Defining Narrative Design
August 1, 2013, Independent Game Developers Association Summit, San Francisco-Evan Skolnick talked about the differences between a writer and narrative designer. This is a relatively new function that mixes the jobs of a game developer and writer.
Some of the roles and responsibilities of the narrative designer include: mission flow, cut scene planning, mission voiceover and data preparation for voiceover, casting setup, motion capture and voiceover session adjustments, voiceover implementation and verification, tools planning, and iteration tracking. The narrative designer is the interface with the rest of the team including audio, animation, art, and design. In addition, this person becomes the on-team narrative champion, who scope tracks, schedules, and submits and approves changes.
The narrative designer should supply story overview along with charts and diagrams for pitches and presentations to upper management. In conjunction with the designers, the narrative designer develops mission and quest concepts, emotion maps and world and lore documentation. As such, s/he creates the story-writing and character bibles and various voiceover templates and scripts.
The narrative scope document includes cut scene treatment, and the scripts to support those activities. This documentation helps to back planning, documentation, and track all the other deliverables. As a result, the narrative designer is the planner, communications coordinator, documentation supervisor, project coordinator, integrator, and defender of the story.
In addition to the various management skills, the narrative designer has to be at least an adequate writer and a game designer. This person needs to understand various game genres and use organizational skills to improve the tactical response of the team. This collection of skills enables the narrative designer to be the on-the-spot person for changes in content, especially in live recording sessions.
At the same time, the writing is the foundation for everything, and the writer’s understanding of the pitfalls, conventions, etc. has to be bridged across different language gaps in the team. The programmers may understand game, level, and audio production and planning, while the writer may not be clear on the unique demands in across the different genres from puzzle to RPG. The game design must meet the players’ expectations for narrative conventions and components.
Technical knowledge of the tools is important. Tools will span productivity office tools to photoshop, project management, and even special tools like final draft and the game engines. This knowledge helps the narrative designer to understand the constraints of the tools and push the design and engines to their practical limits. The interactions of the target hardware and the various tool and engines can be enhanced by ancillary scripts and programming is possible.
A good narrative designer needs experience with design, production, and quality assurance to be effective. As a in-place manager, the narrative designer facilitates teamwork and collaboration while assisting communications across all levels. The ideal narrative designer should combine gameplay and storytelling to change players’ verbs. They should use the language of games to drive the story and the game.
