0081 - Talking Narrative with Aoife O’Friel

Guest: 

Aoife O'Friel (aoifeofriel.wixsite.com/portfolio)

Hosts: 

Jenine Lynch [co-host]

Liana Schley [co-host]

Allen Higgins [co-host]

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Welcome to the Game Chat series on Design Talk.

Aoife O’Friel is a writer and narrative designer, from Waterford, now based in Sweden and working for Ubisoft.

We hope to cover a few areas.

The role of the writer/designer, getting into the video game industry, and the demands of working on game projects.

●Narrative design is crucial in game design but perhaps not widely understood. What does a day in the office look like?

●You have talked about "Iteration/emergent narratives/planning for interactivity"

●Can you share some thoughts on "the quest/writing collaborative approach of working with the other moving parts of game design - which tends to mean rolling with constant change!""

●How does narrative feed into and from the game development dynamic, which is, these days, like most software projects, an iterative ‘agile’ process.

●Q: How deep does Narrative get into and drive the game project?

●Q: Is there value in developing narrative before development? Should they unfold in tandem? 

●Q: What problems or opportunities arise if narrative is added towards the end of a project?

●Q: When is narrative needed as opposed to decorative? Although some players might view it as incidental, narrative and backstory is offered for characters and the gameworld for many sports and combat games.

●Q: Does dialogue define a narrative driven game? JRPGs for example often deliver a lot of cut-scene and dialogue.

●Q: Does the game engine limit/drive narrative potential? Good examples?

●Q: What is the relationship between narrative and game mechanics? 

●Q: Does using the same engine for different games limit the scope of the story-telling?

●Q: Can narrative create a real difference between games built on the same platform, perhaps reimagining the gameplay (would Niantic's Ingress and Pokemon Go be examples)? There might be examples of this when players make mods e.g. from Skyrim's Mods community?

So, on that note…

We would like to thank you for making time in your busy schedule to talk to us today.

And for sharing your knowledge and insights into the art of crafting narrative for game design.

Acknowledgements

Music (CC-BY-NC-SA license) 

Title: King of the Universe (single version)

Artist: Ape Rising

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0jmmWXqmk8 

License: CC-BY-NC-SA license 

Cover Art (CC-BY-NC-SA license)

Title: “Game Chat ”

Artist: “Liana Schley ”

Source: AoifeOFriel_PodcastGuest_2021_Thumbnail Art.jpg

License: “CC BY-NC-SA”

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