Narrative shouldn't become untouchable halfway through production. If changing a quest, dialogue, or branch feels too risky, the problem usually isn't the writing, it's the production system. Why early narrative lock is a red flag: www.articy.com/en/why-teams...

Why Locking Narrative Early Can Hurt Game Development

Many game teams lock narrative early to reduce risk—but that often signals fragile production workflows. Learn why narrative complexity is a production problem and how structured systems help teams…

articy.com

The #narrascope2026 recordings are up and they're full of great insights and learnings: www.youtube.com/@IFTechFound...

Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

youtube.com

Every game is different. Your narrative structure should be too. Learn how Templates let you build project-specific data models that keep story data consistent, scalable, and ready for production. Watch the tutorial: www.articy.com/en/adx_basic...

articy:draft X Basics Templates I

Introduction to articy's Template feature

articy.com

A great article showing how Blueberry's story touching on the effects of depression and trauma can make players less alone with their problems and feel seen and understood: news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...

How Blueberry Shows Players the Purpose of Traumatic Memories - XBOX Wire

A deep dive on the psychology and personal experience that went into creating Blueberry.

news.xbox.com

Characters, NPCs, items, skills—everything that drives your game deserves more than a spreadsheet. Learn how Entities in articy:draft create a structured foundation for narrative that scales with your production. www.articy.com/en/adx_basic... #GameDev #NarrativeDesign #Gamewriting

articy:draft X Basics Entities

Creating and using Entities (characters, items, etc)

articy.com

Survival games are becoming increasingly popular. In this article Seth Rosen explores how time management can help designers create survival crafting games that feel meaningful rather than just tasks upon tasks: www.gamedeveloper.com/design/resou...

Resource management? Survival games are about time management.

'The moment to moment gameplay… none of that matters. That's the smoke and mirrors,' says Pacific Drive director Seth Rosen

gamedeveloper.com

If changing one dialogue line requires checking five different files... You're no longer managing story. You're managing production complexity. Narrative becomes much easier to ship when it's treated as production infrastructure—not just creative content.

An interesting article where Veronica Roth shares notes from her book The Sixth Faction. Gives an insight into writing for another medium and shows that even when there is no branching involved, the writing process is not without it's share of complexity: veronicaroth.substack.com/p/notes-from...

Notes from The Sixth Faction's Archives

plus a series timeline and UK tour info

veronicaroth.substack.com

Missing templates aren't just organizational issues, they're production headaches waiting to happen. Use articy:draft's Query Search to instantly find Dialogue Fragments without templates and assign them in bulk. Keep your narrative pipeline consistent. #gamedev #narrativedesign

A deep look at merge 2 and match 3 games exploring how the two sub-genres in the mobile puzzle category can generate very different emotions during play and the way that affects monetization: www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/does-me...

Does Merge-2 Monetize Better Than Match-3? — Deconstructor of Fun

A merge game had quietly overtaken the most recognizable name in mobile puzzles. Does that mean it’s better than Match-3?

deconstructoroffun.com

Narrative systems shouldn't get harder to manage as your game grows. Learn how to use template properties in articy:draft X scripting to build cleaner, scalable story logic—and keep complex projects maintainable. Read the tutorial: www.articy.com/en/articydra...

How to Access Template Properties with Scripting in articy:draft X

Learn how to use template properties in articy:draft X scripting to build cleaner, scalable story logic—and keep complex projects maintainable.

articy.com

An interesting conversation about game writing in non-narrative games, players reacting to stories in games that are not story-first and how storytelling complements exceptionally complex gameplay systems: www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Ao...

#71 - The art of game writing in “non-narrative” games

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis sits down with narrative designer Harrison Pink and game writer Emma Kidwell for a conversation about the craft of creating…

youtube.com

Narrative debt is real—and it compounds fast. At first, narrative feels manageable: a few branching conversations, some quest dependencies. Nothing alarming. But soon edits begin creating unpredictable downstream effects. Learn how it all happens: www.articy.com/en/narrative...

Narrative Debt Explained: Why Small Story Changes Create Big Production Problems

Narrative debt builds when small story decisions create hidden production complexity. Learn how branching dialogue, quest dependencies, and reactive narratives increase risk — and how structured…

articy.com

Dev friends this one is for you. Over the past 2 weeks we've been making a lot of changes to the MDK culminating with the release of MDK 2.4.0. Check out what you can look forward to here: www.articy.com/en/recent-up... Requires articy:draft X 4.3.13 What are you currently building with the MDK?

articy:draft X MDK 2.4.0 Update: Ruleset API, Bulk Operations & Workflow Automation

Learn about the latest articy:draft X Macro Development Kit (MDK) update. Version 2.4.0 adds Ruleset management through code, bulk asset import, partition update tracking, ObjectProxy improvements,…

articy.com

An interesting article highlighting revenue vs growth discrepancy in the Asian Gaming Market: www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/where-a...

Where Asia’s $103 Billion Game Market Is Actually Growing — Deconstructor of Fun

Jen Donahoe's five takeaways from Niko Partners’ 2026 Market Model.

deconstructoroffun.com

Hi all, Seems there's been a slight change in schedule, the workshop will happen tomorrow, Friday June 12th at the same time - 2 PM EST. Apologies for the inconvenience to everyone who was excited for today. See you Tomorrow at the same time!

articy:draft@articydraft.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today's the day! If you're attending Narrascope 2026, join Quest Designer & Writer Iga Stankiewicz-Szadowiak for our articy:draft X workshop. Today June 11th at 2 PM EST Learn quest design workflows, practical tips, and production insights.

Today's the day! If you're attending Narrascope 2026, join Quest Designer & Writer Iga Stankiewicz-Szadowiak for our articy:draft X workshop. Today June 11th at 2 PM EST Learn quest design workflows, practical tips, and production insights.

Join Quest Designer & Writer Iga Stankiewicz-Szadowiac at @narrascope.org for an articy:draft X workshop! Learn how to design a quest, get practical tips, and more. June 11, 2 PM EST narrascope.org/register/

NarraScope 2026 | Registration

NarraScope is a conference that brings together the writers, developers, scholars, and players of interactive narrative.

narrascope.org

How do you build a branching narrative RPG where decisions matter? Studio Hip Sword shares how they used articy:draft to manage character relationships, narrative reactivity, and complex story flows in The Siege of Jeomdo. Read the showcase: www.articy.com/en/showcase/... #GameDev #Gamewriting

The Siege of Jeomdo: Building a Branching Narrative RPG with articy:draft

Discover how Studio Hip Sword used articy:draft to design branching narratives, manage character relationships, and build the narrative systems behind The Siege of Jeomdo.

articy.com

An interesting article detailing how Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown compresses seven seasons of television and recreates episodes through three types of storytelling events while still allowing players to deviate from major choices in the show: www.gamedeveloper.com/design/star-...

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown reinvents TV storytelling

The newest Star Trek game is a case study in adapting stories from one medium to another.

gamedeveloper.com

An interesting article on how airbuds, a music-centric social networks app successfully translates the events effectiveness found in Games into Consumer apps: www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/golden-...

Social Music App Met Royal Match — Deconstructor of Fun

Why is Airbuds scaling where others failed? The answer isn't about music. It's about a retention mechanic borrowed straight from top-grossing mobile games, and it might be the most underrated…

deconstructoroffun.com

New articy:draft X Importer for Unity tutorial series Learn how to integrate scalable narrative workflows in #articydraft X into #Unity step by step — from setup to advanced branching dialogue systems. Start the 5 part series right now: www.articy.com/en/adx_unity...

articy:draft X Unity Importer Tutorial (Lesson 1) – Setup, Installation & First Integration

Learn how to set up the articy:draft X Unity Importer in Lesson 1. Step-by-step guide covering installation, project setup, and first integration of narrative data into Unity for scalable…

articy.com

Narrative debt doesn’t come from bad writing. It comes from invisible complexity. One dialogue change can ripple through quests, VO, localization, and cinematics. Learn why modern narrative teams need systems, not just scripts: www.articy.com/en/narrative... #GameDev #NarrativeDesign

Narrative Debt Explained: Why Small Story Changes Create Big Production Problems

Narrative debt builds when small story decisions create hidden production complexity. Learn how branching dialogue, quest dependencies, and reactive narratives increase risk — and how structured…

articy.com

Last chance to get your Modern Audience Conference 2026 (MAC) ticket modernaudience.org/tickets/ Join live tomorrow Wednesday May 20th! Learn what works in interactive storytelling, how it was made, and what that means for your next title!

MAC26 Tickets - The Modern Audience Conference

GET YOUR MAC 2026 TICKET Wednesday 20th May 2026 | Online | Midday UK time Seven sessions. Seven practitioners. One afternoon that covers more ground than most conferences manage in three days. Jeff…

modernaudience.org

Newzoo's PC Console report is out and has some interesting readings. newzoo.com/resources/tr... TLDR highlights: Roblox is #1 Franchise on PC and Console. F2P continues to decline on console but grows on PC. Pay-to-play live service is rising. Mid price band on PlayStation grew 99% from 2022 to 2025

Free report: The PC & Console Gaming Report 2026

Market outlook, playtime allocation, top-20 concentration, and F2P vs. premium performance - covered in one definitive PC & console report.

newzoo.com

Interactive storytelling is evolving fast. We’re proud to sponsor the Modern Audience Conference 2026 (MAC), a one-day online conference for people building the future of interactive storytelling across games, media and emerging tech. Wednesday May 20th at modernaudience.org #gamewriting

Happy to be part of it all!

NarraScope@narrascope.org · 3mo ago

Shoutout to our sponsor Articy @articydraft.bsky.social for supporting NarraScope this year! Thank you so much!

An interesting article revealing how Housemarque, a gameplay first studio, build up a narrative team and process to introduce a larger story and cast of characters in Saros. www.gamedeveloper.com/design/insid...

Inside Housemarque's improved narrative process for Saros

We dig into how Housemarque and PlayStation's latest game Saros brings its extensive 'dark sci-fi' story to life through narrative and performance.

gamedeveloper.com

Narrative complexity is a production problem, not a writing problem. Most teams don’t struggle because their writers lack ideas. They struggle because the infrastructure around those ideas can’t keep up. Solve the system, and creativity scales. www.articy.com/en/narrative...

Narrative Complexity in Story-Driven Games: Understanding the Production Risk

Modern games rely on branching narratives and reactive storytelling. This article explains how narrative complexity grows during development and why it can become a hidden production risk for game…

articy.com

An interesting article on how gamified widgets can drive retention for non-gaming apps with examples from wellness app Finch: www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/x0hd2ss...

How Wellness App Finch Uses Gamified Widgets to Drive Retention — Deconstructor of Fun

Finch uses world-class game mechanics to create a Tamogochi-like effect with widgets. And it’s driving retention.

deconstructoroffun.com