Writing and Narrative Design: A Relationship

In this 2018 GDC talk, Molly Maloney and Eric Stirpe discuss where writing ends, design begins, and the delicate balance between the two that results in great storytelling in video games.
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[@joebradley1495]

This is like watching a show where you know what's going to happen but the characters don't. Hope they're ok.

[@guisseppeg7271]

Wow expert description. Probably divorced or something

[@simonemichelle]

@@guisseppeg7271 they said at the beginning that they're engaged 😄

[@williamwanzaiyi]

@@guisseppeg7271 telltale is gone. i think this is what op is talking abt, not their relationship.

[@Horizonik]

Apparently Eric now works at Epic Games on Fortnite and Molly works at Bad Robot Games, and they're married and still together.

[@kriskropd]

This is one of the better presentations I've seen from GDC. Lots of good points for direction and teamwork. Also very fitting how they are talking about this subject while making it seem effortless how they continue building off of each other during the presentation too, without stumbling around.

[@praxis22]

Sad to know what awaits them. Hope they made out OK.

[@alvarodifini5017]

what do you mean, mate? what happened?

[@chyra451]

@@alvarodifini5017 The talk happened before Telltale got shut down

[@kirklandday]

They're so pure aggghhhghgh

[@zoeytheegoist6156]

Really enjoyed this talk a lot. Not often I get so much out of a video that's only 30 minutes long.

[@ArtofLevelDesign]

I agree with "The player is the only interesting character. Ever." However I prefer in-level storytelling techniques (scripted stories or environmental stories) because of in-level stories are more immersive for the player.

[@TheHangedMan]

After watching the whole thing, especially the breakdown of how they send the stubs, choices, and lines back and forth, I think they actually convinced me of the opposite of what they said at the beginning. Clearly it'd be much better to have the "writers" also be the "narrative designers." And I really can't imagine someone being good at one and not the other... As a writer, dialogue and story are both things you need to be good at doing, and writing for the audience (in this case, the player) should be the basic foundation of every writer's approach. Breaking up the responsibilities like this seems needlessly convoluted. Alternatively, you could just have a team of writers take on all these responsibilities, and they could split up the responsibilities between the team as needed based on the particular talents of the team members if they really wanted to. I think defining a rigid separation between "writer" and "narrative designer" is kinda silly.

[@peccantis]

The back and forth is important for the play/game balance. When one person can focus on one aspect, they don't need to spend cognitive energy on curating their own work. If you're responsible for both aspects, it's a whole mental gymnastics and a half to keep the design side of things from interfering your writing, and vice versa. "Narrative design" isn't about crafting cool, fun, exciting, touching, thought provoking (etc) moments, it's about how to make the player experience those moments in an engaging, satisfying, interactive way. Having dialogue options all lead to hilarious scenes is not a writing problem (if those scenes are well written) but is very much a narrative design problem if the context makes the choice feel like a non-choice and robs the player of agency, prescribes a personality on the viewpoint character, and breaks immersion.

[@TheHangedMan]

@@peccantis Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I guess I just don't buy that the cognitive focus and time spent on thinking about story and its connection to gameplay is greater than the focus and time spent on the back-and-forth they are advocating here. Seems to me it would be much more efficient and "freeing" to just develop both simultaneously, as a team. To me, story, dialogue, and narrative design are all natively intertwined and dividing them up seems... artificial. But maybe that kinda depends on the people in question. It could be different per person.

[@stormwatcheagle5448]

@@TheHangedMan Keep in mind this was an example of how the roles were divvied up at Telltale. Other companies handle writing and narrative design differently. Chris Avellone discussed in at talk (I forget if it was GDC or eleswhere) about how narrative design at Obsidian is really about using the game systems to tell and support the narrative and works in collaboration with the writers and visual artists. In their case, the writer communicates the story via prose, the artists via illustration, and the narrative designer via code. Together they craft the narrative.

[@TiMonsor]

I worked as nd, as a writer and as in both-in one. separation gives nd full attention to narrative STRUCTURE, and designing the player experience. how he will consume the narrative, where, in what portions. its really important and really helps that duty of actually writing the text were delegated to smone else. when i started as nd i thought - oh just let me write everything myself, but then i got to work creating the outline for the story and realized i have my hands full. i d crack if i tried writing it on top of it, and also - when u do both, ur focus goes to one thing only and the other starts crumbling.

[@lvprof9076]

@@TiMonsor простите, что тут так врываюсь, но с вами нельзя как-то списаться и поспрашивать про работу nd? Я бы очень хотела попробовать податься, и мне бы здорово помогло мнение кого-то с опытом.

[@MichelePandini]

They are so cute together! It's noticeable how they grew in a relationship in the work and personal.

[@mattsponholz8350]

This is absolutely fantastic.

[@alexanderremizov3dgamedev347]

The points they made are so important to better understand the roles omg. And showing how they manage writing, choice trees and vertexes is kind of secret knowledge, I guess? Never seen anyone sharing it!

[@JayTohab]

Oh hey! I'm a fan of these people's work!

[@BatataJoey]

This was such a fun watch :)

[@jamiefurey564]

Thank you

[@Skindred727]

do i have to be a woman to do narrative design?

[@artemisDev]

I need the source of the picture in 7:49

[@yessopie]

You can cut out the image from a screenshot, and paste the image into Google Lens to find it.

[@finesseandstyle]

24:26 feel like the meat of the presentation is here, the rest honestly didn't feel that insightful

[@simonjohansson248]

Most important lesson learned: If there is a problem, put a chicken in there to solve it!

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

lol that Office gif

[@IsaacJoshi]

To be honest I found it really distracting that they kept switching speaker every sentence

[@ericpatterson4248]

He's in his preferred #profession . . . #usairforce?!

[@MerryMac1000]

Wow that woman is toxic, she admitted she would just resort to shouting at people during meetings if she didn't like their ideas so they wouldn't be included and kaughs it off like "oh silly little me!" When she must have spent her career happily inflicting this kind of toxic aggression on her colleagues. Also, none of these "cute" remarks they make to eachother are ad-libbed, they're both reading everything off of a script on that laptop.

[@sbarullasbonderi9577]

So cringy...

[@abhijeet4799]

Plus their work on mc sm is disappointing too

[@zyrxom]

Their flirty banter is cringy.

[@ladymindpalace7787]

I find it cute and uplifting. I mean they're nervous (I would be too there) and they comfort each other that way. I think it's loosen up the situation :)

[@zyrxom]

@@ladymindpalace7787 you find it uplifting? are sure that is the right word?

[@seekerxiii]

Eh, I loved it. Made me grin here and there and made the talk smoother to digest. To each their own though.

[@haleygray6443]

I agree.

[@TGameDev]

​@@zyrxomone persons cringe is anothers endearing. Worlds big enough for differing opinions.