GDC 2008: How to write and design epic games

Ken Rolston’s career as a game designer started with pencil and paper role-playing games such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and RuneQuest. He transitioned into video games and was the lead designer on Morrowind and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

After retiring (for “About a week,” joked Mark Nelson), Rolston returned to the video game industry to work with Big Huge Games. Appropriate, then, that his presentation at GDC 2008 was about how to write and design “vast narratives.”

Rolston was joined by Mark Nelson, who’s been working with Rolston since Morrowind, and who is now the lead narrative designer on an as-yet-unnamed role-playing game for Big Huge Games.

They talked about the tension between them as each believes that different aspects of story are most important. Rolston believes in setting, tone, and theme, while Nelson stakes his philosophy on story and character.

In the end, the two of them admitted that all components of story are important, but what differs is when those elements are most important to the development of a game.

Setting and theme, which - once established - are static, should be put in place early on in the process, and character and story, which are dynamic and can change more quickly, become important later in development.

What they both agree on, though, is that vast narratives, like Morrowind and Oblivion, are interesting despite the challenges they create.

I’m curious to know what their next big huge game is going to be.