Narrative Design: The Craft of Writing for Games

by Michael Breault

A detailed look at the roles narrative designers (writers) play in the game industry, from the point of view of a game design educator and 35-year industry veteran. The work narrative designers and game designers perform on games is presented along with practical advice on how to break into the game industry as either a writer or designer. Templates and detailed instructions are given for readers to create a portfolio of work that could lead to a job in the game industry.

Key Features

- An intimate look at the workings of AAA game development teams from someone who has spent decades embedded on these teams at several well-known companies.

- An insider's look at the game industry, including detailed advice on breaking into the industry.

- Detailed instructions for creating a portfolio to demonstrate both narrative design and game design skills to prospective employers

- Lessons and exercises to help students learn narrative design and game design skills.

- For college instructors, this book serves as a how-to guide for teaching classes in both narrative design and game design.

192 pages, ebook

Published May 22, 2020

Reviews

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book on the specific field of narrative design that suffers from some generalisations and superficialities when it comes to discussing the craft. Breault discusses game design in general, and goes into some depth when it comes to narrative design, but never really delves into the issue of narrative, always following the maxim that in a game, gameplay is the main thing and narrative is secondary.

The author provides an informative set of syllabuses and exercise templates.

[Erick Sala · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is less about narrative design for video games and more about platform for the author to name drop all the cool people he’s met and talk about the books he’s read in his youth.

The desire to convey the structure of game development to students is apparent here, don’t get me wrong. However, I feel the book does too much to try and stay evergreen, and in doing so has made it sort of irrelevant and outdated in a few key ways.

First, in approaching creativity, the author explains Duffer’s Drift, wherein gaps in their defenses came to the character in a dream. Sure, this happens, for some people. Others who may not have this experience or ability would have benefitted from some ideation techniques, how to use a Trello board, or how to collaborate rather than ‘collaborating happens in game dev!’ Not ‘watch all the anime movies and games you can until you create an idea’ which might never happen. I’ve had students like this who just wanted to watch anime, and they never wanted to do more than that, and I feel this book fails here.

There’s a section devoted to ‘testing with gamers’ which yes, that is essential. But it too suffered from this ‘evergreen’ tendency, where the solution was more or less ‘you’ll never know what gamers want from your game’ which yeah, sure, but how about giving some advice on how to generate mechanics or how to improve gameplay? Surely at this point there’s tons of data you could have referenced especially when it comes to the virality of mobile games or the various retro movements within Indie scenes. Too vague.


TL;DR: It’s rife with self help tropes like ‘smart goals’ ‘using your subconscious to find solutions’ and Thomas Edison quotes. The reference to Any information is few and far between and is presented so broadly that nothing unique or useful is conveyed. I’d skip this.

[Marri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book if you do not yet work in the games industry and are curious about what the day-to-day work of a narrative designer is like within a studio, and if you want some tools to begin training yourself in that discipline. The inclusion of all of Breault's syllabi with assignment formats is a great addition. Solid advice.

[Mike Whittern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully insightful and well-balanced.