Amy-Leigh Shaw
Sweet Baby
Amy-Leigh Shaw is a Writer & Narrative Designer at Sweet Baby Inc. She’s worked on an array of games from Indie to AAA, and is a staunch believer in the cohesiveness of a development team as the primary factor in a project’s success.
Amy-Leigh Shaw is speaking at the following session/s
Cut an NPC and Your Whole World Bleeds: The Importance of the Ephemeral in Interactive Storytelling
When we think of a game’s narrative, we often think of the core plot, the central driving force behind the actions of the player character, or the path we carve immediately ahead of them. In contrast, people in the business of storytelling will often repeat that “narrative is everything”. It’s true, but often not well explained… This talk seeks to demonstrate to those outside the narrative discipline exactly what is so important about the ephemera of storytelling - why the content of that NPC’s dialogue, that radio broadcast, that letter, need as much attention as any other aspect of a game’s story.
Session Takeaway
- What *is* narrative ephemera?
- What do those in the narrative discipline mean when they say “everything is narrative”?
- What kind of impact can well-executed narrative ephemera have on a game?
- What are the consequences of ignoring ephemera in narrative world building?
- How can we do narrative ephemera *better*?
Session speakers
