Felice Tzehuei Kuan & Rachel Watts

Felice Kuan is a Narrative Director at Deck Nine Games, where she leads a talented team of writers and narrative designers creating cinematic narrative adventure games. She was a staff writer on Life is Strange: Before the Storm and a senior staff writer on Life is Strange: True Colors, for which she helped create Alex Chen, the game’s queer Chinese-Vietnamese American protagonist. Felice has an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU and was a bookwriter & lyricist before working in games.

Rachel Watts is a UK-based journalist and is currently the Reviews Editor for PC gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun. She has seven years of games journalism under her hat and has written for PC Gamer, PLAY Magazine, The Guardian, Official Xbox Magazine, and more.

Malindy Hetfeld & Scott Chen

Malindy Hetfeld is a games writer, narrative consultant and critic. She is the writer of Polygon Treehouse's upcoming Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, and a critic at outlets such as Edge Magazine and The Guardian. As proud LudoNarraCon patron from day one, she loves to see game narrative evolve and is particularly interested in games that represent traditionally undererepresented cultures in gaming.

Co-Founder of SIGONO, and designer of the OPUS series. Scott Chen has been exploring the possibility of narrative-driven games, crafting unique gameplay experiences that complement their story. His goal is to design games that is unique to his Asian roots, but still can be relatable and enjoyed by people all over the world.

Rebekah Valentine & Ron Gilbert

Rebekah Valentine is a Bay Area-based senior reporter with IGN, where she focuses on investigative reporting, industry analysis, and stories about how the games we love get made. She's the winner of the NYVGCC's 2021 Knickerbocker Award for Journalism, and one of the hosts of SavePoint Industry Gathering - a networking space for underrepresented genders in the games industry. Prior to IGN, Rebekah published work at GamesIndustry.biz, USGamer, Wirecutter, PC Gamer, App Trigger, iMore, and Android Central.

Ron Gilbert is a veteran video-game designer, programmer, writer, director and producer of over eighty titles spanning three decades. He is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. In 2017, Ron established his new studio Terrible Toybox, who went on to achieve critical acclaim with their debut game Thimbleweed Park. In 2022, Gilbert reunited with writing partner Dave Grossman on Return to Monkey Island.

Approaching Narrative from Opposite Ends of the Word Count Spectrum

Andrew Shouldice, Lindsay Ishihiro and Nathan Black

In 2022, Finji released two games: Tunic and I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. They each took very different approaches to game narrative. Tunic's in game manual is mostly written in indecipherable runes while I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has a script with over 600,000 words. Join Nathan Black (Finji Operations Manager), Lindsay Ishihiro (Narrative Design, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist) and Andrew Shouldice (Designer, Tunic) for a conversation about language and narrative approaches in games.

Beyond Representation - A Southeast Asian Approach to Narrative Games

Arief Johan, Dimas Novan D., Saqina Latif and Sasha Ariana

The Southeast Asian developers behind titles such as “A Space For The Unbound”, “Kabaret”, “What Comes After” and “Afterlove EP” reflect on how they approach embedding regional culture into their narrative games by reflecting on post-colonialism, rapid economic development, and embracing nostalgia.

Creating Unexpected and Spectacular Heartthrobs in your Dating Sims

Amanda Gardner, Dani Lalonders, Teddy Dief and Yasmine Lee

Indie game writers, directors, and producers (Romancelvania, We are OFK, ValiDate) will join to discuss their character creation process when developing fresh and intriguing characters with believable, relatable romance narratives in video games.

Forming Meaningful Relationships in Games

Cam Perry, Jamie Camera, Monica Fan and Radiant G

This panel will discuss video games what it means to form relationships with the characters within them. We will explore dating sims, how they entice the player and why adding them can increase player engagement. We will discuss games that use these mechanics and how they can change a game.

Future Labors: Citizen Sleeper and Hardspace Shipbreaker in Conversation

Elliot Hudson and Gareth Damian Martin

Both Hardspace: Shipbreaker and Citizen Sleeper depict near futures where the familiar structures of capitalism and corporate control dictate the lives of their characters. In this panel Shipbreaker director Elliot Hudson and Citizen Sleeper creator Gareth Damian Martin discuss the resonances and reasoning behind their games, and what they say about work now, and in the future.

Game Stories Told in Most Unexpected & Surprising Ways

Daniel Benmergui, Latoya Peterson, Richard Dansky and Richard Rouse III

Game Stories aren’t told just through dialog and scripted scenes – games tell stories throughout the experience, in subtle and surprising ways. In this panel, veteran writers and designers who have worked on everything from Hunt: Showdown to The Division to State of Decay to The Church in the Darkness talk about all the unexpected ways game narratives work, from environmental narrative to marketing materials to character animation to stories told in game mechanics themselves.

Inside the Game Actor’s Studio!

Caroline Marchal, Charlotte McBurney, Manon Gage, Natalie Watson, Ryan Nolan, Sam Barlow, Sébastien Renard

Developers and actors from acclaimed narrative games As Dusk Falls, Immortality and A Plague Tale: Requiem discuss their varied approaches to videogame performance.

Memory, Society, Hope, and Heartbreak by Marginalized Protagonists

Abhi, Marina Ayano Kittaka, Natalie Tin Yin Gan 顏婷妍, Remy Siu 蕭逸南 and Tanya Kan

Marginalized characters can humanize narratives that criticize oppression, question historicity, and search for a common ground and a sense of belonging. How do concepts of hope and authenticity play into game devs’ creative processes to bring characters’ complex roles to life? Join the lead devs from 1000xRESIST, Sephonie, Solace State, and Venba as they discuss how their games’ diverse characters are designed to explore post-apocalypses, new worlds, dystopias, and modern migrations.

Once upon a time in a faraway land…

Benni Hill, James Tinsdale, Pete Bottomley and Xalavier Nelson Jr.

Building atmosphere in a curated single-player experience - Exploring the importance of world-building and creating tension.

Using Systems-Based Writing to Make Player Choices Have a Lasting Impact on Your Narrative

Emily Short, Sarah Northway, Son M. and Tony Howard-Arias

Narrative systems can be a compelling way to introduce more nuance and complexity to player choice and outcomes in narrative games, all while making the task of writing these games more manageable.

Survival Storytelling

David Dunham, Giada Zavarise, Julián Quijano, Raphael van Lierop and Tanya X. Short

In theory, storytelling in a survival game is straightforward: do or die. The reality is, as always more complicated. How do you raise tension when the stakes are already as high as they can go? How can you offer pacing breaks without ruining the vibe overall? Are there themes besides hope and despair that might be surprisingly well-suited to exploring further in survival games?

When social is part of the narrative

Dr Richard A. Bartle, May Wong, Samuel Partridge and Yoyu Li

From tabletop RPGs to MMORPGs, the notion of multiplayer narrative games is far from a recent invention. With the rise of social gaming, we’ve seen this genre making a comeback with innovative gameplay. Come and hear four game makers discuss how they incorporate social elements into their narrative games.