Narrative Design for Video Games

Module 1: Story & Narrative Theory

• Narratology fundamentals: narrative spine, story stack, story & gameplay genre
• Basic story structure (three-act, five-act, hero’s journey, heroine’s journey) vs player’s perspective.

Module 2: Adapting Narrative to Games

• Narrative pillars; action verbs vs story
• Interactivity, player’s agency, pacing, narrative as system; case studies (The Stanley Parable, Florence).
• Documentation know-how

Module 3: Character, Voice & Theme

• Character motivation vs player’s motivation; voice consistency, emotional arcs.

Module 4: Worldbuilding & Setting

• Environmental storytelling, lore design, systemic world coherence, culture design.

Module 5: Narrative Tools & Scripting Basics

• Twine, Ink, Fungus basics; scripting dialogue and branching choices.

Module 6: Writing for games

• Writing basics: creating cutscenes; building conflicts; pacing
• Writing in-game dialogues

(3 weeks, game created in Unity, team size, ca 14-16 developers)

Students will join Game Project 1 (January/February) and work with team of Futuregames students-developers (Game Artists, Designers, Programmers, QA’s, VFX, Animators, Producers, Sound Designers) on a full-fledged game.

Module 1: Non-linear narratives

• Non-linear story structures; player’s UX vs character’s voice

Module 2: Branching Narrative Design & Flowcharts

• Branching Narrative Design & Flowcharts

Module 3: Branching Narrative Design & Flowcharts

• Dialogue trees, pacing, tone, sub-dialogue and branching implementation.

Module 3: Systemic Narrative & Integration

• Integrating story with game systems; 
• quest design; mechanics & story coupling.

(5 weeks, game created in Unity, team size, ca 14-16 developers)

Students will join Game Project 2 (January/February) and work with team of Futuregames students-developers (Game Artists, Designers, Programmers, QA’s, VFX, Animators, Producers, Sound Designers) on a full-fledged game.

Module 1: Tools & Pipelines

• Articy: draft workflow, data export to Unity/Unreal, localization and iteration pipelines.

Module 2: Branching Testing & Iteration

• Debugging narrative logic; playtesting branches; tracking player decisions.

Module 1: Emergent & Procedural Narrative

• Dynamic storytelling; emergent narrative design; player-driven arcs.

Module 2: Inclusive & Accessible Narrative

• Representation, diversity, accessibility, ethical storytelling and inclusive design.

Module 3: Playtesting & Metrics

• Qualitative/quantitative testing, narrative satisfaction metrics, player feedback cycles.

(7 weeks, game created in Unreal, team size, ca 14-16 developers)

Students will join Game Project 2 (January/February) and work with team of Futuregames students-developers (Game Artists, Designers, Programmers, QA’s, VFX, Animators, Producers, Sound Designers) on a full-fledged game.