Project CW: Dev Q&A

Story time

Have you ever wondered what it’s like being a professional writer in game development? What do they actually do? Why is it important? Do all writers grow up in the wilderness or just ours? We spoke to our Narrative Designer, Nata, to get the answers we all need. Take a look at what she had to say:

Who are you?

My name is Nata Pokrovskaya, I’m a Narrative Designer on Project CW and I’ve just celebrated my first year at Wargaming Belgrade. I came to gamedev by way of fashion magazines, advertising, tech startups, and my own film studio. I also co-wrote and published a book on interactive storytelling in film, VR and immersive theatre (in Russian, but we’re working on an English edition that will include games!).

Important non-professional facts about me: I grew up in a forest reading sci-fi, travelled to the North Pole on an atomic icebreaker, and made two photobooks.

What do you do?

When I have to explain what a Narrative Designer does to people not from the videogame industry, I use a film director as a metaphor: you work with the screenwriter, the cinematographer, the actors, the composer, the sound, art, and SFX departments to tell a story. Except that in our case, the game designer is the most important person “on the set”. But no matter if the game is story-driven or not, it’s always there. Even in “Tetris”.

I’m responsible for creating the story (I don’t like the word “lore” since it feels like a giant dusty volume lying somewhere in the corner with no use) and designing ways the player experiences it in the game, from the setting, to the characters, to voiceovers, UI copy, or challenges. So, I’m a game writer on Project CW as well. I also work with most other departments which means my job’s never boring.

Usually, I start with game mechanics, a character that I get from game design for example. Then I come up with the character’s idea: who are they, what kind of vehicle they pilot, what’s their goal in the game world, what’s at stake, etc. Then we discuss it with the character artist so they could draw concepts. I write this character’s personal story, develop their relationships with other characters, and write voiceovers and related UI copy. My main principle is the character-driven narrative, the same that they use in modern Hollywood scripts: whether we’re viewers or players, we empathize with characters, not the setting or plot.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

Writing dialogue feels like cheating: you’re having so much fun and getting paid for it! But even more than that, I enjoy designing stories as experiences, exploring all the mechanics and features that the game can provide me with: how can I tell the player less and let them do and feel more?

What’s the most challenging part of your role?

Working with many departments, it’s not always easy to get everyone on the same page (google “cat herding”). Also, I’d like to get more hands-on with the engine, but at the moment I should focus on the things I do best.

Which agent is your go to?

Jäger, because nothing beats hiding and hitting your opponents with crits and quiet insults (the latter are not included in the VO pack and are the player’s own responsibility). The other one is Blitz, because I can strongly relate to his introverted troubled tech-bro-on-the-way-to-redemption personality).

Outro

Thanks for taking the time to get to know Nata a little. We hope you enjoyed the read and can’t wait to show you more! Let us know what you thought (and which discipline you’d like to see interviewed next ) over in ⁠💬│cw-discussion. And as usual, don’t forget to give yourself the @News role over in ⁠roles to stay up to date, you’re not gonna want to miss some of the stuff we have coming up…