The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox

Tobias Heussner is a Christian and Game Content/Narrative Designer, currently working as a Senior Producer. His areas of expertise are Game Content Design (including Narrative Design, Quest/Mission Design and Level Design), Game System Design (including Game Mechanic Design, Combat Design and Encounter Design) and Game Production. He has been involved in professional game development for over 19 years, started game development during his High School years, worked in different design and management roles and has been involved in the development of over 20 different, published titles, including top-sellers like Paws&Claws: Pet Vet, the AAA-RPG The Dark Eye – Drakensang, the AAA-Browser-MMO Action-RPG Drakensang Online and NBA Playgrounds. Currently, Tobias is working at Saber Interactive in Spain. He was also a Co-Coordinator for the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online and is the current chair of IGDA Special Interest Group: Game Writing.  Together with Ann Lemay, Toiya K. Finley and Jennifer Hepler, he wrote the Game Narrative Toolbox, a guide into game writing which was published by Focal Press in 2015.In his spare time, besides spending time with his family and developing games, he enjoys writing screenplays and novels. He has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the Open University and studied Screenwriting at the UCLA Extension.

Introduction. Planning Your Work. Diversity & Research. Romances. Cinematics. Building a Universe. Writing for Non-Digital Games (Board Games). Adapting a Digital World to a Novel. From Novel to Computer Game. Reinventing an IP. Managing the Branches. Quest Design. Writing and implementation. The Writer in the Studio (VO). Editing and Quality Control. Freelancing and Surviving. Journalism. Past the Release.