The resource half of this site
The Field Guide.
Narrative design is the discipline of integrating story and gameplay within interactive systems. As interactive worlds grew more complex in the early 2000s, developers began recognizing the need for specialists capable of shaping narrative experiences that respond to player choice. A living field guide to the discipline — definition, theory, vocabulary, history, and practice — maintained here since 2007.
What Is Narrative Design?
The complete explanation of the discipline — its definition, its history, its distinction from game writing, and its role in modern development.
→FAQ
Fifty questions answered: career paths, portfolio advice, craft techniques, tools, theory, and the future of the field.
→Theory
The intellectual architecture — progressive exceedance, Fantasy-Reality Tension Maps, neural coupling, the Holistic Experience Stack.
→Manifesto
The Narrative Design Manifesto — what the discipline stands for, stated plainly.
→Glossary
Terms of art for the practice of interactive narrative design, from Agency to Verisimilitude — cross-referenced and searchable.
→Timeline
A history of interactive narrative — 35,000 years of the participatory story, from the cave walls at Lascaux to large language models.
→Books
Narrative Designer: Fabulator Ludus and the wider shelf — the books that built and carry the discipline.
→The Origin
GDC, San Jose, spring 2006 — the conversation that started a profession, and the original job description.
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