# Narrative Design

> Use when designing game story structure, writing branching dialogue, building lore, or planning narrative delivery

- Skill: `kienbui1995/narrative-design` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kienbui1995/narrative-design`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kienbui1995/narrative-design/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: kienbui1995 (https://skillmd.com/u/kienbui1995)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kienbui1995/narrative-design

---


# Narrative Design

## When to Use
When designing the story, world lore, characters, and dialogue systems for a game.

## Core Jobs

### 1. Story Structure
Games aren't films — story must interweave with gameplay:
- **Environmental storytelling**: world tells story without cutscenes (notes, ruins, NPC behavior)
- **Emergent narrative**: player actions create their own story moments
- **Authored narrative**: scripted story beats at key moments
Good games use all three. Great narrative games balance player agency with authored moments.

### 2. Character Design
Per character:
- **Want**: what do they actively pursue?
- **Need**: what do they actually need (often different from want)?
- **Wound**: what in their past drives them?
- **Arc**: how do they change (or don't) by the end?

Player character: be careful with agency — player agency and authored arc can conflict.

### 3. Branching Dialogue
Design principles:
- Meaningful choices: must produce different outcomes (not just different flavor text)
- Player expression vs player influence: sometimes branches express personality, sometimes they change outcomes — be clear which is which
- Convergence: branches that recombine need clear narrative justification
- Tools: Ink (by Inkle), Yarn Spinner, Twine for writing and testing

Document per choice node:
- The choice options (player-facing)
- What each selects for (tone, faction, stat)
- Consequence (immediate + long-term flags set)

### 4. Lore Architecture
- Build only what players will discover (unused lore = wasted effort)
- Layer: surface lore (visible to all), discoverable lore (for explorers), deep lore (for completionists)
- Consistency bible: world rules, timeline, faction relationships

## Key Outputs
- Story outline (major beats, act structure)
- Character bibles (key characters)
- Dialogue script with branching (Ink/Yarn format)
- Lore consistency bible

## Anti-Patterns
- Story delivered entirely through unskippable cutscenes
- Choices with no real consequence ("illusion of choice" players notice)
- Lore dumps in opening monologue
- Building lore that players will never encounter