The Game Writer and the Narrative Designer (and How You Can Be Both)

Intended Audience: 

Writers looking to work in the industry, devs wanting to learn game writing and narrative design, game writers/narrative designers with a couple of years of experience, devs looking to work with game writers and narrative designers and understand what they do.

Description:

Game writing and narrative design can have different names, depending on what a studio decides to call them. Sometimes narrative design is even referred to as “game writing.” However, game writers and narrative designers have different responsibilities on a development team. You may have opportunities to step into both roles.

We’ll look at the differences between game writing and narrative design and what skill sets you’ll need to be successful at both.

Takeaways:

• Review how narrative design differs from game writing.
• Define “story delivery” and “story.”
• Discuss how narrative design informs all parts of a game, including game design, UI/UX, sound design, art, animation, etc.
• Learn how to incorporate narrative design into “non-story” games.
• Learn what incorporates story writing in a game.

Instructor Bio: Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley is a writer, editor, game designer, and narrative designer/game writer. She holds a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. With nearly 70 published works, she has over 20 years of experience writing in a range of genres. She leads workshops and speaks at conferences like GDC, ECGC, PAX Dev, PAX West, and Gen Con. In 2011, she co-founded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012.

She has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, and editor (or some combination of the four) on several indie, social, and mobile games for children and general audiences. Some of these projects shall stay locked away in dungeons for eternity (hey, that’s the game industry for ya). Some published games include Academagia: The Making of Mages (Black Chicken Studios), Fat Chicken (Relevant Games), Verdant Skies (Howling Moon Software), and Siren Song (Stardust Works). She co-authored The Game Narrative Toolbox (Focal Press, 2015) with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner. Most recently, she edited and contributed to Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling (CRC Press, 2018). Her current work includes writing and editing for various interactive fiction projects like NBCUniversal’s Series and Sana: Interactive. 

She is currently a member of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group's Executive Board. Oh, and she’s finally working on her own demo!

Giving Back: As with all our masterclasses, for every ticket sold we will donate a ticket to a deserving developer somewhere around the world.