Game Design, Gears of War, Jobs, Metal Gear Solid
The Unappreciated Discipline of Narrative Design
Sam Lake is the lead writer behind Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake. His scripts helped propel the Max Payne series to positive reviews, and his writings will be equally essential to this new title’s success.
But it’s rare for developers to prioritize the role of a writer like this. Frequently sidelined as an afterthought, writers — also known as narrative designers, depending on your opinion — hardly ever work as closely with a development team as Mr. Lake does.
Rather than marginalizing writers, more developers should take Remedy’s approach and embrace them. We’ve seen the success of story-driven games like Metal Gear Solid. Narrative designers make games come alive, and we simply can’t afford to treat them like dirt anymore.
Ever get teary-eyed when Yoshi ran away while you were riding him? Okay, maybe that’s a silly example, but, when I was a kid, I got pretty upset about it. Over the years my skin has become a little thicker, but games have also become a little deeper. And occasionally, I still feel a little choked up from time to time. Games have learned how to wrench a gut now better than before, but one naysayer thinks that the emotional extent of games never evolved past a Yoshi-escape.
