Creative
Writes stories that respond to the player
A narrative game designer decides how a video game tells its story. They design quests, conversations, relationships, choices, clues in the game world and rules that remember what a player has done. Working with writers, artists, programmers and audio teams, they decide what the player discovers and how the game responds to their actions.
A scene cannot rely on the player asking the convenient question. They may leave halfway through or arrive with a forbidden object. They might solve the problem in an unexpected order. The designer turns those possibilities into clear causes and consequences without creating more branches than the team can build. The work joins dialogue and drama to the game’s underlying logic.
The boundary with games writing varies. A writer may focus on plot and dialogue. A narrative designer usually plans choices, controls the order of a quest and puts the story into the game. In a small team, one person may do both. There is no set route and few true entry-level vacancies. Studios value a portfolio of short games, modified games or branching scenes that people can play and test.
No official statistics isolate narrative design, so these figures combine the four job titles above and are less certain than the site’s other bands. The lower line reflects difficulty getting in, not weaker work. UK games employment fell by more than a thousand in the year to September 2025, with writers reporting the most job losses; a quarter of games graduates and over half of other entrants waited more than a year for their first role.
| When | Lowest 10% earn under | A typical earner | Top 10% earn over |
|---|---|---|---|
| On graduating | £24,000 | £25,000 | £31,000 |
| 1 year in | £25,000 | £27,000 | £35,000 |
| 2 years in | £26,000 | £30,000 | £40,000 |
| 3 years in | £27,000 | £33,000 | £45,000 |
| 4 years in | £28,000 | £36,000 | £50,000 |
| 5 years in | £30,000 | £39,000 | £55,000 |
| 6 years in | £31,000 | £42,000 | £60,000 |
| 7 years in | £32,000 | £45,000 | £65,000 |
| 8 years in | £34,000 | £48,000 | £70,000 |
| 9 years in | £35,000 | £51,000 | £75,000 |
| 10 years in | £36,000 | £53,000 | £80,000 |
You can arrange for a companion to remember a promise the player broke five hours earlier. A town might greet them differently because of an apparently minor choice. The player makes the decision, while you give it dramatic meaning and decide how the game responds. When the consequence arrives at the right moment, a prepared scene can feel personal rather than identical for everyone.
A locked nursery, a weapon that becomes harder to use or enemies who stop following orders can reveal more than another explanatory speech. Narrative design lets you tell stories through space, game rules, sound, animation and what appears on screen. Changing one game rule can express a character’s fear, giving you tools that prose alone does not offer.
A quest may need to work whether the witness is alive or the secret has already been discovered. The player may trust either of two companions. Finding a graceful route through those situations is part drama and part puzzle. The pleasure comes from keeping characters’ reactions believable in every possible order, so the game never appears to forget what happened.
Every choice creates more dialogue to write, record, translate, animate and test. A beautiful four-way branch may consume days of work even though most players see only one route. The branches often have to meet again because time and money are limited. You may spend considerable effort respecting different choices while steering them towards the same affordable scene.
A level loses a room, combat begins sooner or an actor is unavailable for another recording session. Suddenly, the character who pointed towards the window is facing a wall. The new objective arrives before their warning. Narrative work is unusually exposed to changes elsewhere in development. Rewriting around fixed animation, timing and recorded lines can feel more like repair than authorship.
The afternoon may disappear into dialogue labels, rules controlling when lines play and errors moving text between tools. One line might repeat whenever the player opens a door. Story faults often appear only in a particular situation. Each part works alone, but together they make a dead character speak or reveal a secret too early. The repetitive technical work can be a shock if you mainly want to write dialogue.
Usually 3–4 years
Game design, creative writing, English, film and computer science each develop a different part of the role, and no single subject is compulsory. Whichever you choose, work with programmers and artists rather than leaving every idea in a script. A portfolio should contain small playable pieces in which the player can alter what happens - perhaps a mod, conversation system or branching scene - and explain how testing forced you to cut or rearrange the writing.
Usually 0–2 years’ experience
You may write background dialogue, item descriptions and small conversation branches. You then put them into the game and test them with close supervision. Early trust comes from keeping character voice, story facts and game rules consistent. You accept major rewrites and notice when content fails during play rather than only on the page.
Usually 2–5 years’ experience
You can take responsibility for a quest, relationship or story feature from outline to playable result. You agree its purpose, map alternative routes, write the content and set the rules controlling when it appears. You also fix problems found by testers. Responsibility now includes what happens between scenes: what the player knows, expects and is free to do.
Usually 5–8 years’ experience
You handle storylines that cross several levels and parts of the game. One local change may disturb many later moments. Senior designers set working rules, edit other designers’ work and agree with producers what the team can afford to build. You decide which choices deserve an expensive new path and which can return naturally to the main story.
Usually 8–12 years’ experience
A lead plans the team’s work, assigns projects and protects quality while many parts are built at once. A principal may have similar influence without managing the team. They focus on the hardest story systems or plots. Both turn a creative direction into practical rules that many people can use without making every character sound alike.
Usually 12+ years’ experience
A narrative director is responsible for the game’s story, tone, team and major decisions. A creative director may oversee the story alongside gameplay and art. You decide what the project can promise, defend the resources it needs and cut work before the ambition becomes impossible. Success depends on whether hundreds of contributions produce one clear experience, not on personally writing the most memorable line.
This is the largest single group because it examines game-making tools, early test versions, player behaviour and the relationship between rules and story. Its weakness can be the writing itself. Group production teaches collaboration, but sustaining a distinctive voice and revising line by line may have received much less attention.
Develop control of voice, structure, close reading and revision. These skills help when a character must sound distinct in very few lines. The gap is usually storytelling that responds to the player. Graduates must plan for different actions, put work into a game editor and cut writing that slows the game.
Offer experience with scripts, performance, visual storytelling and making scenes with other specialists. Games do not control sequence, timing or attention like films do. Graduates must design for a participant who can interrupt the intended rhythm, wander away or make the expected scene impossible.
Build research, interpretation and sensitivity to how beliefs and institutions shape a world. Those strengths can deepen fictional cultures and moral choices. Graduates must add dramatic writing, playable structure and the habits needed to turn pages of background material into one encounter.
Makes rules, organised data and collaboration with programmers less intimidating. Technical knowledge is particularly useful when building story systems. It does not by itself teach character, pace or what a player will feel when the game responds.
Publishing, journalism, psychology, acting and tabletop-game subjects can give the writing valuable texture. They contribute editing discipline, insight into behaviour, performance or an instinct for rules shared around a table. A screenplay or short story cannot show interaction, leaving graduates to learn how a scene should respond to the player’s actions.
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09:15 – 09:45Play the morning version
In a science-fiction role-playing game, the player must send emergency power to either a hospital or docking bay. A companion later accuses them of abandoning the patients, even when rescue drones saved everyone. You reproduce the problem and discover that the scene checks where the power went, not what happened.
09:45 – 10:30Trace the changed quest
The quest designer explains that drones were added last week to give resourceful players a third solution. Together, you list the facts the later scene may need. These include the player’s choice, the number of survivors, whether sabotage was found and what the companion witnessed. The old yes-or-no record is trying to carry four different meanings.
10:30 – 12:00Map what the game must remember
You make a small table separating what the player did, what happened and what the companion knows. You then check which combinations can really occur. Giving every combination unique dialogue would create dozens of versions, so you group situations that carry the same emotional meaning. The companion should challenge a selfish motive, recognise an unexpected rescue and remain uncertain when they lack evidence.
12:00 – 13:00Rewrite around consequences
You draft short variations that enter and leave the same core exchange without pretending the opening choice was irrelevant. One line sounds sharp on the page but requires the companion to know about a conversation they missed, so it goes. You also trim a speech because this argument follows an intense action sequence and the player needs room to respond.
13:00 – 13:30Lunch
Noodles.
13:30 – 14:30Hear the scene aloud
Designers read the different versions against temporary footage. A seven-second warning overlaps a door opening and cannot be heard clearly. A repeated response makes the companion sound annoyed rather than frightened. Reading aloud exposes rhythm and unintended tone before expensive voice recording. You cut one line and move another to a quieter walk.
14:30 – 15:45Put the branches in the game
Using the studio’s dialogue tool, you add rules, responses and temporary audio. You then play every version the player can reach. One subtitle is too long for the available time. A choice label sounds more defiant than the spoken line. You rewrite both and add context for translators.
15:45 – 16:30Review the playable scene
A scene designer cannot produce three different gestures within the schedule, but can change where the companion stands. You agree on positions that work for anger, relief and uncertainty. Then you show the quest designer why the player’s drone solution needs to be recognised earlier. The fix involves writing, staging and information for the player, rather than belonging neatly to one department.
16:30 – 18:00Watch players find another route
In a test, two people understand the choice. A third sells the drone battery beforehand, then assumes the hospital rescue failed because the goal on screen never updates. You resist adding a speech that explains the whole system. A revised radio message and clearer goal make the result understandable during play. The companion’s later silence finally feels like judgement rather than a fault.
+5 hours compared with the average UK job