Journal of Games Criticism Volume 3, Issue 1

Book Review

Tutored Together Around More

than Dialogue: A Review of
Evan Skolnick’s Video Game
Storytelling: What Every
Developer Needs to Know about
Narrative Techniques
Jennifer F. Wood

Evan Skolnick. Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know
About Narrative Techniques. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2014, 202
pp., ISBN NO. 9780385345828.

Evan Skolnick is a well-established game writer and narrative designer. With a background
in games, comics, and books, he places great importance on the power of a story, but not
a story that a writer tells alone. In his recent work, Video Game Storytelling: What Every
Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques, he captures the essence of bringing the
entire video game development team together around the common goal of writing well-
integrated story content within video games. The book is based on his Game Developers
Conference (GDC) tutorial. Skolnick believes a development team can be guided through

Author Biography

Jennifer F. Wood (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) is currently an associate

professor in the Communication and Theatre Department at Millersville University
of Pennsylvania. Her areas of expertise include business and professional
communication, organizational communication, communication management,
pedagogy, media writing, and public relations. She is the 2014–2015 recipient of the
University’s Educator of the Year Award.

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JGC 3(1) Review: Video Game Storytelling 2

the very collaborative process of storytelling through a book that speaks the two languages—
storytelling and game development.
The book supports his belief by offering a two-pronged, blended-learning program for
video game makers. Cross-disciplinary teams are encouraged to come together to (1) learn
common principles of storytelling and (2) learn how to apply them through their individual
positions of video game development. Skolnick argues that the delivery of entertaining,
effective, and well-integrated story content “hinges on team members’ familiarity with
storytelling, their attitudes toward story’s place in games, and their mastery of a common
language with which everyone on the team can discuss the game narrative” (p. 1). Video
game makers can expect the first half of the book to equip them to participate in narrative
design in an efficient way with the purpose of achieving narrative excellence.
Part One, Basic Training, supports previous research in the field that stated
“as game designers and developers, we can use the same critical vocabularies,
theories, and taxonomical techniques that have long been established in the field of
narratology”(McDaniel, Fiore, Nicholson, 2010, p. 15). Skolnick focuses on seven narrative
principles of Western storytelling—conflict, three-act structure, monomyth, characters
and arc, exposition, believability, and dialogue. He does not suggest a formulaic process
that dismisses a narrative expert by asking team members to embrace template writing.
He provides analysis and examples of how to facilitate collaboration in a way that achieves
what Walter Fisher (1984) called narrative probability—what constitutes a coherent story—
and narrative fidelity—whether the story rings true in their lives. Skolnick effectively
demonstrates how the heroic template may be used as a “checking tool, to be employed
when something doesn’t feel quite right about a story in progress” (p. 37).
Video game makers unfamiliar with the building blocks of narrative can acquire familiarity
with many differences between other storytelling forms and game storytelling. Three of
them include the narrative process, the show and tell of narration, and the time clock. First,
the most notable difference is that in gaming the story is not the first step of the process. “A
new game almost always begins with a decision on genre followed by a concept within that
genre” (p. 115). Second, traditional storytelling balances the act of dramatizing or showing
the narration and telling it. Skolnick makes it clear that video game makers first try to find
a way to let the player do it; their second choice is to show it; and their last resort is to tell
it” (p. 57). Third, the time clock is different. “While traditional story audiences regularly
tolerate 25 percent or more of the total story time being devoted to initial setup, video game
players expect to be actively playing within seconds—or at the most, a minute or two—of
launching into the experience” (p. 21). Scholars can expect to see how core principles, proven
structures, and best practices related to narrative can actually be applied to enhance the
player’s responsibility.
In the book, Skolnick makes two conceptual choices—(1) the use of selected stories from
movies and (2) a focus on console and PC games vs. games on other platforms. These
intentional conceptual choices do not detract from the goal of the book nor interfere or
JGC 3(1) Wood 3

influence creative license. Many basic concepts are first analyzed using a movie and followed
up by game examples. By way of illustration, Skolnick uses four stories—Star Wars, The
Matrix, Titanic, and Dune—to analyze conflict; before turning to game examples such as
BioShock, Far Cry 3, and Grand Theft Auto III.
Just as crafted entertainment such as movies, television, and live theatre recognizes the
need for quality storytelling without de-emphasizing quality scene design, graphics, or
sound, Skolnick clearly acknowledges the same level of equality between storytelling and
other game features. Skolnick’s also emphasizes that whether a team of two or hundred it is
important that no one takes an isolated approach when executing their area of expertise.
In Part 2, titled In the Trenches, Skolnick’s goal is to provide “some global insights into how
members of each discipline and every sub-group can reach across the team room aisles to
work together in the service of creating a compelling, well-integrated game story” (p. 99).
Skolnick begins each of these chapters with a statement about whom the content is most
relevant for on the design team in terms of position titles. He encourages team members to
read everything. As game development teams continue to grow in size, this encouragement
is both strategic and a complement to the emphasis on the necessity of game development
documentation. Global insights that may run through the team and a games’ documentation
include (a) decision making of team leaders and its impact on the games’ story quality; (b)
the caution to not let game design plus narrative become game design versus narrative; (c)
characters’ development as an outgrowth of a unified vision; and (d) establishing shared
intent in the areas in which level design and narrative design commonly intersect. Skolnick
is clear that Level Design Documents are “a good home for information on up-front
narrative context and storytelling goals” (p. 139).
The continuous evolution of personal computers and home consoles allows a game to
contain massive amounts of information to create larger environments, worlds, and
universes in which players can participate. Environment becomes even more critical to
the cross-disciplinary teams. Skolnick argues that “video games’ ability to provide that
experience to the player—to allow him to really feel like he is in the environment, as opposed
to just observing it—is one of the unique and compelling storytelling elements that separate
games from other entertainment forms” (p. 149). He encourages team members to carefully
construct narrative in an Environment Description Document.
Skolnick also provides global insights to bring to the forefront that engineers, audio experts,
and quality assurance testers also share in the responsibility of understanding narrative
intent and ways they can help support it practically and technically. Researchers have often
agreed that “the trick for game developers is to (1) create a story that makes sense, (2) is
easy to follow, and (3) can be told in a nonlinear fashion” (Kapp, 2012, p. 67). Skolnick
successfully demonstrates that individual design teams can do all three without becoming
cookie-cutter experts while remaining experts who are free to grapple with storytelling in line
with various nuances and practical applications related to their projects.
As a book targeted at video game development teams, it is well written and easy to
JGC 3(1) Review: Video Game Storytelling 4

understand. With the growth in game platforms and frequency of play, it is important
to continue to bring gamers back to a game. This may be achieved by expanding the
discussions about how to make gamers active participants in the narrative and its outcome.
Skolnick’s book is effective in demonstrating that with unified thought and planning of
narrative, the entire team can be free of distracting inconsistencies in their game’s universe,
and can be fully engaged in pulling players into compelling stories as they play their game.

References
Fisher, W. (1984). Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public
moral argument. Communication Monographs, 51, 1-18.
Kapp, K.M. (2012). Games, gamification, and the quest for learner engagement. T+D, 66(6),
64-68.
McDaniel, R., Fiore, S.M., & Nicholson, D. (2010). Serious storytelling: Narrative
considerations for serious game researchers and developers. In C. A. Bowers & J. A.
Cannon-Bowers (Eds.), Serious game design and development: Technologies for training and
learning (pp. 13-30). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.