Welcome to my 10 best Game Narrative books recommendation page.
Here you’ll find, in my opinion, the best Game Narrative books available right now.
For those of you in a rush, here’s my Pro tip: Make sure you look at books 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These are the books that’ll really make the difference!
Ok, let me continue… First, I want to get something off my chest: This article is not about overall game design, or art, 3d modeling, or anything else to do with making games. This article only concerns itself with one thing:
Helping you find the best books to help you write fantastic stories for your games.
If you’d like to learn more about my recommended game design books, and other recommended resources, take a look here.
Ok. Back to the books.
I’ve personally and specifically selected every book on this list so it serves one purpose: To help you achieve your goal of writing captivating interactive stories that people love. Each book has the potential to push your game narrative writing career through a few walls onto the next level. I one hundred percent believe that.
I wouldn’t have written this article, never mind added each one of these books, if I didn’t think so.
Plus, I won’t recommend a book unless I’ve read it myself, or, at a minimum, had it recommended to me by people in the game industry.
Are there more books than the 10 listed here? Of course there are! There are hundreds of books on writing stories, but not many for interactive fiction. So these, as far as I’m concerned, are the best of the best.
In each section, I’ll touch on the main focus of each book.
Then, I’ll move on and introduce you to the author of each book so you can see why these people are worthy of your time.
After that, I’ll list a number of bullet points detailing some of the key features and benefits of the book.
Finally, I’ll end with my own personal verdict of the book and why I think it’s worth reading.
Two more things:
One, there’ll be no star ratings used here as each one of these books is superb in their own way. I do not see the point of including poor books in an article like this as I’d just be wasting your time.
Two, it’s my plan to continually update this article every 6 months with new game narrative books. So do me and you a favor, bookmark the article. I don’t want you to miss anything in the future.
Ok, enough of my rambling, let’s crack on with the article.
1: Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques
Gamers are no longer content with stories that offer shallow cliches such as “Save the princess” or “Destroy the Demon”. Gamers want “real” stories with weaving plots, and characters that have ocean trench levels of depth with their very own monsters lurking in the dark.
Video Game Storytelling looks to help the next generation of game narrative writers tie together characters, worlds, and plots in ways that were once the sole realm of books and film.
It explores every technique currently available to game narrative writers to help envelope the player in a game’s story. It also looks at how the gamer can be the story and not just a participant in “yet another cut scene”.
Skolnick, the author, brings all these ideas together to show aspiring writers how to develop their vision while communicating that vison effectively with large development teams.
By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll not only have a firm grasp of how to wring a fantastic story out of your game, but you’ll also know how to communicate that story effectively with a team.
About The Author
Evan Skolnick, over the past 20 years, has worked with some of the great entertainment franchises and businesses including Marvel, Activision, and Lucasfilm. Skolnick’s portfolio of game project is as impressive as it is long having worked on the unreleased Star Wars 1313, and the much loved RPG Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- A short read at only 210 pages long
- Every page is packed full of actionable advice
- Provides a basic framework for creating your own narrative
- Explores character creation and arks
- Looks at world-building and how it ties into your story
- How interactivity of games changes how the player experiences the story
- Explores how to deliver a story of great depth
- Looks at how to communicate your story effetely with your team
Verdict
Probably the first book I ever read on game narrative, Skolnick’s book was recommended to us by pretty much everybody who’s got an interest in game narrative.
As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t a better gateway into game narrative design.
Is it the final word on game narrative? Of course not. Are there better books out there with more detail? Yes. But…
It is the first book you should buy when entering the world of game narrative writing because it’ll teach you just enough about narrative to make an informed decision about whether or not this is the game design path you wish to take.
Take a look at some of the reviews for Video Game Storytelling on amazon here.
2: Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games
The game industry is a financial juggernaut. It’s bigger than the film and music industry combined. And that growth has been driven by a very demanding target market.
You see, gamers don’t only want amazing action sequences, silk-smooth 60fps racing, and graphics that would make James Cameron weep in delight. They also want emotional, absorbing stories that involve characters so real, so issues riddled, that they can almost feel the warmth of a character’s breath wafting out of the screen.
Slay The Dragon’s goal is to teach you how to go about marrying fun, thrilling and, immersive gameplay with rich characters and stories that drive the player forward.
Writers Bryant And Gigilio have condensed two lifetimes of knowledge into a book that’s packed with actionable theory, exercises for practice, and everything they know on Character and narrative design.
About The Author
The book was written by two authors. They are:
Robert Denton Bryant
Robert worked in the video game industry as both a publisher and a developer and has worked on many games across multiple platforms including iPad, PC, and console.
Keith Giglio
Giglio has worked as a screenwriter and narrative specialist writing stories for film, TV, and games, with some of the biggest companies in the world including Disney, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Spyglass Entertainment, and Platinum Studios.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- An easy short read at only 230 pages
- Heavily focuses on practical exercises
- Explains why all stories are character-driven
- How to create “Zero-Act” Plots and why they work in video games
- Explores real-world game examples
- Aimed at game Designers
- Looks at why a game’s story is more important than gameplay
Verdict
One of the most accessible books on game narrative I have ever read, Slay the Dragon is a must-read for beginners. One of the biggest reasons for its “must add to your collection” status is it gives you a grounding in every important area of narrative.
Slay the Dragon will enlighten you and then give you just enough knowledge to go from an average game writer to a good game writer. And not overwhelm you in the process.
For that reason, slay the Dragon is on my list and I think it’s a vital read everybody new to game narrative should read.
Take a look at why I think Slay the Dragon is so good here.
3: Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development
Characters are central to your stories. Without characters, you have no story.
To create world-class stories you need characters that are deep, full of flaws, have needs and wants, desires, hatreds, dislikes, tastes, mannerisms, friends, enemies, beliefs, and a thousand other things.
So in other words, you need to design a real person.
Why is that important?
Because it’s real people that we connect with in real life. We don’t connect with a teddy bear the same way we did as a child. That may seem obvious, but the reasons why are not well understood by many writers.
Many writers characters are like the teddy bear: fake and unreal.
If you can learn to create characters that are cursed with the affliction that is being human and everything that goes with it, then you have created a character that gamers and non-gamers will love, hate, empathize with, feel sorry for, but most importantly, care about.
A good example of great character creation is in the sitcom Friends. Many people who grew up and watched Friends almost felt like they were part of the Friends social group. How can that be possible? These people on the show are not even real?
Yet, because the characters were given such deep and real personality, strengths, flaws, worries, jealousy, and fears, we could relate to them. Because we could empathize with their position. We want to see them solve life’s problems and succeed. Just like we want to ourselves.
Chandler had a fear he’d be alone forever. Rachel wanted to prove to her father that she could make it on her own. Ross wanted to be the best father he could be but struggled with relationships. Joey struggled with an acting career and self-doubt. Monica struggled with being seen as second best to her brother Ross. And Phoebe constantly tried to escape a difficult past and was looking for the family she never had.
These are all things each of us has struggled with at some point.
We loved these characters because of these problems they faced every day. They were lovable and very funny. But it was the struggle that defined them, the struggle we relate to.
A good game example is God Of War on PS4. Early in the game, Kratos struggles to be a father to his young son because he sees his son as weak and incapable of surviving in a harsh world. Something Kratos himself has always excelled at.
And these worries manifest themselves throughout the early game, with Kratos distancing himself, both physically, mentally, and verbally from the child, referring to him simply as “boy” instead of by his name.
Yet as the story progresses, Kratos sees his son learn and grow, showing a glimpse of the capable man, however different from Kratos, that the child will become. As the story progresses, Kartos trusts his son evermore.
This book can show you how to create characters like this. Heros that are so relatable that you’ll love them like family. And villains that make you understand them, feel sorry for them, and make you hate yourself for doing so.
About The Author
K.M. Weiland
K.M. Weiland is an award-winning author of multiple books including Dreamlander, Dieselpunk adventure Storming, and a number of books teaching others how to write.
When she’s not writing her own novels, she works on her own blog which helps authors improve their stories.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- Shows you how to create an effective character ark
- How to develop characters with that seem as real as the person sitting next to you
- How to create antagonist characters and develop their own ark
- When and how to use supporting characters
- Examples of poor, good, and excellent characters
- How to create multi Series/book/game character arcs
- How to create a story around your created hero
- Why the main characters must be developed before the story
- Why the main characters needs, wants, and goals, are the main driving force in a story
- Explores why character flaws are the main reason for us connecting with characters
Verdict
“This isn’t a game narrative nook!”, I hear you cry.
And you’d be right. It’s not.
But that doesn’t stop Creating Character Arcs being the best book on the market right now for teaching you how to write believable, interesting, loveable, and rateable characters that drive stories forward relentlessly.
As writers myself, I know I wouldn’t have succeeded without this book as part of my writer’s tool kit. It taught the mysterious alchemy of creating real people on paper from symbols, prose, and sentences. I realy can’t recommend it enough.
Not only that but it’s really cheap and it has a ton of reviews on amazon that all agree with me that the book is amazing.
So if you want a book on how to create superb characters – and you need superb characters for superb stories – buy this book now!
Click on here to check out Creating Character Arks now.
4: The Game Narrative Toolbox
If there was ever a book that could effectively handhold the reader through a game narrative creation system, then the Game Narrative Toolbox is it.
The book is designed to flow like a river, carrying you on a boat through idea conception, character creation, world creation, and narrative structure, and finally implementation. It explores each idea with a process like flow so you can read each section in order, and action them in order.
One area that the Game Narrative Toolbox really emphasizes is how to incorporate, not just a sense of in-game character arc, but of a “self arc” with the actual player moving through their own character arc. The book looks at a number of ways to do this including tangible growth such as skill acquisition, and intangible growth such as changing your outlook on life.
Game Narrative shows that, uniquely, games blur the lines between the game characters and the player. And by exploring this unique position you’ll learn to leverage narrative to yank the player into your story like no other media can. For that reason alone, The Game Narrative Toolbox is a must-read.
About The Author
Ok, I’ve got 4 authors for this one. Let me introduce you to them:
Tobias Heussner
Heussneris a Game Narrative Designer and has worked on more than 18 published titles for multiple platforms.
Toiya Kristen Finley
Toiya’s career as a writer and editor spans more than 20 years. More recently, she’s worked on multiple games including in games targeted at children on mobile phones including Academagia: The Making of Mages and Fat Chicken.
Jennifer Brandes Hepler
Hepler got her big break in the games industry as a tabletop game developer working on the Shadowrun series of games. After being scouted by games industry Giant Bioware, she spent the next eight years spinning tails in the Dragon Age franchise and online RPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Ann Lemay
Having worked in the games industry for nearly 25 years, Ann is a veteran of story and game design who’s worked on much-loved franchises such as space opera RPG Mass Effect and fantasy dungeon slayer RPG, Dragon Age.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- 262 pages long so quite a nice short read for a textbook
- Deep dive on character arcs
- A look at how the man character and the player blend together
- How the main character and player have their own arcs
- Looks at dialogue trees
- How to incorporate player choice into games and still make a deeply compelling story
- Aids you in designing antagonists that aren’t just another “boss battle”
Verdict
This is the first book on this list that I would consider an actual university-level textbook. The Game Narrative Toolbox offers the most comprehensive understanding of the basic principles of game narrative design on this list.
From an information density point-of-view, it is a step up from the other books on this list so far. However, it does delve into a lot of theory so it may not be quite as actionable or accessible.
However, I will say this: this book is a container of narrative gold dust.
If you can absorb all the information in this book and action it in your own games, you will become part of the top 10% game narrative writers in the world.
If that doesn’t convince you of the value this book offers, nothing will.
Check out some of the reviews on Amazon here to get an idea of just how highly people rate this book.
5: The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox
A sequel to the Game Narrative Toolbox, The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox takes the reader by the hand, jumps into a bathysphere, and descends into even greater narrative depths.
The book focuses light on some of the advanced techniques, that games such as “The Last of Us” employ to great effect. It also takes time to solve a number of game narrative problems including how to turn a novel into a game and how to use existing franchises, such as Star Wars, to create new stories.
About The Author
Tobias Heussner
Currently working at Saber Interactive in Spain as a senior producer, Tobias Heussner is a Game Content/Narrative Designer who worked on every conceivable area of game design that affects narrative including narrative design, Quest/Mission Design and Level Design, Game System Design, Game Mechanic Design, Combat Design, Encounter Design, and Game Production.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- Examples from multiple industry experts
- 232 pages long so can be easily read
- An in-depth look at how to use cinematic features to further a story
- How to design quests that are meaningful
- Why you need researchers and specialist writers on a game design team
- Why games need story editors just like novels
Verdict
The sequel to The Game Narrative Toolbox, The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox offers exactly what’s etched onto its front cover: An advanced look at all narrative tools, tricks, methods, and frameworks, that separate the great writer from the world-class writer.
I can honestly say, that if you read this book, along with the other previously mentioned books, you’ll have learned nearly everything you’ll ever need to make a career as a game narrative writer.
All you need after this is time to practice, practice, and then practice some more. Oh, and the odd specialist narrative book, such as book 10, might help you out too.
Just to be clear I wouldn’t buy this book if you haven’t read the other books on this list. But, when you have, when you are ready, WOW, there’s one heck of a book waiting for you!
Take a look at the Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox here.
6: Procedural Storytelling in Game Design
Procedural generation in games has become big business. With games getting ever larger and more complex, and teams growing exponentially in response, development budgets are skyrocketing.
So, smaller developers have found an alternative answer: To get the computer to build the assets such as levels, textures, sounds, and even stories, for them. Or what programers call procedural generation.
But what is procedural generation?
Well, to put it simply, it’s when programmers write an algorithm that generates assets for them such as trees. Usually, modelers will have to produce hundreds of different types of trees for games like Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. But with procedural generation, the trees are made by the program.
This program will run when a level is first loaded, and populate the world full of different trees.
The program uses hundred of rules that govern everything from how tall a tree should be and how many leaves fill it out, to what altitude a tree should be placed at and what kind of slope the tree can grow on.
So an artist doesn’t have to waste time creating and placing every individual tree. The Game does it for them.
Think of games, like No Man’s Sky on PS4, Or Minecraft.
However, procedural story generation is far harder, but is seen as one of the possible futures of video game narrative creation.
In the future, the main story ark will be handcrafted by writers. But every side mission will be “generated” on the fly by the game.
And this is what the, Procedural Story Telling In Game Design, focuses on.
About The Author
Tanya X. Short
Founder and director of Kitfox Games, Tanya has worked on a number of critically acclaimed games including Moon Hunters and Shattered Planet. In her spare time, she acts as the co-director of Pixelles, a non-profit helping more women make games.
Tarn Adams
Tarnis best known as the developer of Dwarf Fortress since 2002 with his older brother Zach. Need I say more!?
Dwarf Fortress is one of the most complex, procedural, and emergent games of its time! Be sure to look past the basic looking graphics, because beneath its cryptic graphics is a game as deep as human history!
Check it out here.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- Introduces the differences between static/traditional game design and procedural game design
- Demonstrates how to solve or avoid common problems with procedural game design in a variety of concrete ways
- World’s finest guide for how to begin thinking about procedural design
Verdict
Exploring one of the most exciting game design avenues, the procedural narrative has the potential to transform what we expect from games.
And we already have a fantastic example of procedural narrative in a game called Rimworld on PC. Rimworld, developed by Ludeon Studios, has a main story arc involving a player being stranded on an alien world. The player is tasked with escaping this hostile environment by first creating colony, and then directing them to build an escape rocket.
However, Rimworld has a trick up its sleeve: It employs a Storyteller AI to create problems for the player to fix.
For example, The AI may orchestrate a bandit attack on your base. Or, it conjures a plague that rips through your colony.
The AI has hundreds of possible scenarios to choose from and each scenario can be tailored to suit the current situation.
The point Ie’re making is this: Procedurally generated stories have the potential to offer every single player a completely unique experience. And Rimworld is a glance into that future of storytelling.
Currently the best way to learn about it is by reading this book, and by playing Rimworld.
Take a look at the game here.
And take a look at the book here.
7: Interactive Storytelling for Video Games: Proven Writing Techniques for Role Playing Games, Online Games, First Person Shooters, and more
Interactive Story Telling for video games has to be one of my favorite books on this list. But why do I like this one so much?
Well, Interactive Storytelling for Video games, looks at some of the greatest examples of storytelling in games from the last 25 years, then pulls them apart and shows you how to use the same techniques in your own games.
Do you love how Final Fantasy 7 made you cry and want to do something similar in your game? This book shows you how to do it.
Want to create an open-world game with deep narratives for both the main plot and sub-quests like in Fallout 3? Then this is the book for you.
Interactive Storytelling is packed full of examples that explore narrative techniques that gamers love.
About The Author
Josiah Lebowitz
Lebowitz is a prolific writer and game designer. Having written his first novel at 13 years of age, Josiah hasn’t really stopped creating. In the years since then, he has developed a 6th sense for what great game story should and shouldn’t be. His most recent project includes both games, novels, and interactive fiction.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- Many in-depth breakdowns of both good and bad storytelling examples
- 332 pages long. Not as long as some textbooks
- Analyses and presents the different types of storytelling
- Looks at the history of storytelling in games
- Explains the Hero’s Journey
- Look at multiple ending stories and what that means for your story arc
- A look at open-ended stories like the type you find in open-world games
Verdict
I’m going to level with you: there are deeper books that explain all aspects of how to create a narrative in more depth. And for that reason, I can’t recommend this book for beginners.
However, if you’ve read a few of the books at the beginning of this list and you’re now looking to recreate certain narrative elements from other games, you should look to add it to your collection.
Take a look at Interactive Storytelling here.
8: Writing Interactive Fiction With Twine
When I talk about interactive narrative and story, I often think of games such as Mass Effect, or Fallout. However, they are not the real kings of the interactive story.
The really kings are interactive novels.
Interactive novels such as the unmissable 80 Days on Android and iPhone offer the player hundreds of choices, with thousands of possible outcomes. Players choose what to say from branching dialogue trees. They can keep weapons, armor, and other items to use later in the story. And sometimes they let the player level up their character like a traditional RPG.
Does that sounds like something that would interest you?
Well, if you said yes – I hope you said yes! – I’ve got a treat for you!
There is a free program called Twine that lets you create your own interactive fiction that can include all of the above and whole lot more.
With zero programming skills, you can create a branching 500,000-word epic that could be on Steam, Android, and iOS in a matter of months, and all you need is you’re writing skills and a load of creativity. And maybe some touch typing skills!
And the brilliant thing about creating interactive stories in Twine is that all the skills you’ll learn are transferable to traditional games. And you can start learning right now, today, for free. Just head over to the Twine Website here.
And once you’ve had a play, come back here, because this book is a 432-page beast that’ll explain everything you need to know to make your story in Twine and get ahead in the world of interactive narrative.
About The Author
Melissa Ford
Author of many fiction and nonfiction books, Melissa has been a huge fan of interactive fiction for nearly 40 years. She currently writes multiple award-winning blogs on multiple topics, and she’s a Twine mentor at her local computer club and college.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- Get a lot of book for your money at 432 pages long
- You’ll learn Twine’s scripting system
- Look at game design and narrative structure basics
- How to design and implement roleplaying elements
- Learn how to design puzzles
- How to create an inventory system
- Learn game design and writing basics
- How to use graphics in your game using CSS and HTML
- Finally, you’ll learn how to publish and market your game
Verdict
Twine has got to be one of the most interesting interactive fiction tools available right now.
If you are serious about making a career in the game industry by designing game narratives, Twine is something you absolutely should invest time in.
It’ll help you develop an understanding for branching narratives and how to pull together characters, plot, and stories into a cohesive mass that people will not only make sense of, but enjoy, and pay money for.
But using Twine can get incredibly complex very quickly and that’s why we recommend this book.
Plus, I don’t recommend it just because you should learn Twine. I recommend it because reading the book will teach you so much about how to structure stories in general.
Check out Writing Interactive Fiction With Twine on here.
9: Interactive Stories and Video Game Art: A Storytelling Framework for Game Design
Interactive Stories and Video Game art explores the art of game narration in a number of ways including how internal team communication is a vital part of the narrative creation process. And that how every part of a game development team, from the programmers to the level designers, should be part of the narrative creation process.
Now if you are coming from a normal story writing background this idea might seem quite jarring. After all, story writing is often a solitary affair with little input from anybody else.
The book will explain why it’s so important to drop that “lone-wolf” attitude, and start communicating your narrative ideas. It’s the only way all aspects of your story vision can be created accurately by large teams.
The book will also explore the idea of creating an in-house common narrative language so that everybody who doesn’t have a narrative writing background can immediately understand what it is your trying to communicate.
About The Author
Chris Solarski
Artist come game designer Chris Solarski works at Sony Computer Entertainment where he gets to mix his background in fine figurative painting with game design. When he isn’t adding more money to EA towers’ coffers, he lectures on emotion and storytelling in video games.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- The first book to define a common visual and interactive language for understanding and orchestrating sophisticated stories in video games
- Accessible to industry professionals as well as non-developers
- Ideas that can be applied to all media types
- The definitive framework for designing interactive stories
Verdict
Chris has assembled a book that looks at game narrative through every available lens. As part of a game development team, he learned that a game narrative can’t be written in a typical author like bubble.
Instead, everybody that’s part of the design team must be part of the narrative process, so a cohesive world can be built to support the story being told.
On top of this, the book looks at some of the most acclaimed stories in the game industry, such as The Last Of Us, and pulls them apart to see what they did right, but also, to see what other games are missing.
So, if you’re looking for a more advanced narrative book that looks more at the overall creation of a story with a team of designers and developers, try reading this book here.
10: Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling
Mobile games account for nearly 50% of all game sales in the world. That’s a huge piece of the pie you could be missing out on if you don’t learn how to develop narratives effectively on mobile devices.
The problem is, mobile game story writers have to deal with a number of other issues that normal game story writers don’t have to worry about. The number one of which is gameplay duration: your average console gamer may sit down for 2 or 3 hours to play a game. The designer knows they have the gamer’s attention and can reliably deliver large chunks of narrative in one go.
But how do you deliver a narrative experience on a platform where people will regularly play for 5 minutes or less, multiple times a day?
The answer to that question, and many other mobile narrative questions, are hidden with this book.
About The Author
Toiya Kristen Finley
With nearly 70 published works of fiction, nonfiction, comics/manga, and games to her name, Toiya Kristen Finley has almost infinite experience in the art of narrative in all types of media.
Some Of The Book’s Features And Benefits
- The only book dedicated to narrative design for mobile and social games
- Gives the reader a framework for designing narrative for mobile
- Examples of narrative done right on mobile
- Explores real games to illustrate theory and best practices with analyses of game case studies per chapter, covering indie, social/mobile, and AAA games
- Includes checklists to help readers critique their own narrative design/writing
Verdict
If you specialise in mobile games that offer the player slightly more than just endless running, this book is worth a read.
The mobile phone platform comes with its own advantages and disadvantage, but one of the major hurdles for telling stories on mobile games is the need to chunk the story into a tiny easily digestible packet.
As you know, most users of mobile phones will dip in and out of their games after very short periods of time. So you need to build a story that can be experienced in tiny little segments, maybe even one or two minutes at a time.
This book will show you how to do that.
So, if that’s what you need for your mobile game, then this is yet another must-buy book. Check Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games out here.