Edwin McRae

Short, sharp advice on getting story into your Indie game. Whether you’re an Indie developer or a narrative designer wanting to work in the Indie space, this book will take you through some tried and true techniques of Indie video game storytelling. These techniques have been developed to blow minds, not budgets. "An approachable, practical field guide for one of the trickiest and most rewarding aspects of game development, "Narrative Design for Indies" is packed with straightforward, actionable advice. Worth your time!" - Chris Bourassa, Creative Director of Darkest Dungeon. "This book's real strength lies in the fact that it's aimed directly at the indie developer with specific examples to bolster that." - Steve Ince, Creator of Captain Morgane and So Blonde.

Getting Started

Narrative Design for Indies

Do you want to turn your talent for writing into a narrative design career in the games industry? It’s never been a better time to be a writer for video games. You’re tapping into an industry that was worth more than $120 billion dollars in 2019, and it’s still growing. And it’s an industry that needs great storytellers. But there's a BIG difference between a great story and a great game story. Traditional stories are told. Game stories are experienced. That's why video game narratives need a totally different design approach. So how do you apply your scriptwriting, storylining, poetic, copywriting, prose producing skills to an audience that won’t sit still and an industry that’s ever changing? That’s what this book is about! I’ve been a narrative designer for over a decade, as well as a novelist and a scriptwriter / storyliner for TV and comics. I love playing games, and even more, I love helping game developers realize their storytelling aspirations. Nothing delights me more than a game that's both fun to play and delivers a satisfying story experience. In this book, I'll share both the evergreen principles and practical techniques that I’ve learned and developed during my narrative design career so that you can position yourself for your first game writing gig. And if you’re an experienced narrative designer already, you’ll still find plenty of insights that you can apply to your trade. I’ll say it again, “the games industry needs you!” Play is what we do, but story is why we do it.

Narrative Design for Writers

Royal McGraw

As the rebel army beats upon the gates of Sarn, Victario rouses the people to insurrection from within. A dangerous plan is hatched. One gate. One attack. One final battle to unseat a tyrant and destroy his twisted dreams of a Gemling Thaumatocracy. But Chitus and his gemlings aren’t about to give up without a fight, and neither are they about to play by the rules. The Army of Purity must give everything they have to win the day. And though devoted to his cause, Victario may find the sacrifice simply too great to bear.

Path of Exile #3: Death to Sin

Swords, Spells, Stats and Slaughter From the Lead Writer of Path of Exile, the award winning MMORPG #1 Bestseller in Video & Electronic Games 160 Goodreads Ratings averaging 4.01 as of August 2019 Mark wakes up in a burning town inside a Full Immersion Virtual Reality RPG called Reign of Blood. He flees from the reiver slavers who are abducting the village's NPCs, only to have an agonizing encounter with the wrong end of a ranger's arrow. After trying and failing to log out of this painfully realistic game, Mark decides to take up his sword, embrace his new Warlock character class, and help the ranger rescue her people. The warlock and his hard-nosed ranger companion are soon joined by a macabre healer, an earth-shaking druid and a talking fortress. But as Mark takes the fight to the reivers, he uncovers an even deadlier threat. Dark magic is spreading into Garland from a long dead city, and the reiver leader has found a way to harness some of that corrupted power for himself. Level by level, spell by spell, Mark must become the warlock that Garland needs before it falls to the corrupted ambitions of a rising tyrant. If you love... Visceral combat Lovecraftian monsters Ancient ruins Swords and sorcery Original spells ...then Warlock is for you! Warlock: Reign of Blood is Book 1 in the Chasms of Corruption duology. Book 2, Executioner: Reign of Blood is due to be released on May 13, 2019.

A LitRPG Novel

Warlock: Reign of Blood

British celebrity gamer Arix the Damned has been torn from his real life & enslaved by a reiver Inquisitor in the RPG fantasy land of Reign of Blood.

Reign of Blood: A LitRPG Novel: Large Print

Executioner

Reign of Blood: A LitRPG Novel

Swords, Spells, Stats and Slaughter! Mark wakes up in a burning town inside a Full Immersion Virtual Reality RPG called Reign of Blood. He flees from the reiver slavers who are abducting the village’s NPCs, only to have an agonizing encounter with the wrong end of a ranger’s arrow. After trying and failing to log out of this painfully realistic game, Mark decides to take up his sword, embrace his new Warlock character class, and help the ranger rescue her people. The warlock and his hard-nosed ranger companion are soon joined by a macabre healer, an earth-shaking druid and a talking fortress. But as Mark takes the fight to the reivers, he uncovers an even deadlier threat. Dark magic is spreading into Garland from a long dead city, and the reiver leader has found a way to harness some of that corrupted power for himself. Level by level, spell by spell, Mark must become the warlock that Garland needs before it falls to the corrupted ambitions of a rising tyrant. Includes FREE bonus short story! Bloody Minded Follow our sharp-tongued ranger, Dayna of Elmtree, as she and a party of fellow rangers search the Barrens for their missing comrade. You’ll learn how Dayna came by Wayfarer’s diary and why she was the only ranger to make it back to Garland alive.

Reign of Blood

Warlock

Warning! This description contains spoilers for Warlock: Reign of Blood. Mark isn’t the only player in Reign of Blood. Arix the Damned has been torn from his real life as a celebrity gamer and enslaved by a reiver Inquisitor. His agile, axe-wielding Executioner class fits him like a gauntlet, but Arix is helpless to escape the Inquisitor’s collar as she forces him to explore The Barrens in search of three sacrificial altars with apocalyptic powers. All that changes when his flight from a boss fight puts him in the path of Mark, Vari, Braemar and Citadel. But while the Warlock strives to complete the Chasms of Corruption quest and protect Garland from Inquisitor Karina’s cataclysmic designs, the Executioner has other plans. Arix just wants to go home. Capturing Karina is the key to that. And though Mark seems determined to live and die in the fantasy land of Reign of Blood, Arix wants him to wake up from his digital delusion. He’s going to make Mark face reality whether the Warlock likes it or not. Executioner is Book 2 in the Chasms of Corruption duology. Although more books are planned for the Reign of Blood world, Executioner marks the end of this particular arc. Includes FREE bonus short story! Old Flame Set against the violent upheaval of Garland Revolution, you’ll learn how the warlocks, Francis of Millbrook and Ivara of the Dancing Flame, fought to the bitter end against the forces of oppression, and how Francis gave up his body to become Citadel–the guardian and keeper of the Warlock Way.

Swords, Spells, Stats and Slaughter Mark's life of forklifts, forms, debts and divorce is gone. Now he's a Warlock in an RPG called Reign of Blood.

Carlos Rodriguez

You've played the award-winning, free-to-play roleplaying game, Path of Exile. Now find out how the nightmare began through Victario's eyes in the graphic novel that serves as prequel to the action-packed game! Before the Cataclysm, before the first exile set foot upon the corrupted shores of Wraeclast... there stood the Eternal Empire. There raged the Purity Rebellion. And there was Victario Nevalius, the People's Poet. Finding himself among the fearsome Karui, Victario negotiates an alliance with their king, Kaom, to oppose the tyranny of Eternal Emperor Chitus. Can Victario swell the Purity Rebellion's ranks with the greatest warriors in the empire? Can King Kaom defeat the finest archer in the empire, Marceus Lioneye? How will Victario survive to pen the tale? And how do this far-flung rebellion connect to the apocalyptic visions that plague Victario's every waking hour?

Edwin McRae

About

Books

Join the club