Dramatic Storytelling & Narrative Design: A Writer's Guide to Video Games and Transmedia

by Ross Berger

This book provides an industry professional's firsthand POV into narrative design's practical usage, day-to-day roles and responsibilities, and keys to breaking in and succeeding. The book will also delve into the foundations of compelling storytelling through structural analysis and character archetype breakdowns. The author widens the understanding of game narrative to include examples from other media. He will also break the structure down of two popular games and show how the structural elements are applied in practice. In addition to discussing industry trends (including Fortnite, Twitch, and Netflix's interactive TV shows), the author illustrates how the leveraging of transmedia can make a video game franchise enduring over time. Because media appetites are radically changing, designing a story experience across various media outlets is not only preferable to meet the high demands of millennial and GenZ consumers; it's necessary as well.



Key Features:



Practical how-to's to meet the ever-increasing studio demands for a narrative designer



Critical analysis of the narrative of two best-selling games



Samples of a story structure diagram, character polling, transmedia release timeline, and a branching conversation tree



Deep breakdowns and definitions of story beats and dramatic devices



Pro-tips on better documentation and overall job preparedness

Genres: Game Design, Writing, Design

196 pages, Hardcover

Published August 27, 2019

About the author

Ross Berger started his writing career as a playwright in New York, where he received the Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Dramatists Guild Playwriting Fellowship, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Next-Step Fellowship. In 2004, he co-wrote the Emmy-submitted, Sweeps Week episode "Gov Love" for NBC’s Law & Order.

Since 2007, his career has been part Hollywood and part Silicon Valley. Ross bridges the gap between the two by designing, writing, and producing story experiences across traditional and new media platforms. Credits include the Webby-Award winning LonelyGirl15 (2007-2008), the Obama Girl franchise (2007-2008), and the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck-produced show The Runner (2016). In the video game industry, Ross was the senior narrative designer for Microsoft Studios and Electronic Arts for such titles as Quantum Break (2016), Sunset Overdrive (2014), and the NBA Live (2017-2019) franchise. Ross’ first console title was CSI: Deadly Intent (2009), where he learned video game storytelling from the former masters of game narrative, Telltale Games. (Rest in peace.)

Ross has also worked heavily in Virtual Reality as a writer for the Oculus Rift launch title Farlands (2016) and the award-winning Eclipse: Edge of Light (2017) for the Google Daydream and Oculus Go.

Ross is also a published author, a former animation writer, and a one-time scenario writer of a board game. A graduate of Brandeis (BA, Philosophy) and Columbia (MFA, Playwriting) universities, Ross is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Television Academy.

Reviews

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that eschews academic definitions to focus entirely on practice from international industry. In that sense, it presents a pragmatic world of knowledge with some ideas on how-to.

However, and perhaps this is the biggest problem, it is introductory, it addresses the multiple issues only on the surface. Even though one can only truly learn by doing, the book ends up giving very little, and even less new.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 & briefly noting my initial thoughts:
I found this to be a very surface level, inconsistent, and uncritical exploration of narrative design. I realize that this is geared towards AAA studios, but I found the talking points of “hero’s journey or bust” to be reductionist and flawed. While I wasn’t expecting this text to explore narrative design from a systems thinking standpoint, I was expecting actual critical analysis and breadth. A few pages were worth bookmarking to revisit again, but I look forward to finding texts that explore narrative design from a more holistic POV and doesn’t parrot that the hero’s journey is the only way to write a story worthwhile as I have criticisms of the hero’s journey more broadly. The lack of criticisms of this type of storytelling in this text was disappointing.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, pragmatic, and honest - sometimes brutally so - introduction to the world of narrative design for video games. An exceptionally dry read, of course, but it's trying to inform you, not entertain.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read both the first edition and this second edition which goes much further and tackles not only best practices for interactive storytelling but tracks effective trends for the future of entertainment.

As someone who worked as a producer and creator in media for decades (film, television and gaming) this book is essential to any professionals and students working in or planning on entering the space.

Berger has delivered a foundational must-read for anyone working with stoytelling structures, narratives across various channels and interested in deep, compelling character development.

[Agustín Fest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buen repasada para entender la industria, la terminología básica. Excelente para quienes aspiran una carrera de escritura en medios interactivos.