The Game Narrative Renaissance: A Call for a Dedicated Game Writing Pedagogy

Key insights

6 slides

The overlooked discipline

Game writing lacks dedicated instruction in game development education.

Despite a broader renaissance in game narratives, game development pedagogy has largely overlooked dedicated game writing instruction. The authors argue writing should be central to games education.

Criticised textbooks

Many textbooks rely on Hollywood-influenced structures and the ludo-narrative debate.

The authors criticize many existing textbooks for relying on Hollywood-influenced structures such as the Hero's Journey. They also say these books perpetuate the outdated ludo-narrative debate.

Authors' position. Good game writing centers on the player's representation and connection within the story.

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Summary

This paper, a position piece presented at DiGRA 2020 by Louise Persson and Rebecca Rouse of the University of Skövde, argues that game development pedagogy has largely overlooked dedicated game writing instruction despite a broader renaissance in game narratives. The authors draw on their experience with Skövde's Game Writing program, established in 2012, which has grown into one of the university's most popular offerings, attracting roughly four times as many applicants as available places. The paper frames its purpose as both sharing curriculum design details and making the case for game writing as a core component of game development education.

The authors identify several challenges in teaching game writing. Students often feel their discipline is treated as peripheral to game design, while other students assume that writing an engaging game story is a simple task. A central difficulty is distinguishing game narratives from traditional ones, a distinction the authors say established research has not yet translated into teaching materials. They criticize many existing textbooks for relying on Hollywood-influenced structures such as the Hero's Journey and for perpetuating the outdated ludo-narrative debate, arguing instead that good game writing centers on the player's representation and connection within the story.

The program's first major curriculum revision incorporates theory and practice from interactive performance, including tabletop role-playing games, live action role-playing, and immersive theatre, which offer models of player agency that conventional literature and film do not. The authors also identify a gap in discussion about the ethics of inviting players to enact rather than observe a narrative. They attribute this partly to a historical tendency to avoid moralizing about storytelling and partly to a narrow focus on violence in game ethics debates. In response, the program is developing a moral philosophy course for game writers, and the paper concludes by urging game educators to treat writing as central to games pedagogy and by suggesting that graduate programs may follow.