NARRATIVE DESIGN XP
ROLE
Graduate
DESCRIPTION
From September 2023 to December 2023, I followed and graduated from the online course : Narrative design for Video games, delivered by the Pulse College (Dublin, Ireland).
During this professional training, I had the opportunity to learn everything there is to know about Narrative Design from our teacher, Jesse Baule - an experienced veteran in this sector.
YEAR
2023
TYPE
Professional training
WHERE ?
Online classes - delivered by the Pulse College
SUMMARY OF A 10 WEEKS TRAINING
Over a ten weeks program delivered by the Pulse College, our teacher, Jesse Baule, a confirmed Narrative designer and veteran of the video game sector, gave us the necessary tools to become Narrative Designers ourselves. His classes covered not only how to engage and retain players through an interesting and well-crafted story, but also the techniques used by cinema and books to create great work of art and how it can be applied to video games.
As an introduction, we went in the depth of the Mythic Story Structure, ranging from Characters Archetypes to the Hero's Journey by studying Joseph Campbell's Monomyth. We then turned to learn how these mechanisms can be used during the creation of a video game through the Narrative Designer's best documentation tools : settings description, characters bio, branching narratives, scenario and cinematic cutscenes.
From the meta to the micro, our focused then shifted to the derived works of a ND : designing impactful quests, captivating dialogues and colorful flavor texts. The last weeks had the purpose of teaching us what happens in a writer's room and what to expect as a work environment in the video game sector, as well as the sector's standards.
DELIVERED DOCUMENTS
In order to graduate from the online course and be granted the certificate, we had to submit these documents. As Narrative designers, we were asked to do a Setting description, a Characters bio and a Branching Narrative for an upcoming game that we were free to invent or choose.
My proposition for these submission were for the then upcoming Stalker 2 : Heart of Chornobyl.
Hence, below are my submissions for this task.
SKILLS LEARNED
NARRATIVE SKILLS
- Narrative Flow
Through a coherent, planned and detailed player-driven narrative structure, the narrative flow ensures that there is a strong pacing to immerse and engage the player. Helped by integrating gameplay loops into the narration and guided by key story moments, the goal is to ensure a great experience that leaves a lasting memory to the player.
- Branching Narratives
Branching narrative is the art of creating choices for the player, which leads to replayability and enjoyment. By crafting a non-linear storytelling system armed with decisions that lead to consequences and multiple endings, the player can roleplay as he wishes from the options available. The goal is to ensure a narrative consistency throughout all branching paths to offer the ultimate player experience.
- Emotional Arcs
To create a deep engagement in the player, the characters evolving in the crafted world should know growth - from humble beginnings to great success, or from a difficult emotional place to finding true peace. These impactful character-driven journeys can be helped by using dramatic structures, as seen in cinema, or player empathy triggers found in psychology; such tools can be amplified if they are aligned with the gameplay progression of the player.
- Worldbuilding
“The devil is in the details”: to build a rich game universe through lore design is the first step, then it must feel alive through environmental storytelling and in-game narrative systems that are supported by both the gameplay mechanics and the player exploration.
- Character Creation
A person can be defined in a short way by three characteristics : purpose, means and objectives. Of course, psychology tells us that a person is an infinite depth that can hardly be defined, but for a video game experience these three points can help the player have a great and immersive experience when interacting with the fictional characters. These can be the starting points to craft the motivations, backstory and possible arc developments in order to create a sense of personal identity for the characters.
- Cinematic Storytelling
Focused on existing cutscenes Jesse Baule directed, we learned both in-game scripted events and cinematic sequences as is in use by the cinema sector. From the technical way to write a script to crafting impactful scenes and dialogues, Jesse Baule taught us how to use timing and camera placement to create the best player experience.
- Flavor Text
Flavor text is the angular stone of worldbuilding, tone consistency and player exploration rewards - naturally, we learned how to write immersive diegetic content (item description, logs, UI texts) and what is considered the sector’s standards.
- Setting Descriptions
Stemming from world building, setting descriptions is an important part of the player experience that remains unseen by them: the narrative designer must craft evocative environmental narratives that support level design, helped by visual cues and storytelling, to communicate the story without being explicit - all is in the beholder’s eyes.
- Quest Design
As an integral part of the player experience, designing quests and missions, as main quests, side quests or emergent content, is a complex part of the narrative designers tasks. To maintain immersion, these designs must respect clear objectives, create player motivation, have strong reward systems (narrative, XP or loot-wise), as well as good narrative integration.
- Dialogues Crafting
From branching dialogues, to NPC barks and conversation trees, writing interactive dialogues systems should ensure clarity from the player perspective and easy-to-understand identity emerging from the speaker.
SOFT SKILLS
- Sector Standards
We had a quick overview of the video game production pipelines, ranging from AAA to indie workflows, game design documentation, and standard practices: pitching, iteration and playtesting.
- Writer’s Room
A few lessons were focused on the Writer's room and what to expect. It helped us prepare in order to participate in collaborative storytelling environments, how to contribute to story development sessions, to do brainstorming, and how to maintain narrative consistency across teams.
- Project Collaboration
We were given an open window on how to work with game designers, level designers, artists, and programmers to align narrative with gameplay mechanics and production constraints.
- Clear Communication
On a last important point, an emphasis was given on delivering concise narrative documentation, pitch decks, and design briefs, to help us ensure clarity for both creative and technical teams.