Narrative Design - A Deeper Look
What is Narrative Design in a nutshell? Narrative Design is where the ‘rubber meets the road’ so to speak. It’s the meshing of the written word with the mechanics and systems of the game. It’s where extrapolation happens and Narrative Designers work with other parts of the team to bring the vision to life in various ways such as how the player will encounter and interact with parts of the story and the NPCs living in the game world. What if I don’t have examples? Writing for games takes a plethora of skills and studios often want to see what you can do up front before ever even speaking with you. This can be easier said than done these days (especially in the current state of the game industry and the rampant layoffs and short term work). If you are like me and have had the misfortune of working on great projects that either never saw the light of day due to cancellations, or are no longer available due to studio closures so you can’t direct people to them and NDAs often prevent ...