Writing & Tools

Design

Articles, talks and utilities used for narrative design in videogames, larp, and immersive events: how we think about the craft, and the tools we build for it.

Videogame Design Articles

Some of our published articles about narrative design for videogames.

Article
Job Functions in Game Narrative
The roles in a game narrative department.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
What does a Narrative Department do?
The point of a narrative department and its main responsibilities.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
Communicating Characters
Getting your characters across to the rest of the team.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
Authoring With Intent
Showing your working to the rest of your team.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
Writing a game script is not a project step
The writing process for production purposes.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
Storytelling in VR
Design and writing considerations for VR experiences.
medium.com
Article
Crossing the Threshold – Revisited
A followup on getting the player into a game experience.
medium.com
Article
A Quick Look at Worldbuilding
The layers of worldbuilding for a large-scale multiplayer game.
medium.com

Live Design Articles

Some of our published articles about design for larp and immersive events.

Article
The Layer Cake of Experience
A design tool and technique for experiential moments.
wildwinter.medium.com
Article
Wing and a Prayer – Stress and Structure
Using stress to affect players’ emotions in a WW2 WAAF larp.
medium.com
Article
All for One – Design
The design of our Three Musketeers event.
medium.com
Article
What is Cinedrama?
The play style for Dick Britton and All for One.
crookedhouse.org
Article
The Tag System
Collaborative character generation at Crooked House.
medium.com
Article
Mind the Gap
Leaving gaps for the player in interactive media.
medium.com
Article
Crossing the Threshold
Easing players into your game to set a mood.
medium.com
Article
Moment-based Design
The technique we primarily use for our larp design.
medium.com
Article
Writing Backwards – Stunt to Story
A design-first technique to steer players into particular actions.
medium.com
Article
God Rest Ye Merry
Behind-the-scenes on our 1950s Christmas ghost story.
crookedhouse.org
Article
Sharing is Caring
A mature approach to roleplaying.
medium.com

Game Development Tools

Articles and utilities we’ve created for practical game development.

Article
PatterKit
Ian’s interactive dialogue authoring system: free for Unreal, Unity, Godot, and Javascript.
patterkit.dev
Article
StoryTools
Ian’s utilities, including extensions for Ink and movie-script parsing.
storytools.se
Article
A Dialogue Pipeline
A necessary component of storytelling that most studios lack.
wildwinter.medium.com