The Game Narrative Toolbox

by Tobias Heussner

Learn how to create compelling game storylines.


Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the videogame industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Finley, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees in order to help readers make the switch from prose- or screen- writing to interactive. Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.


This first installment of Focal Press's Game Design Workshops series is a must-have for individuals looking to create captivating storylines for games.

Genres: Game Design, Writing, Nonfiction, Games, Video Games, Gaming, Narrative

263 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2015

Reviews

[emily. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really confused about who this book is marketed for. I was expecting something much more in-depth, but most of it's content and conclusions seems remarkably obvious to anyone who is more than superficially interested in games - and even for people who aren't, at one point the word 'motivation' is defined? It's an odd juxtaposition considering it's advertised as a book for people who want to pursue game writing. That being said, there are some hidden gems, the 'implementation' chapter in particular as well as the conclusion (less of a conclusion and more a chapter on resume-writing and networking) that are worth reading. Generally, this book suffers from a lot of bloviating about the basic tenants of games, with it's real content being when it focuses on implementing them in meaningful ways.

[Yara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veel structuur, veel bijgeleerd over game writing, maar ik had graag wat concrete voorbeelden gekregen. Ik weet nu de "do's" en "don'ts", maar ik weet nog steeds niet hoe ik een scenario moet schrijven. Wel heel toegankelijk en inspirerend!

[Jane Messer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in my preparation for the writing of my first narrative online game, The Great Fire (available for free play on itch.com), and found it very helpful, in terms of transitioning me from being an experienced narrative fiction writer, to writing for a digital interactive game platform. The chapters are written by various game developers, some of them not as well written as others (e.g. too chatty) but certainly much of the book from my perspective was tremendously useful.

[Caroline Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who works in the game industry this book did not give me the specific information I was looking for. It might be useful to someone who is just starting out, who doesn't have a portfolio of different styles and types of documents. But as another reviewer says, it lacks depth.

The Game Narrative Toolbox doesn't go into how any of the digital tools of the trade are used (the title is a bit misleading in that aspect). The tools mentioned in this book refer not to computer programs, but the methods of creating characters or worldbuilding or dialogue from scratch. Which are valuable tools, if you don't already know them.

When the book does mention a program used in narrative design, it doesn't really explain how to use it. And while it is true most companies have in-house programs, knowing how someone else organizes their thoughts and documents through Excel or Twine or even on napkin sketches would have been useful.

It would have been nice if the authors, from their different backgrounds, showed more of how they would set something up. If they had explained their choices and walked the reader through how they would take their written documents and implement them into a game, rather than just tossing out a few portfolio building assignments at the end of each chapter. The assignments are worth doing, don't get me wrong, but I don't feel like I learned anything new as I just used the skills I already had to get them done.

Honestly, for me, the best part about the book were the many links to outside sources.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audience approaching these books usually has two origins: industry and academia. On the industry side, one wants more information on how to do it. From the academic side, more about the concepts, and what they mean.

In this sense, the book tries to offer a bit to both, on the one hand, it explains, and well, the conceptual components of narrative design, on the other hand, it gives an account of teamwork processes. Naturally, it does not go into depth. Nor does it give an account of the tools, and how to overcome the most complex problems, sought by those working in the industry. Nor does it establish any relationship with the issues of narratology, in the sense of sustaining in-depth the scope of the importance of the design of a narrative as opposed to just the writing.

An interesting, even if introductory, book.

[Mark Poulsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has been very useful by reading it alongside working on a game project. Contains plenty of practical advise that are sure to inform your "know-how" and is rather broad in its scope (from casual to MMO). Most useful for me has been the outlines for writing concrete narrative documents / cutscenes - I will be able to refer to this going forward.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

As mentioned by some of the other reviewers, the book covers the topic broadly but without becoming too specific or going into lot’s of depth. Good for beginners or as a general guide but if you are looking for something more in depth or advanced, it may fall short for you. Otherwise it’s a good book, it won’t blow your mind, but it does what it says on the tin.

[Kaley Mans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little unapproachable in the textbook format. It becomes very dense info dump later on. The margin notes are also a bit ridiculous. Some go on for 3 pages and might as well have been it’s own section in the chapter.

A lot of info from a very basic level.