Some thinkings about #gamedesign, #narrativedesign, #rpg and #amwriting
So, both when playing and in thinking about running rpg's, I find early level monsters kind of boring, especially narratively. There just don't seem to be that many ways of making giant rats or wolves, for example, or even thugs, all that narratively interesting. What am I missing? What is the secret sauce for making low-level play feel like it has suitably high dramatic space?
In most books, the first chapter sets up the world, sets up the characters' lives, and sets up something of the larger conflict to come. But we still see Darth Vader in the first 10 minutes of star wars. In a lot of D&D games, it feels like the main conflicts don't get introduced that early.

Sometimes, working in the games industry is super hard.
Weirdly enough, I spend most of my time trying to advocate for the player experience and using the code of gameplay to tell a narrative.

But nowadays, people are either not understanding the concept of "gameplay" or challenge, and are too focused on doing cutscene tondo exposition. And then "add a puzzle here and there"...

Is there a single game company/studio that actually knows how to make games?

#GameDevProblems #GameDev #GameDesign #NarrativeDesign

Writing reflections and post-mortems on the Winters' Expansion and Shadows of Rose at work has me feeling so proud all over again for what we managed to accomplish and how much of a hand I ended up having in it.

Most Japanese game companies don't really have dedicated "narrative designers" and the duties that would generally be ascribed to one end up getting picked up by various people in various roles (or, sometimes, they just fall by the wayside). This time, through a confluence of factors, I ended up in a position to help fill a lot of those needs on the team.

I'm so grateful to the project leads willingness and even eagerness to work with our writer and cutscene director to bring their ideas to life, and for trusting me to hold the center. I still get goosebumps hearing the words I wrote come out of Rose's mouth as she brings things to a close in the final battle.

#GameDev #NarrativeDesign #ResidentEvil #ShadowsOfRose

So I'm really annoyed at this game. I beat it last week and was disappointed by the overly cryptic ending, checked to see if anything new happened after beating it because the title screen changed, then quit the game and played something else.

Then yesterday I saw someone mention that the game had multiple endings. I was like "huh, maybe the others actually answer something" and went to look them up.

I find a video with all the endings. My ending was the first one. It is...the "Fake Ending." They got me! But I found this extremely frustrating, and I wouldn't even have realized they "got me" if it hadn't been for stumbling into someone mentioning multiple endings. I really think this could have been designed better.
(Continued in next post)
#Signalis #NarrativeDesign

Critics & devs alike are quick to say how unfortunate it is that branching narratives virtually always converge. But in reality, we are free agents in a rigid macro-organism. Our choices shift the outcome by degrees. Having that reflected back at us is uncomfortable, unbelievable even. The power fantasy is in thinking we have more control than we do.

#gamedesign #NarrativeDesign #narratology

I really need to get better about hashtags here, don’t I? 😅 #gamedesign #gamedev #mobilegames #gaming #ludology #narrativedesign

Things I’m excited to be doing in 2023, a non-exhaustive list:

Learning to make my own games in #Unity
Continuing to deepen my #NarrativeDesign and #GameDev knowledge through study and practice
Drafting personal game narrative projects in Articy Draft 3
Organizing a game industry meetup in #Osaka
Running a #TTRPG (Heart: The City Beneath) for the first time in well over a decade
Reading the #HugoAwards shortlist for best novel, novella, novelette, and short story (third year running)
And of course all the usual #gaming and #reading

2022 has been a wild year. The first half was filled with exciting creative challenges as I worked on Shadows of Rose, earning my first ever narrative credit in addition to my localization director credit. Through this project I’ve gained so much confidence in my creative skills and my ability to work with dev teams and external partners.

The second half has been challenging in very different ways, with big shifts in our department. With Shadows of Rose wrapping up I was tasked with (and succeeded in) rescuing another project that was in a bit of a bind. I’ve had to take on more project management tasks than I’m used to, and even lead multiple meetings weekly in Japanese.

Along the way I started learning to make my own games, playing around with both #Unity and #UnrealEngine, and have begun compiling and filling out some game narrative concepts for when I’m a little further down that road.

I'm looking forward to continuing my journey in #GameDev and #NarrativeDesign in 2023. Happy New Year, everyone!

Hey all! I’ve been informed that using hashtags helps with finding people on here so like. Here’s some stuff I care about/identify with, hoping to find people who are into this stuff too: #storydrivengames #NarrativeDesign #gamewriting #twine #renpy #haes #bodyliberation #BodyNeutrality #horrorgames #neurodiversity #AutisticAdults #pixelart #transjoy #peersupport

Realizing that I did the #introduction informally, so let's try again:

I'm a nonbinary #transmedia storyteller, musician, writer, web designer and PhD researcher.

My passion project is the #ARG - #elit - #InteractiveFiction crossover work Under the Surface, which utilizes what appears to be a musician's webpage to tell a story through a variety of media. It includes opportunities to dig deeper and exhume additional layers of content both by snooping around and by solving puzzles and explores #mentalhealth themes in a sensitive manner. You'll find it at www.axel-lunden.com

I also curate www.queerimmersives.info, which catalogues #unfiction, alternate reality games, #VisualNovels and electronic literature by queer creators.

My PhD research is on mental health and tech policy and I'm an American based in Oslo, Norway. I may occasionally post in a Scandinavian language. You are forewarned.

I really love to meet other transmedia creators as well as writers, #gamedev and #NarrativeDesign folk here!

Just finished making a 6 year project, it's getting good reviews! Phew.

It's called Wayward Strand.

Have a look at the Steam page but also know that it's out on all consoles too.

Self published debut! :)

https://s.team/a/1080450

Basically it's a bit like The Last Express and Sleep No More - all of the characters in the game live and interact with one another (and you) on their own timeline.

EG if you're in the cafeteria at 10AM on day 3 talking to the nurse who is having tea in there, you're missing two patients having a gossip in the library, another nurse calling her dad, another patient stealing juice etc.

Play as a kid who has been asked to spend time in a flying nursing home for a few days - lots of reviewers are getting feels from it, which is nice. I reckon it's funnier than it is sad.

Learned a LOT making + releasing this thing.

#gamedevelopment #NarrativeDesign #games

Time for an #introduction!

Hello! :)

I'm a France-based game localizer and a new #Twine dev.
My pronouns are she/her.

Some of my many interests:
#Accessibility #Adventuregames #Anime #Baking #Bitsy #CSS #ChoiceDesign #CityPop #CRPGS #Edwardian #FoodHistory #Horror #IndieGames #InteractiveFiction #JapaneseLanguage #LanguageLearning #NarrativeDesign #NarrativeGames #Roguelike #Tea #VisualNovel

@Cassidy_Frazee Hey! I've done some TTRPG writing, though trying to expand into #NarrativeDesign

The City of Eminence is just that, my attempt to grow the culture of a city founded by people from other, lost universes. Myria Klepzig attempts to rebuild her #gardens from a version of Eminence long dead. The folx from Missouri City, Kansas write their memories of a vanished reality on pizza napkins. They build and fish and share their opinions on our pop culture. And you can be a part of their story!

patreon.com/cityofeminence

#unfiction #trans #transmedia #lgbtq #MastoArt #GraphicDesign #NarrativeDesign #WorldOfWarcraft #worldbuilding

Well, here's my #introduction

I'm Phillip Steyn and I'm a Game Developer from South Africa.

The company I work for focusses on casual gaming, but I work on my own little projects when I get time (which is not a lot) and I dream to work on narrative-driven games one day!!

I consider myself a big #gay ball of concentrated #ADHD chaos in the shape of an awkward human. I have a furbaby named Laika, and I love her with all of my heart!!

Here are some interests of mine in a non-specific order:
#Linguistics #RPG #Film #SoundDesign #Comics #3DModeling #XBOX #Dogs #GameDev #Writing #GameSoundtracks #Animation #Art #VideoGameArt #Coffee #LGBT #Math #Oreos #indiegamedev #NarrativeDesign

Looking forward to sticking around and meeting some awesome peeps! 🎮​

Here is a picture of me with my Laika 🐶​❤️​

Here's our noun-verb diagram for Dead Static Drive's core gameplay loop:

Making a noun-verb diagram to explain at a glance "what could interact with what" was a huge turning point for us in terms of documentation (among other things!) and I thought I'd share it in case anyone found it useful. (I'll add a tip in the replies if you're going to give this a go)

I find this far more useful than a "bible" explaining all this over multiple pages before going in a drawer never to be read again.

We have copies of this laminated in the studio as well, and I like to draw on it with whiteboard marker and do little player scenarios to test things out before putting them in flowcharts and blueprints.

It's been useful for finding holes and questioning assumptions we were making about player motivations, and is super handy for pitching at a glance, people can understand the game so much faster with this than a bunch of bloated copy.

#deadstaticdrive #gamedev #gamedesign #narrativedesign #devstaticdrive #indiedev

@LeenaVanD Oh wow you should hashtag this up so #GameDev and #NarrativeDesign sees it! Such good stuff!

(While the apps don't support Ediit yet, the website view does if you want to add these!)

Shared this on cohost too as it came in handy for some students recently: https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/standard-patterns-in-choice-based-games/

Nifty little primer on some story structures. Dead Static Drive is sort of a mix of Open Map and Floating Modules (I'll share more detailed maps soon)

What's great about this apart from having snappy visuals (always good), is how he goes on to explain the effects using these structures might have, and gives examples of each in real world use.

I used it in the classroom in the weeks preceding the student's twine assignments, both as a way to show them there were more ways to write a twine game than just the gauntlet (no shade on the gauntlet, totally has its place) and to also help them with scope.

Choosing the structure based on what their story needs before they start seemed to help them keep close to the word count this year. It also helped some students realize their story wasn't actually something they wanted to tell, just in time.

Share with anyone who might find it handy!

#narrativedesign #gamedev

I love writing branching narratives because if you hit a point where you go "man, two different things could happen here and both would be cool" you can just have both. In fact, it's ideal if both possibilities emerge naturally like this - it means both branches have a much better chance of feeling honest and less like a Choice(tm) that got shoehorned into the game for the sake of it.

#writing #gamedev #NarrativeDesign

#introduction time (take 2)! Hi everyone, I'm a game writer and voice actor from Christchurch New Zealand. I'm relatively new to GameDev so I'm mostly trying to stay quiet and absorb knowledge at the moment.

Prior to finding my way into the games industry I was a writer and commercial voice for a radio station here in NZ.

#gamedev
#narrativedesign
#gamewriting