With GDC Online just a week away, show organizers have debuted several new lectures in the show's Game Narrative Summit, featuring talks on the 10 commandments of game writing, top industry reporters on innovation in interactive storytelling, tips on writing co-op campaigns, and much more.
Now in its sixth year, the Game Narrative Summit will return to the Austin-based conference with a broad range of sessions on the art of game writing, with lectures from experienced writers, panels with industry professionals, and in-depth interactive workshops for developers of all skill levels.
The Game Narrative Summit will run alongside GDC Online's Main Conference for the first two days of the four-day conference, from Monday, October 11 through Tuesday, October 12 at the Austin Convention Center.
Here are the latest sessions to be announced for the Game Narrative Summit:
- In "The Ten Commandments of Good Video-game Storytelling," Tom Bissell, author of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, and Immaterial co-founder and consultant Rob Auten will go over the key principals for effective game writing, all modeled on the biblical ten commandments.
- Elsewhere, Carbine Studios senior writer Cory Herndon will host "TweetQuest: Telling Stories in 140-Character Chunks," which will outline how Carbine's upcoming MMO WildStar uses art, design, audio, and a 140 character text limit to convey key story details to the player.
- In "Microtalks: 6 Critics' Views on Great Gamewriting," six top games reporters will talk about what they look for in game narratives, and where they anticipate innovation in the future. Speakers include Hit Detection's N'Gai Croal, CBS Interactive's John Davison, Gamasutra's own Leigh Alexander, among others.
- Broken Sword creator and Revolution Software co-founder Charles Cecil will host a session dubbed "Blurring Fact and Fiction: Adventures in Writing Games that Draw on Historical Themes," in which he will examine how writers can draw from historical events to create interesting stories and gameplay opportunities.
- Cooperative story-based games are becoming more and more popular, and in this panel, titled, "Game Together or Die Alone: Writing Co-Operative Campaigns," five industry writers will sound off on what makes a good co-op story. Speakers in this panel include freelance writer Haris Orkin, The Write Toole's Anne Toole, LucasArts' Evan Skolnick, Red Storm's Jay Posey, and Carbine's Cory Herndon.
- Finally, in "The Muppetational Game Writing Critique Workshop," Red Storm writer Richard Dansky and freelance writer Leanna C. Taylor will give attendees the opportunity to have their writing critiqued, polished, and edited, teaching writers to better critique both themselves and others.
For more information on these or other talks within the Game Narrative Summit, please check out GDC Online's official schedule builder.
In addition, the Game Narrative Summit will also host GDC Online's Game Writing Tutorial, a one-day workshop for beginning and intermediate writers on the theories and practices of game writing, particularly focusing on characters and world building. This event, which is open to Summits & Tutorials Pass and All-Access Pass holders, combines traditional lectures and hands-on exercises, and attendees will get a chance to learn from professional developers and develop their own skills in team-based activities.
GDC Online also recently announced that renowned author Neal Stephenson will host a keynote within the Game Narrative Summit, in which he will chat with veteran game journalist Geoff Keighley about his new novel, REAMDE, which is set against the backdrop of the games industry.
Other previously-announced talks within the Game Narrative Summit include a roundtable with Valve Software, Telltale on authorial control in interactive storytelling, and BioWare on bridging design and writing.
For more information on GDC Online, which takes place October 10-13, 2011, please visit the official GDC Online website, or subscribe to updates from the new GDC Online-specific news page via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC Online is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb.
