Hire Remote Narrative Designers

Hire Narrative Designers Who Make Players Care About Your Story

Game narrative is the discipline that makes players feel something. The narrative designers who can write dialogue that reveals character through word choice rather than exposition, who design branching narrative systems that make player choices feel meaningful, and who understand the difference between a story that’s interesting to read and one that’s compelling to play — those designers are the ones who ship games that players talk about for years.

We match you with senior Narrative Designers who’ve shipped PC, console, and mobile titles — narrative designers who understand both the craft of storytelling and the unique interactive storytelling challenges that games present.

Start in days, not months. Pay 50% less than equivalent US-based narrative design talent.

What Our Narrative Designers Do

Story Design & World-Building

Narrative architecture, world-building, lore design, and the story structure work that creates the fictional world players inhabit. Narrative designers who can build a coherent world with internal logic, history, and the cultural detail that makes game worlds feel real.

Dialogue Writing & Character Voice

Character dialogue, NPC conversations, ambient dialogue, and the writing craft that gives each character a distinct voice. Dialogue that reveals character through subtext rather than exposition — writing that respects player intelligence.

Branching Narrative Systems

Choice architecture, consequence design, branching dialogue trees, and the interactive narrative systems that make player choices feel meaningful. Narrative designers who understand the technical constraints of branching narrative implementation and design within them.

Environmental Storytelling

Lore documents, item descriptions, environmental narrative design, and the world-building details that reward player exploration. Narrative that exists in the world rather than interrupting gameplay — the details that make players stop and read.

Narrative Design Technology Stack

Writing Tools: Final Draft, Highland 2, Google Docs — script and dialogue writing

Narrative Tools: Twine, Ink, Yarn Spinner, Articy:draft — branching narrative design and implementation

Documentation: Confluence, Notion — narrative bible and lore documentation

Localization: Localization-aware writing practices, string management, and the writing discipline that makes translation efficient

Client Success Story: RPG Studio — Narrative System That Achieved 89% Player Completion

A narrative RPG studio’s story completion rate was 34% — most players stopped engaging with the main narrative before the end. Player research revealed the problem: the narrative was front-loaded with exposition that players found slow, the branching choices felt cosmetic rather than consequential, and the pacing between narrative moments and gameplay was uneven. Our Narrative Designer restructured the narrative architecture: moved world-building exposition into optional environmental storytelling and collectible lore, redesigned 3 major choice points to have visible consequences in later story beats, and worked with the level design team to integrate narrative moments into gameplay rather than interrupting it. Story completion rate: increased from 34% to 89%. Player reviews citing “story” as a positive attribute: increased from 28% to 71%.

Client Success Story: Mobile Game — Dialogue System That Increased Session Length 25%

A mobile RPG studio’s narrative content was being skipped by 78% of players — players were tapping through dialogue as fast as possible to get back to gameplay. Player research revealed the problem: dialogue was too long, characters sounded identical, and the narrative content had no connection to the player’s current gameplay goals. Our Narrative Designer redesigned the dialogue system: a 3-line maximum per dialogue exchange (forcing economy of language), character voice guides that gave each major character distinct speech patterns and vocabulary, and a narrative hook system that connected story beats to the player’s current progression goals. Dialogue skip rate: reduced from 78% to 31%. Average session length: increased 25% as players engaged with narrative content rather than skipping it.

Why Companies Choose Our Narrative Designers

• Interactive storytelling craft: They understand the unique challenges of interactive narrative — not just linear storytelling applied to games
• Technical narrative system knowledge: Ink, Yarn Spinner, and branching narrative implementation constraints are part of their design thinking
• Player psychology understanding: They design narrative for how players actually engage with story — not how literary critics would
• 50% cost savings: Senior narrative design expertise at a fraction of US market rates
• Fast start: Most engagements begin within 1–2 weeks

Engagement Models

• Individual Narrative Designer — One senior narrative designer for story design, dialogue writing, or narrative system design.
• Narrative Teams (2–3 designers/writers) — For production volume: full game narrative, large dialogue libraries, or parallel content production.
• Contract-to-Hire — Evaluate writing quality, narrative system thinking, and team fit before committing long-term.
• Project-Based — Defined narrative scope: story bible, dialogue system, or environmental storytelling pass.

How To Vet Narrative Designers

Our vetting identifies narrative designers who make players care — not just writers who produce technically correct dialogue.

1. Portfolio review — Shipped game credits with specific narrative contributions: stories they designed, dialogue systems they built, narrative problems they solved. We look for evidence of interactive storytelling craft and player engagement outcomes. Over 80% of applicants do not pass this stage.
2. Writing quality assessment — Given a character brief and a scene context, can they write dialogue that reveals character through subtext rather than exposition? We evaluate writing craft, not just narrative system knowledge.
3. Interactive narrative system knowledge — Do they understand branching narrative architecture, choice consequence design, and the technical constraints of narrative implementation? Narrative designers who don’t understand the interactive medium design for linear storytelling.
4. Player engagement evidence — What happened to the narratives they designed? Completion rates, player feedback, review mentions — we look for narrative designers who can connect their design decisions to player engagement outcomes.

What to Look for When Hiring Narrative Designers

Strong narrative designers understand that games are an interactive medium — they design for player agency, not passive consumption.

What strong candidates demonstrate:

• Specific shipped game credits with narrative ownership — not just “wrote some dialogue”
• Writing samples that reveal character through subtext — not exposition-heavy dialogue
• They understand branching narrative architecture and can design choice systems with meaningful consequences
• They reference player engagement data or playtesting in their narrative design decisions

Red flags to watch for:

• Writing experience entirely in linear media (novels, screenwriting) with no interactive narrative experience
• Dialogue samples that are exposition-heavy — characters explaining the world rather than revealing themselves through action and subtext
• No understanding of branching narrative implementation constraints
• Inability to articulate how their narrative design decisions affect player engagement

Interview questions that reveal real depth:

• “Walk me through a narrative design problem you solved. What was the player engagement challenge, what design decisions did you make, and what was the outcome?”
• “Write a 3-line dialogue exchange between two characters where one is hiding something from the other. No exposition — reveal the subtext through word choice and what’s not said.”
• “How do you approach designing a branching choice system that makes player choices feel meaningful? What are the key design decisions?”

Related Services

• Game Designers — Game design specialists who design the systems that narrative designers populate with story.
• Level Designers — Level design specialists who create the spaces that narrative designers fill with environmental storytelling.
• Game UI/UX Designers — Game UI/UX designers who design the dialogue interfaces that narrative designers write for.
• Game Producers — Game producers who manage the production process that brings narrative designs to life.

Want to Hire Remote Narrative Designers?

We source, vet, and place senior Narrative Designers who’ve shipped real games — narrative designers who understand interactive storytelling, design for player engagement, and write dialogue that makes players care about your characters.

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Ready to hire Narrative Designers who make players care about your story? Contact us today and we’ll introduce you to senior narrative designers within 48 hours.