The Game Narrative Toolbox

Learn how to create compelling game storylines.

Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the video game industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Brandes Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees to help readers make the switch from writing prose or screenplay to interactive.

Thoroughly revised, the Second Edition includes updated content reflecting the industry's latest developments. In addition to revised and updated chapters, this new edition features two additional chapters covering more advanced topics that are applicable to the lessons learned from the original chapters.

Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.

學習如何創作引人入勝的遊戲故事情節。

四位經驗豐富的敘事設計師，來自不同遊戲開發類型的背景，聯手創作了這本全面指南，介紹在電子遊戲行業中擔任作家和敘事設計師的工作內容。從概念到最終測試，《遊戲敘事工具箱》逐步引導讀者了解敘事設計師在開發團隊中的角色，以及在開發的每個階段所需的要求。作者Tobias Heussner、Toiya Kristen Finley博士、Ann Lemay和Jennifer Brandes Hepler根據實際經驗提供了寶貴的建議，幫助讀者撰寫引人入勝的以玩家為中心的故事和有效的對話樹，以便讀者能夠從撰寫散文或劇本轉向互動式創作。

經過全面修訂的第二版包含了反映行業最新發展的更新內容。除了修訂和更新的章節外，這個新版本還增加了兩個涵蓋更高級主題的章節，這些主題與原始章節的教訓相關。

每個章節附有練習，讓讀者能夠為申請行業工作或開發獨立項目而制定自己的文檔、大綱和遊戲對話樣本。

Tobias Heussner is an experienced Game Content/Narrative Designer and Producer, who started developing games in high school. He has worked on more than 25 published titles ranging from AAA PC games to console, handheld console games and Free2Play browser games. His areas of expertise include Game Content Design, Game Narrative Design/Writing, Game System Design and Game Production.

Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD has nearly 30 years of experience as a writer and editor in several media. In games, she has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, editor, narrative consultant, and diversity consultant (or some combination of the six) on several AAA, indie, social, and mobile games for children and general audiences, including Destiny 2 and visual novels for Ubisoft and the and Chapters apps. With Tobias Heussner, she co-founded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online and served as an instructor. Her books include Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling; Freelance Video Game Writing: The Life & Business of the Digital Mercency for Hire; and Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels.

Jennifer Brandes Hepler got her start in tabletop game development, working for well-known properties such as Shadowrun and Paranoia before detouring to Hollywood to work on CBS Television's The Agency. She was a senior writer and narrative designer at BioWare, on the Dragon Age franchise and Star Wars: The Old Republic and more recently at Pixelberry Studios on Choices: Stories You Play and Storyloom. She is currently the Writing Director at Thought Pennies Entertainment.

Ann Lemay joined the videogame industry in 1997. Over the years she's worked as a game designer, narrative designer, and writer on a wide range of AAA projects. She has worked at many companies, including Ubisoft, BioWare and Microids. Ann is currently a Narrative Director at WB Games Montréal, and leads a team of very talented writers, narrative designers and voice designers on Gotham Knights.

Tobias Heussner是一位經驗豐富的遊戲內容/敘事設計師和製作人，他從高中開始開發遊戲。他曾參與超過25個已發行的遊戲，包括AAA級PC遊戲、主機遊戲、手持主機遊戲和免費瀏覽器遊戲。他的專業領域包括遊戲內容設計、遊戲敘事設計/撰寫、遊戲系統設計和遊戲製作。

Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD在多個媒體領域擁有近30年的寫作和編輯經驗。在遊戲領域，她曾擔任遊戲設計師、敘事設計師、遊戲作家、編輯、敘事顧問和多元性顧問（或以上六種角色的組合），參與了幾個AAA級、獨立、社交和手機遊戲的製作，包括《命運2》和Ubisoft和Chapters應用程式的視覺小說。她與Tobias Heussner共同創辦了GDC Online的遊戲寫作教程並擔任教師。她的著作包括《手機和社交遊戲的敘事策略：袖珍故事講述》、《自由職業者的視頻遊戲寫作：數字僱傭的生活與業務》和《分支故事，解鎖對話：設計和撰寫視覺小說》。

Jennifer Brandes Hepler在桌上遊戲開發領域開始了她的職業生涯，曾參與知名作品《Shadowrun》和《Paranoia》的製作，後來轉戰好萊塢，在CBS電視台的《The Agency》工作。她曾在BioWare擔任高級作家和敘事設計師，參與《龍之裔》系列和《星際大戰：舊共和國》等作品的製作，最近在Pixelberry Studios的《Choices: Stories You Play》和《Storyloom》上工作。她目前是Thought Pennies Entertainment的編劇總監。

Ann Lemay於1997年加入了電子遊戲行業。多年來，她在多個AAA級項目中擔任遊戲設計師、敘事設計師和作家。她曾在Ubisoft、BioWare和Microids等多家公司工作。Ann目前是WB Games Montréal的敘事總監，領導一支非常有才華的作家、敘事設計師和聲音設計師團隊，參與《哥譚騎士》的製作。