Or: How to make friends and influence other departments. — Lots of people ask — me, and in various discord servers, or twitter, etc — how to get into narrative design? Or how it’s different to writing. Or how to build and present a portfolio. Those are all valuable questions that have been answered frequently elsewhere. But a more fundamental…

ORBIS AUREA FLORA INTRO INTRODUCTION TO A FRIGID ECOLOGY (Product page) At first glance, the brilliantine, frigid planetoid of Orbis Aurea is hardly the most verdant environment in the Aethera system. Observant visitors would be forgiven for thinking that radioactive glaciers, living flux-giant-constructs, and a distinct lack of sunlight would make for a world…

This is a collaborative summary of the most common, and/or best tools you can use to write or otherwise design your game narrative. Should be fairly self explanatory — and we will update it every so often to reflect new changes/updates/challengers, etc! Either browse through or use the below list…

Jon Ingold is the co-founder of independent studio inkle (www.inklestudios.com), and co-designer of ink, alongside Joseph Humfrey. Jon wrote inkle’s games Heaven’s Vault, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!, and co-wrote 80 Days with Meg Jayanth. This article was originally published in Wireframe magazine. Weaving branching narratives in ink: a beginner’s guide Ink is the open-source narrative scripting language behind inkle’s…

Hello, and welcome to the Game Writing Guide. This publication exists to aid both new writers and developers — whom for whatever reason can’t work with a professional writer — get the basics right, and improve their storytelling skills. This guide makes no attempt to be objective or definitive. We…

By Jon Ingold Heaven’s Vault is a game built on three pillars — exploration, translation and conversation. The player explores the ancient ruins of the Nebula — they find inscriptions in the script of the Ancients to translate — and then finally, they return to one of the hub moons…

Mobile games. Just take a second to recognise the preconceptions and bias that phrase has conjured in you. I’m not here to tell you that you’re mistaken — there is more than enough rough in which to dig for diamonds. …

This is a modified form of the text I wrote for my friend, the writer Greg Buchanan’s newsletter. In general, I try and follow a rather classical approach to writing. That is, to be truthful and concise. And the truths I’m usually drawn to are ones about human experience. …