Tag: writing

  • What Do You Even Mean By Branching Narrative?

    There’s a conversation I’ve had more times than I can count, and it usually starts the same way. Someone — a writer, a designer, sometimes an executive — says they want a “branching narrative” for their game. Everyone in the room nods. Everyone thinks they understand what that means. And then, about three meetings later,…

  • Applying Vonnegut To Gaming Pt. 2

    (Blogtober Day 10) So picking up from yesterday’s Blogtober entry applying some creative writing tips from the late author Kurt Vonnegut and seeing if I can apply them to game development… “Start as close to the end as possible.” This is an interesting one to try to apply to game development as there can be…

  • Applying Vonnegut To Gaming Pt. 1

    (Blogtober Day 9) Something I maybe have a bad habit of doing is finding a concept, opinion, or soft guideline talked about in one creative industry and considering how it might be applicable to game design and development. I’ve done this almost subconsciously for a while and I tend to keep it to myself these…

  • A Straight Line (The Most Direct Narrative Design Structure)

    (Blogtober Day 3) I’ve been a several narrative design and writing for games talks, and I have read over a dozen books covering the same topics, and I’m always amazed how, in my opinion, how little narrative design is actually ever discussed in any of them. There is often focus on writing, and branching dialogues…