We’re thrilled to announce an upcoming session with Radosław Klasa, a seasoned narrative designer with experience in both indie and AAA game development. If you’re passionate about creating compelling narratives for multiplayer games, this is your chance to gain insights from one of the best in the field.
Who is Radosław Klasa?
Radosław has over five years of experience in game design and has worked with small indie teams and major AAA studios. As a Technical Designer at Sperasoft and president of the TK Games Scientific Circle, he’s passionate about exploring new and original mechanics that enhance storytelling. Plus, in his free time, he’s a karaoke aficionado!
What’s This Session About?
This Q&A session will dive into narrative design best practices for multiplayer games, exploring how to:
Balance story and gameplay in multiplayer settings.
Create immersive worlds and memorable characters.
Avoid common narrative pitfalls in multiplayer game design.
We Want YOUR Questions!
What have you always wanted to know about narrative design for multiplayer games? Here’s your chance to ask! Leave your questions in the comments below, and we’ll make sure Radosław answers as many as possible during the session.
Hi Radoslaw! Thank you for your time today. And thank you, Martina for putting this together. As a solo indie developer, finding this UE hobbie of mine getting more serious each day, I noticed that I tend to put mechanics and level design first. Only afterwards do I try to come up with a story to fit the game. I suppose it depends alot on the game’s goal, but how much of a priority is story telling in AAA environments and is it the other way around, where story drives the mechanics and gameplay? Which book(s) would you recommend for improving/understanding game-focused storytelling?
In AAA game development, the priority given to storytelling versus mechanics and gameplay can vary significantly depending on the project’s goals, genre, and target audience. For some titles, particularly narrative-driven games (e.g., The Last of Us or Red Dead Redemption), the story often serves as the foundation, with mechanics and gameplay designed to enhance and support the narrative experience. In contrast, in genres like multiplayer shooters or sports games, mechanics and gameplay typically take precedence, and storytelling may play a secondary or supportive role.
In practice, AAA studios often aim to balance these elements, integrating story and gameplay iteratively. Writers, designers, and developers collaborate to ensure the story aligns with mechanics while gameplay enhances the narrative. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses" by Jesse Schell
This book emphasizes the holistic nature of game design, including how storytelling fits into the larger design process.
“Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals” by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
While more mechanics-focused, this book provides insight into how narrative and mechanics can work together to create meaningful player experiences.
“Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames” edited by Chris Bateman
A collection of essays from experienced game writers that explores narrative techniques and their application in game development.
“Blood, Sweat, and Pixels” by Jason Schreier
This book offers behind-the-scenes accounts of game development, including how storytelling and mechanics are balanced in AAA environments.
Interactive Storytelling for Video Games" by Josiah Lebowitz and Chris Klug
This book delves into storytelling techniques specific to interactive mediums and provides practical advice for integrating narrative into gameplay.
how do you balance telling a story and letting the player submerge themselves and create their own experience?
how to balance your ideal story and player freedom?
There is one book specifically I would recommend that addresses this which is “Writing for Games theory and practice” by Hannah Nicklin, “Narrative Design for Writers” by Edwin Mcrae, and “Level-Up a Guide to Game Design” by Scott Rodgers All these books bring in AAA perspective to an Indie format but before ANY of these, I would start with “Video Game storyTelling” by Evan Skolnick its a nice introductory text to understand standing how writing applies to games, and a good general overview of its value in the industry. This book is a precursor to the ones mentioned, and most of those books will mention Skulnick’s take on Game writing.
what is a good ratio of how much gameplay time should be min or max inbetween story reveals to keep the player motivated to play.
I’m making a rogue like game, so the player will have to start over multiple times before they might reach a certain goal which would then reveal more story. The gameplay itself should be motivating itself of course due to level and character progression.
So story should basically function as a backup to help the player to stay motivated eventhough currently facing a difficult time due to game difficulty, which is very common in rogue likes.
How could I create enough tension in a story so the player will try out different stragies to reach the next level.
You have to analyze your game to see what drives and motivates the player.
Two examples with different approaches:
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth focuses on mechanics. The gameplay is emergent. As a player, we combine different items that have great synergies, we have plenty of enemy types, etc.
The story is very hidden or provided in a mysterious way – for example, I didn’t understand some cutscenes and most of the stuff I just googled.
Hades, on the other hand, empathies with the story at most. We are presented with colorful characters. We gain additional journal entries after each interaction with a given NPC. Story bits are provided via dialogs after each death, so we are getting intrigued and involved in the plot.
So, in your case, think how important the narration story is, what’s the main drive of the game, and try to place yourself somewhere in between on the axis between those great titles!
As for me, the player experience goes first and foremost. I try to provide the story bits as non-invasively as possible. Then I would analyze what the player can do with the given tools and try to judge the outcome of the action in the way it’s working out with narration.
Hey indie devs! 
Who is Radosław Klasa?
What’s This Session About?
We Want YOUR Questions!
Don’t Miss Out!
Session Date: Jan 8th 2025
Where: Office Hours on the Epic for Indies Discord
What do YOU want to learn from Radosław Klasa? Comment below!