Far Cry Project) at Ubisoft
Writer at Curiomatic
Writer at Cute Newt LTD
Romance Game Writer at One More Multiverse
Associate Writer at Rockstar Studios
Game Narrative Designer at Yotta Studios
Narrative Designer at Aristocrat
Narrative Designer at Bit Reactor
Narrative Designer at Avalanche Studios
Editorial Director (Manga, Anime, and Video Game Books), Square Enix at Penguin Random House
Senior Narrative Designer at Drinkbox Studios
Lead Narrative Designer (Digital D&D) at Wizards of the Coast
Freelance
Raccoon Logic is looking to hire for contract writing work on a project and would prefer a Montreal local.
There’s a platform called Scripts that is offering up to 5 cents a word for queer romance stories. That’s not a whole lot, but at least they’re upfront about it. Check it out here.
Pocket FM is also looking for freelance creative writers. Don’t know too many details, but check out this post.
Storygrounds is a new platform for collaborative webcomic creation. You can submit for pre-registration here.
Programs
Apply until November 17th for the GDC Experimental Game Workshop!
Apply to go to GDC for free as part of the Pixelles ensemble.
Resources
Watch of the Week
A concise, to-the-point explainer!
Article: How to Get People (*Especially People in Management) to Care About Story!
One thing I didn’t expect about the role of a narrative designer is how much of it involves convincing people that my role should exist. Narrative design requires more advocacy than any other role in games. If the game doesn’t test well, it probably won’t go in a “non-art” direction, but it might just go in a “non-narrative” direction. If you aren’t both writing your heart out and consistently and clearly pitching your value, you could find yourself out of a job. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I’m here to help you avoid the same fate.
*Note: This is specific to my experience in the mobile industry, but the lessons should hold true across platforms.
Explain the motivations behind your decisions.
It’s not enough to have a great idea, you have to be able to explain it, too.
There are several important reasons for developing this skill. Firstly, you’ll be able to generate the same excitement you have for your idea with the rest of your team, and secondly, you’ll be able to show how much you’ve considered your idea on multiple levels and how much you have the overall success of the game in mind.
Don’t worry too much about being eloquent or using big words, just take up the necessary time and space to explain yourself. For instance:
“This line from Tammy conveys her hesitance to embrace change and also allows us to introduce the concept of the zombie ferrets. Additionally, I changed her tone from sarcastic to fearful so it could convey her empathy for the ferrets.”
Even if it’s not in your nature to give long-winded explanations, get used to it! As someone who can relate, I assure you that people cannot read your mind, so very detailed explanations of the “why” behind your work are always a good thing in a professional setting.
You should apply this to everything from small line changes to the overarching importance of narrative for your game. Take what’s in your brain, and list it out in an unapologetic, matter-of-fact way.
For example:
“Without narrative, our game will look exactly like the competitors, and there will be no enticing reason for players to switch from an established favorite to a new up-and-comer. I understand that you’re worried players claim not to like narrative, but our plan is to develop a killer narrative hook that can be delivered in short, snappy lines with very few taps. A great story doesn’t need huge blocks of text, and we’ll prove that with our game.”
Make sure the test conditions are as favorable as possible.
You KNOW that players will love the story behind your game if you just get a chance to massage the kinks out. The only problem is? You might not get that chance. If your employer is testing the game with 10 players and five of them say they didn’t like the narrative, your entire approach (or even role) might be dead in the water. That means you’ve got to take every test as seriously as possible. Know when your game is being tested and do some pre-testing if you can. There’s no room for error — make sure your lines are playing as intended, and that the character movement/actions are correct. This is your product. Even if it wasn’t explicitly in your job description to test your own work, any sloppiness will reflect on you, so it’s best to get ahead of it.
Clarify expectations.
To the above point, make sure you know what your boss is expecting in terms of narrative performance. Especially before testing the game, see if you can get clarity on what they’d like to hear from players. You could frame it as: “What does success look like, from an overall standpoint and a narrative standpoint?” Once you get the answer, you can work backward to engineer (or at least attempt to engineer) that moment for the playtesters.
For example, if your boss says that she hopes the players will feel the game has a strong family narrative, then you can go back into your script and hit the family moments even stronger.
Provide examples of success stories.
If you’re doing all of this and your boss still isn’t seeing the value of narrative, it’s best to communicate openly about their concerns. If you think their fears are unfounded, one of the things you can do is go over the success stories — games that are frequently lauded for their narrative. Most successful games have vibrant narratives and deep lore, so it won’t be hard to find examples within the genre of game that you’re working on. It’s important to remind management of what the goal is, sometimes, and to assure them that you are aiming to help them achieve that goal with your specific (and valuable) skillset.
Thanks for reading! Hop into the comments if you have any questions or thoughts. Narrative News will be back at the beginning of December.
Very helpful!