Story for
Video Games

This online CPD training is for anyone who wants to develop their talent in the video game industry and create richer player experiences. It’s suitable if you:

• Are a game writer or narrative designer looking to build on your skills
• Are new to the industry and want to understand what a development team needs from a writer
• Work in other areas of game development and publishing, be it as a designer, producer, programmer or artist etc.
• Want to learn how to see the underlying framework behind all stories — both in video games and traditional media

This professional training allows you to:

• Gain the narrative skills to better integrate story into the production process, ensure story is heard within a development team, and resolve problems where game design requirements feel at odds with story needs
• Master story structure and have the skills to diagnose and fix story problems
• Refresh your skills and understand decisions you’ve always made using instinct
• Gain greater understanding of industry expectations and processes within development teams
• Clearly identify and pursue your potential
• Network with others in the industry, and with the tutor team and special guests

Our training is taught 100% online in small groups with a designated tutor and moderator on-hand throughout. Each course is divided into sessions. These sessions are released one by one on a weekly basis.

There’s no need to log on at a set time. You can work through the learning materials whenever suits you, day or night, wherever you are in the world. Just allow 5-7 hours per session to complete the assignments and join forum discussions by the deadline.

Our teaching method is based on the science of active learning, where you’ll read, watch and practise exercises in your own time before submitting assignments for peer and tutor feedback. You’ll then review, share, reflect, and refine your work.

It’s both flexible and structured. Social and yet gives you space. You’ll emerge with an industry-standard toolset you can apply to real world projects and a new network of professionals you can trust. Find out more about how we teach.

Session 1: The Protagonist and The Player

We start with an in-depth analysis of what a protagonist is, their desire and their relationship to the player. You’ll learn about good characterisation and how the identification process works.

Session 2: Key Elements of Story

In addition to a protagonist and a desire, every story needs an antagonist, an inciting incident, a journey, a crisis, a climax and a resolution. We’ll analyse all these elements in detail and how they work in games.

Session 3: Understanding Story Structure

We’ll focus on the ten questions you need to ask to make sure your story isn’t broken, and how you can structure it in three and five acts. By the end of the session, you’ll be able to deconstruct any story.

Session 4: Merging Story and Gameplay

The key challenge in game writing is to make story and gameplay work together. For this, you need to know your verbs, understand agency, choice, pacing and much more.

Session 5: Storytelling Tips for Games

How you tell your story is as important as what the story is. A great story told badly is worse than an okay story told elegantly. Find out how to perfect your storytelling with 15 essential tips.

Session 6: Writing in a Development Team

In this final two-week session you’ll learn what a development team needs from a writer — how you can contribute to, improve and make an impact on the quality of the final experience. You’ll use what you’ve learned to write a story treatment for your own game idea, which you can submit to receive written feedback notes from your tutors.

See our full list of UK-based funding opportunities with application guidance.

ScreenSkills –You may be eligible for a training bursary for this course. Apply direct to ScreenSkills here, at least four weeks before the course start date.

Women in Games Bursary (in-house) – We’ve written articles on why the industry needs more women and are committed to helping encourage more female talent on the scene. Our bursary covers 25% of the regular course price and is available to one female applicant for each iteration of this course. To apply, fill out our short form.

You can only apply for one bursary option for this course. As this counts as CPD training, you may also be able to get funding from your employer to do it.

Join our alumni – After your course, you can join our online alumni community where you’ll meet our growing network of past students. You’ll be able to.

• Rejoin your classmates in a private forum
• Continue to access an archived version of your course materials
• Meet alumni from other courses and share work for feedback
• Join discussions about games writing and the industry
• Attend live chats with guest writers and industry folk

Mentoring and one-to-one feedback – Our team offer mentoring, script reads and reports. We are happy to quote by job or script, or to arrange a longer mentoring scheme as you work on a specific story idea. We’ll create a package to suit you, so please email [email protected].