Forest Paths Method For Narrative Design

Narrative design is not glamorous. Well, it can be, but often it's about spreadsheets and flowcharts. It's about organising your ideas and managing the process so your narrative lands squarely on your design pillars from the beginning, after 50 iterations and over years of development. The Forest Paths Method of Narrative Design won't tell you whether your ideas are good or bad, but you don't really need that. You need a process built on solid dramatic theory that helps you ask yourself and your team all the right questions to create the game that you want to make for the audience you're making it for. This guide will take you through that process and show you how to organise a cohesive narrative design in a way your whole team can understand, and much more:- Quickly test new game ideas- Develop a whole narrative design before any production- Track changes throughout production- Collaborate and communicate narrative design to your team- Understand the impact of decisions before you make them- Analyse your own and other titles to understand their strengths and weaknesses- Match your narrative design with other considerations like marketing, streamers, accessibility and cultural sensitivities- Use genre narrative design patterns to kickstart the narrative design process of certain types of games- Communicate your narrative design intentions to other stakeholdersCreator Alexander Swords is an experienced narrative specialist who has worked across television, film, live performance and games. He's worked on the genre-busting indie titles All Walls Must Fall, Dead Static Drive and Totem Teller and holds bachelor's degrees in film and television and business, as well as a master's in arts management.Perfect for students and those just starting out, wanting to transfer over from another medium like film and tv, or experienced practitioners interested in improving their methods. Simple, but deep - you can read it in an afternoon and start using it straight away.