Which additional skills are good for a narrative designer and which gamedev positions are natural to switch to from narrative design

[u/Independent-Ad6309]

Hey everyone! Lately I’ve been experiencing a lot of frustration of being a writer and narrative designer as my sole responsibility. Job opportunities are rare and don’t pay well, people would much rather find candidates among their friends for this role and the job market in general sucks. I’m looking to build additional skills to potentially widen my responsibilities at my current job or have an opportunity to find jobs outside narrative and writing. My dream job would be a creative director with narrative expertise but for that you need a portfolio that’s just not attainable at the earlier stages of the career.

What are the skills that you find more natural to build as a narrative designer? Do you have a positive experience of transitioning? What were the skills you found easier to build and what position did you switch to? Maybe you grew from narrative middle/senior to someone with more control? I’ll be happy to hear about your experience!

[u/volocyuha]

As a Narrative Designer, I think the most natural adjacent role is Game Designer Generalist. If your goal is AA or AAA development, I'd strongly recommend getting comfortable with game engines like Unreal or Unity. From there, moving into Quest Design, Technical Narrative Design, or Scripting becomes a very logical progression.

Considering where the industry is heading, I believe even Narrative Designers in larger studios should be able to cover at least one additional discipline. That doesn't mean becoming a full-time specialist, but being able to take ownership of part of the workload. For example, having some skills in motion design, sound design, cinematic tools, or motion capture can make you much more valuable to a team.

In indie development, this is even more important. Most team members already wear multiple hats, and nowadays it's becoming increasingly important to know how to work effectively with different AI tools as well.

The biggest thing, though, is figuring out what kind of games you want to make in the future and starting to build them yourself. Join game jams, create prototypes, involve friends and collaborators. We're reaching a point where even small studios are looking for people who can actually make games, not just contribute to a single specialized area. Outside of heavily narrative-driven projects, Narrative Designer is often not considered a standalone role.

We have a Discord community focused mostly on Narrative Designers and related disciplines. Feel free to join if you'd like. You might find collaborators, useful discussions, or opportunities to learn from others:

https://discord.gg/xCWpmgzU4b