Chris Bateman
International Hobo
Award-winning game designer and narrative designer Chris Bateman has been working on games since the 16-bit consoles and has over fifty published game credits, most recently acclaimed PlayStation VR game The Persistence and the much-anticipated strategy sequel Tropico 6. The founder of Develop Award Nominee International Hobo Ltd, the first consultancy to combine narrative and game design skills under one roof, Chris won the IGDA's MVP Award for his work founding and running the organisation's highly-successful Game Writers Special Interest Group.
Chris Bateman is speaking at the following session/s
The Narrative Design Survival Guide
Narrative Design is the art and craft of combining the practices of game designers with the practices of writers, and it is a skill unique to the games industry. This talk works as a ‘survival guide’ to the challenges of designing engaging narrative videogames by breaking down the different structural approaches relevant to game stories and identifying the ‘fault lines’ between player agency and conventional narrative theory. Although the practices of narrative design are as old as the industry, the first ‘narrative designer’ job role was created in 2002 by International Hobo, which set up shop in 1999 with the goal of combining game design and writing talent under one roof. Through the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group, the terms ‘narrative design’ and ‘narrative designer’ spread throughout the games industry. This talk shares Chris experience of the narrative design problems of his more than fifty videogame projects, and offers new methods for analysing narrative design and practical solutions to common problems. Core to this ‘survival guide’ is an understanding of game structures, the different ways that the inherently repetitive elements of game design (the ‘core game loop’, and more besides) inevitably create stories from the player’s perspective, whether or not the game expressly tries to implement narrative elements. Don't die in the game story wilderness – let The Narrative Design Survival Guide protect you from the risks of bringing stories right into the heart of the player experience.
- Get to grips with the challenges of narrative design by understanding the relationship between game structure and story
- Guide players with carefully constructed funnelling and breadcrumbing
- Manage agency and character development through careful management of meaningful choices
Don’t miss our early bird rates
Book your conference pass now with a 20% discount - you can save as much as £180!
Offer ends 5 June.
Find out more
There’s really something for everyone at Develop and the experience of being around like-minded people is really useful.
Grace Carroll
Creative Assembly
There really is a huge mix of people at Develop - loads of peers that you can learn from and the perfect blend of every element of game development as well.
Alex Moyet
Curve Digital
I’ve been to every single Develop in the last 12 years. One thing you get here is networking - you will meet the most amazing individuals in the video games industry.
Kish Hirani
Terra Virtua
Develop always gets put in the diary. There are many reasons to be here, not just the talks, but the networking, people exchanging ideas about where the industry is right now and where it’s going to. It’s pretty essential to be here I think.
Ian Livingstone, CBE
We are so lucky to have Develop here in the UK. It’s a unique event where you can come and discover new things with people who care passionately about video games. It’s a sea full of new ideas.
Jonathan Smith
TT Games
Develop is a very important place – it’s one of the few developer focussed conferences we have in Europe and that makes it very valuable.
Rami Ismail
Vlambeer
A lot of the opportunities that come from being here are speaking to other developers who are doing exactly the same thing as you. And there are some good parties – it’s very much a pleasurable work experience!
Gemma Foster
Dlala Studios
If you really want to have a good interface with the British game developer community then this is the place to come.
Kate Edwards
Geogrify
I absolutely love coming to Develop, it’s a brilliant, brilliant conference – you just know you’re guaranteed to meet everyone.
Jo Twist, OBE
Ukie
I really like Develop, I really like the intimacy of it and I love the location.. there’s a good diversity of talks going on so there hasn’t been a time when there’s nothing I want to see.
Brenda Romero
Romero Games
Get involved today!
There are many ways you can be part of Develop:Brighton 2018 - including speaking in the conference, taking a booth in the Expo or becoming a sponsor.
Find out moreOur Partners
Platinum Partners
Partners
Media Partners
