Every week, we release interviews on YouTube with gaming experts discussing various aspects of their work. We will also now post separate text-based blitz interviews with our speakers, but these will be "locked." For instance, today we released a one-hour conversation on YouTube with Anastasia Smirnova on the topic "How to Create a Good Narrative for a Casual Game?" The accompanying content for this video is this article where we've already discussed the challenges facing narrative professionals today with Anastasia.
Wildscapes: New Acres — one of the games Anastasia worked on
We touched on four topics:
- the state of narrative in the casual sector today, in general;
- the challenges facing casual narrative;
- the situation in the labor market for casual narrative professionals;
- what a narrative specialist needs to know and be able to do today.
Alexander Semenov: How would you characterize the situation with narrative in the casual sector today, in general?
Anastasia Smirnova
Anastasia Smirnova: I currently don't observe fundamentally new trends in casual narratives. Rather, the ideas that took shape around five years ago are becoming more established and developed.
The success of projects like Gossip Harbor and certain ad creatives (the kind where a house is on fire and you need to save the character) has driven many studios away from cozy stories and towards drama, detective, and mystery themes. Developers have realized that drama and emotions are better at keeping the audience's attention. At the same time, almost every game event (from expeditions to battle passes) now comes with its own storyline.
