Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

"We don't need a writer—the gameplay tells the story."

OR

“Let’s just wait to hire a writer until we’re ready to add dialogue.”

OR

"Write the story first, just to get it out of the way, and then we can focus on gameplay."

How do you feel when you hear things like this? Maybe , like me, you feel like Aubrey from Parks & Rec: extremely annoyed.

People say these kinds of things all the time in team meetings, and with their whole chest. They feel confident that they are just speaking facts. Like me, I bet you've encountered the executive who thinks game writing is "just like screenwriting" or the well-meaning designer who believes writing is just about character dialogue.

As game writers/narrative designers, we secretly, silently know better. We have a different perspective, one that’s rooted in hard-won experience. We hear these comments and think “I’ve seen teams make the same assumptions, and they ended up a) working around the clock to fix mistakes and b) shipping a weaksauce story, regardless. I hope this team doesn’t make the same mistake.”

We usually bite our tongues to keep the peace.

But the irony is that these people aren’t just hurting your career prospects, by limiting your ability to do your best work - they’re hurting their own projects and their own teams.

These persistent myths don't just diminish the craft of game writing; they actively hold back studios from reaching their full potential. They stand in the road and get in the way and slow things down. Kind of like this guy right here.

Both gamers and game developers consistently undervalue and misunderstand the role of professional game writers. This leads to huge missed opportunities for everybody involved.

Why These Myths Persist

Why does this happen? Maybe because, in part, games began as a medium driven by mechanics, not narrative. Or maybe because the emphasis in this industry has been on technological innovation over storytelling excellence. If you’ve ever seen the launch of a new console generation, you know what I’m talking about.

For too many developers and executives, writing is still an afterthought—something that can be handled by the designer who has the most free time or added by somebody, anybody at the last minute. (I used to call this kind of storytelling-at-the-last-minute approach “pulling pantyhose over a car” – stretched to its absolute limit, utterly pointless, and also ridiculous.)

The success of gameplay-focused titles has created this misperception that "good games don't need writers." And the fact is, when game writing works, it is nearly invisible. Players can’t really tell where story ends and gameplay begins. The irony is that when the narrative and the mechanics are fully integrated, people can’t see what, if anything, the writer did.

OK, so these wrong ideas are floating around out there. Let's help clear the air, with evidence.

Myth-Busting For Fun and Profit

We can start by taking a closer look at successful games that blow these myths out of the water. We can shine a spotlight on where great work is happening. Let’s look at the TRUE scope of game writing, and see how it can impact things that the executives care about, like player engagement, retention, and commercial success.

Consider this list of games as examples you can use to convince people on your team of the value of great storytelling in games - and what it REALLY takes to deliver the goods.

(We want executives to champion our work, because they’re the ones who greenlight projects and approve hiring decisions. Hi, nice executive guy! Give us money!)

Facts Over Fiction

First up, the "no writers needed" myth: Look at God of War (2018). The game's emotional core is built around the relationship between Kratos and Atreus. The people who created that knew a thing or two about putting a story together. Take the moment when Atreus falls ill: Kratos's desperate boat journey is mechanically simple, but the writing elevates it to a pivotal character moment. His muttered "Don't leave me, boy" carries the weight of his entire character arc. Writers worked with designers to ensure every combat tutorial, every puzzle solution, and every side quest reinforced their evolving relationship.

The "just like film" fallacy: Red Dead Redemption 2 shows how good game writing follows the player's lead. When Arthur Morgan confronts the debt-ridden Thomas Downes, the scene plays differently based on the choices the player made throughout the game. The writers designed multiple versions of dialogue and character reactions that maintain Arthur's core character while reflecting player decisions. Each variation needed to work within the game's broader narrative about redemption and morality—and that’s a level of complexity that could stun a screenwriter.

The "just dialogue" misconception: Dark Souls shows us how game writing extends far beyond dialogue. Look at the Sword of Artorias. Its item description reads: "This greatsword, bestowed upon Lord Gwyn's most beloved knight, has a divine blessing." This single line does world-building, establishes lore, and creates emotional resonance. Writers crafted hundreds of such descriptions, environmental clues, and subtle narrative threads that players piece together like a narrative puzzle. It all adds up to Story, capital S, without relying on a word of dialogue.

The "story comes last" myth: Disco Elysium's revolutionary (and kickass) integration of systems and story proves why writers need to be involved from day one. The game's skills aren't just statistics—they're characters with distinct voices. When your "Drama" skill speaks to you differently than your "Logic" skill, that's careful writing working in harmony with game mechanics. This could only happen because writers collaborated with designers from the concept stage.

All these games have something in common: they were all released years ago.

That means smart game studios have been delivering world-class storytelling for a long time. And that means players expect more - as they should. Devs and publishers that don’t deliver the goods in this arena are going to be left behind.

If you’re ready to ship better stories in your games, here are some practical steps you can take now, today, to start making it happen.

If you’re a creative lead at a studio, you can:

• Bring writers on board for the ideation and pre-production phases
• Create clear communication channels between narrative, design, and programming teams. Make sure they know each other’s names and where they sit
• Plan to test and iterate on the narrative - not just gameplay - and include that plan in your budget
• Include writers in playtest feedback sessions - they need to know what’s working and what’s not
• Establish narrative design documents with the same priority as technical design documents

If you’re a game writer or narrative designer, you can:

• Study game mechanics and systems—think about how you could use them to deliver your story
• Learn how to create world bibles
• Practice writing dialogue that accounts for player choice
• Build a portfolio that shows visitors you understand not just storytelling, but interactive storytelling
• Play successful games in different genres to understand the different ways they tell their stories. (The games listed in this article are a great place to start)
• Stretch goal: learn basic scripting, so that you can work more closely with the technical teams. (You don’t have to be an expert, but it helps if you can speak their language and understand their thinking)

As a team, you can:

• Set up regular, weekly meetings between the design and narrative departments
• Document the story decisions you make - and why you made them
• Establish clear processes for how you’re going to iterate as a team on the story
• Ask QA to create a test plan for narrative
• Create a feedback loop between playtest results and narrative developmen

Some of these steps are easy. Some are hard. But they’re ALL worthwhile. Think of them as a roadmap that will help you get where you want to be.

See you next week.

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Susan’s first job as a game writer was for “a slumber party game - for girls!” She’s gone on to work on over 25 projects, including award-winning titles in the BioShock, Far Cry and Tomb Raider franchises. Titles in her portfolio have sold over 30 million copies and generated over $500 million in sales. She founded the Game Narrative Summit at GDC. Now, she partners with studios, publishers, and writers to help teams ship great games with great stories. She is dedicated to supporting creatives in the games industry so that they can do their best work.