Welcome!

Welcome to the companion website for The Game Narrative Toolbox by Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, Jennifer Brandes Hepler, and Ann Lemay.  Here you will find some excellent resources to help hone your skills. On this site you will find additional exercises not found in the book, samples, templates, and helpful websites to serve as resources.

This book is the first installment of the Focal Press Game Design Workshops series, so keep your eyes out for more forthcoming books!

Exercises

Here you will find several exercises to inspire your creativity as you begin writing for your own game.

Exercise 1

Write a backstory for a character for your game project and consider his personal family history from the generation of his/her grandparents.

Exercise 2

Design and write a quest chain for one of the released MMOs taking into account their lore and mechanics. Try to stay as close as possible to the original source, but enrich it with your own ideas.

Exercise 3

Design and write a concept for a zone/level for a typical MMO taking into account the story flow in the map and how the player is guided throughout the map. Include alternative story paths as you like.

Templates

Here are some templates to help you as you write. They are in a downloadable zip file so that you may download and use them as you create your game.

Samples

In this section you will find some sample materials provided by one of the authors. These samples will help you to fill in your own templates and further develop the characters, levels, quests, and system design of your game.

Resources

See below for some helpful organizations, groups, communities, conferences, and more.

Organizations and Groups

International Game Developers Association (IGDA)

IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group (SIG)

IGDA Game Editing SIG

Game Pitches

GDC Vault

Game Conferences

East Coast Games Conference (ECGC)

Online Communities

Online References

Game Writing Samples, hosted by the Game Writing SIG

Game Pitches

GDC Vault