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Narrative Design for Indies: Getting Started Kindle Edition

by Edwin McRae (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
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Short, sharp advice on getting story into your indie game.

"An approachable, practical field guide for one of the trickiest and most rewarding aspects of game development, "Narrative Design for Indies" is packed with straightforward, actionable advice. Worth your time!" - Chris Bourassa, Creative Director of Darkest Dungeon.

"This book's real strength lies in the fact that it's aimed directly at the indie developer with specific examples to bolster that." - Steve Ince, Creator of Captain Morgane and So Blonde.

You want to create a video game? Great!
You want to tell a story? Fantastic!
You want to create a video game that tells a story? What? Are you insane?!

I’m joking, kind of. You don’t have to be insane to tell a good story through your Indie video game, but you do have to be out of your mind. What I mean is, you have to empty your brain of a whole bunch of stuff that Hollywood and Triple-As have told you about games and stories, and fill it up with stuff that’s actually going to work on your teeny tiny budget.

Three Act structure? That’s like trying to shove a giant triangle through a tiny circle.
Hero’s Journey? Yup, that’ll take you nowhere, fast.
Authorial Authority. Now you’re just winding me up!

Whether you’re an Indie developer or a narrative designer wanting to work in the Indie space, Narrative Design for Indies: Getting Started is the first in a series of books that will take you through some tried and true techniques of Indie video game storytelling. Techniques that have been developed to blow minds rather than budgets.

Who am I? And do you know how weird it feels to write a third person description of yourself?

Edwin McRae has been working in the Indie video game space as a narrative designer for many years and is now scrambling his seasoned brain and serving it up as an omelette of hard-earned-wisdom for your educational consumption.

For less than a Hearthstone Welcome Bundle or a few hundred clash of Clans gems, you can find out how to use story in your Indie game to both engage and immerse your players.

You want to create an Indie video game that tells a story?
Cool.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    110 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    October 23, 2017
  5. Reading age
    13 - 18 years
  6. File size
    810 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An approachable, practical field guide for one of the trickiest and most rewarding aspects of game development, "Narrative Design for Indies" is packed with straightforward, actionable advice. Worth your time!" - Chris Bourassa, Creative Director of Darkest Dungeon.

"This book's real strength lies in the fact that it's aimed directly at the indie developer with specific examples to bolster that." - Steve Ince, Creator of Captain Morgan and the Golden Turtle.

"Edwin is an incredibly talented writer and a great teacher. While it may not be his "seminal work" (a much more grandiose volume is to follow I hope!) this book is a fantastic little nugget of narrative design goodness. It's a sharp, biting piece of work that delivers on what it promises and makes a point to toss out all the storytelling trash you learned in your "community creative writing class," in favor of techniques and concepts that actually work when it comes to telling immersive and interactive fiction. Highly recommended for its depth of knowledge and easy going approach." - N Jones

"This book is a great collection of some potential narrative devices you can use to improve experiences in your games. It's by no means a complete narrative design bible, it's not a deep dive into fundamental wisdom writing for video games nor does it hold your hand through pre-production of narrative. What it does though is offer to broaden your perspective on narrative design on a budget, on a budget; and gives you tools to tackle some design challenges when it comes to telling stories with games. If you're an indie and you're everything but a writer, this will put some markers on your map of things you should know when approaching story-inclusive design." - nomand

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B076Q58RDM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fiction Engine Limited (October 23, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 23, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 810 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 110 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

About the author

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Edwin McRae

Edwin McRae

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Edwin is a narrative designer and writer for the video games industry. He has worked on the stories for many indie video games, and between gigs he writes about narrative design.

He lives with his partner in New Zealand's south island, with a view of the mountains and plenty of space to walk and think.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
76 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

lily
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Learning Material, Interesting Read
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Whether you are an indie developer with plans already under way for your next game or even if you are completely new to the subject, Narrative Design for Indies is a detailed yet approachable guide that will help you to understand and design the narrative that really brings games to life. From characters to world building, and so many other game elements, the author provides professional insight that illustrates how to make each narrative piece fit the mechanics, but also create the game’s overall personality and feel. I highly recommend this title for game developers of any genre, or future narrative designers as well, who are looking for material to help grow their story ideas – especially without the cost or lengthiness of a textbook. Overall, it was interesting read and it taught me lots.
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Robert Freeman
4.0 out of 5 stars Needs subtitle: How to Make a Game Without Plot or Character Development
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
If you really need advice on putting a plot or character-based story in a game, let me save you some time and 5 bucks. This "book" is largely a long essay about not doing that. Short, easy read. Writing is ok (author maybe should not try to pull off "cute" stuff, like telling the reader they've been quiet but a good listener...) Content is valuable for providing insights you may have missed regarding the value of game elements and design in providing narrative for budget-constrained games. He mentions some pitfalls and gives what-not-to-do advice, which is maybe as much as you can offer other than contrived resolutions to contrived examples. He actually gets 4 stars instead of 3 for not overwhelming me with pages and trying to charge accordingly, though this stuff doesn't feel like a huge step beyond a good blog rant. It read to me as though it was written as a directly opposing viewpoint to Video Game Storytelling by Evan Skolnick, which is a similar book in style and structure, if not attention to detail or content. VGS is very pro-plot and structure, clearly aimed at folks on larger projects (and if you read it, you'll probably have more appreciation for what Edwin is trying to tell you.) Brutal if you're even dreaming of telling any real story on a budget, but as it's aimed at indies exclusively, that's probably appropriate.
8 people found this helpful
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C. Madrid
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic must-have, narrative for VG. 101
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2019
Verified Purchase
I love how he express himself in an imaginative simple way that is both light and full of information.
It explains narrative design and different steps you need to consider, including what can you do before hiring a professional. I love how many examples it has and appreciate how it tries to talk about any game without saying significant spoilers 👍🏼
Definitely a book all storytellers should have in their libraries.
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Mateo Robayo
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente para iniciarse en el diseño de narrativa
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
Me resultó muy útil justo cuando empecé el diseño de narrativa de un juego independiente en el que estoy trabajando con unos amigos.

En especial fueron muy útiles los capítulos de Personajes (Characters) e Historia (Story), pero no dudo que las heramientas brindadas por los demás serán muy útiles durante la etapa de producción.
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Patricia Battle
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Ideas for Indie Games
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2017
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A few great tips I can use for my own indie games. Well worth the small cost of this book.
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Victor Ho
5.0 out of 5 stars Hits the nail on the head
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
No fancy academic theories here, just frank, sensible and insightful advice about how to deliver narrative where it counts. Also contains a lot of good references to how narrative is done right in more recently released games.
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Matt R
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, funny, fantastic tidbits
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2018
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The author's expertise is apparent, the writing is personable, accessible, and quick. I even laughed out loud a few times. There are great bits of wisdom and advice here, highly recommended.
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Michael Fil
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource for New Narrative Designers / Game Writers
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2018
In my endless Google searching for information on video game writing, I came across Edwin's book and I'm so glad I did. It helped give me foundational information about different aspects of narrative design including analyses of story, plot, characters, worlds, and how all of these elements interact with one another. He also delves into the what may or may not be necessary for your indie game. But the best part is the end where he discusses budgeting, which gave me a good idea of what I should be charging for my scripts and other narrative writing. Easy to read and more than worth the cost!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Nice Book
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for new game devs
Reviewed in India on January 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
Content is less try to add more content!
Nice read.
Customer image
Nice Book
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for new game devs
Reviewed in India on January 15, 2024
Content is less try to add more content!
Nice read.
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Lucas L.
3.0 out of 5 stars Um trabalho interessante
Reviewed in Brazil on January 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
O autor faz um trabalho interessante em contar sua experiência com Design de Narrativa para Games, mas achei a leitura por vezes um pouco confusa com o constante uso de siglas (algumas parecem ter brotado no meio texto do nada, sem qualquer explicação de seu significado) e a exemplificação das ferramentas narrativas através de extensas menções a certos games. Poderia ter explicado sem exemplificar que atingiria um público maior, dos experts no assunto aos iniciantes (como eu).
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Jay
5.0 out of 5 stars Cool Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
Bought this for a paper I was writing on the subject of video game narrative. Helpful insights, advice and foundational terminology for both the aspiring writer and researcher
One person found this helpful
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Matteo
2.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy if you are not into rpg genre
Reviewed in Italy on October 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
The book is entirely based on narrative design within the rpg genre.
Not for everyone, as he tends to try and be funny/sarcastic rather than focusing on being clear/succinct and technical.

Returned.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read, great advice
Reviewed in Australia on September 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
I really got more than I expected in this book. I bought it for information on writing games and I ended up reading it for the stories and sense of humour. Fantastic examples of different ways narrative design can be put into a game. It helped that I had actually played and remembered the impact of those games in the examples.
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