(This is Part Two of our series on how to collaborate with designers. You can read Part One here.)
You’re at a playtesting session.
The player is sprinting, looting, solving, surviving.
You’re tracking the story arc, the dialogue beats, the character backstory…and hoping the player is catching most (some? any?) of it.
You would love to compare notes with the designer, to see what THEY think about how the story is coming across.
But they’re talking about loops, friction, and agency.
You nod along, but deep down… you’re not quite sure what they’re seeing.
And if you can’t see what they see, it’s almost impossible to communicate.
(It's like the 2015 freakout over that dress...was it black and blue, or white and gold? People were looking at the same dress and seeing completely different things.)
This isn’t about learning how to be a designer.
It’s about learning how to see like one.
Why Writers Struggle To Communciate
As a writer, you’re trained to think in arcs, motivations, emotional turns.
Your job is to craft a story that resonates — to make players feel something. Right?
But in most game dev meetings, designers aren’t evaluating your idea based on its emotional arc. They’re running it through a completely different filter:
- Can this be expressed in gameplay?
- What does the player do?
- Does it support the core loop?
- How does it impact pacing, flow, friction?
It’s not that your story isn’t good.
It’s that your story — in that moment — doesn’t translate into the game they're envisioning - the systems and mechanics that they're busy building.
And that’s why it often feels like your ideas get a shrug. Often, your story ideas just make their design work harder. (And their job is already hard enough as it is.)
Design Translated for Writers: What Designers Actually Care About
Understanding the designer’s point of view doesn’t mean abandoning your own work — it just means weaving your work into THEIR work - the mechanical experience.
Here’s what designers are usually focused on:
🎯 Core Gameplay Loops
What the player is doing over and over to drive the game forward.
If your story moment interrupts that loop, or doesn’t reinforce it, it gets in the way — even if it’s a work of art that would make Shakespeare cry.
🧩 Game Objects & Systems
What items, characters, or elements exist in the game — and how they interact.
Designers often think in terms of objects and affordances. If your story idea requires a new object, mechanic, or behavior, that’s a big ask. It needs to feel worth it — systemically. (See the "your story makes their design work harder" comment, above.)
🎮 Player Experience, Not Just Plot
How the player feels through action, not just cutscenes.
A character’s death might be tragic in the script — but if the player didn’t have agency or emotional investment through gameplay, it won’t land. (I remember playing a game where my character was upset about his missing wife. I was like "What wife? Huh?") Designers think about feedback loops, emotional pacing, and how choice or friction shapes experience.
✨Example:
Narrative pitch: “This character’s betrayal should feel shocking and painful.”
Design lens: “What did the player do to build trust with them? What was the moment of dissonance? Did they have agency in choosing to believe the character?”
When you learn to pitch your ideas through that lens — your story becomes a playable story.
Get To Work: Start Speaking Design
You don’t need to master the world of design all at once. Here are a few easy ways to start:
When pitching a story idea, frame it through gameplay first.
“This sequence reinforces the player’s loop of escape-and-hide, but now we’re introducing a moment of power — it could feel transformational.”
Ask system-focused questions, like:
“Where does this moment sit in the pacing curve?”
“Could this narrative twist be delivered through a mechanic instead of a cutscene?”
Use their terms instead of yours.
Instead of "plot" or "pacing," say "engagement." Watch what happens.
Show how your idea fits inside the existing system.
Play games with this lens in mind at least once a week.
Make notes about systems, feedback loops, and where emotional beats occurred. Before you know it, you're going to start seeing games like a designer!
You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn To See
The best story in the world won’t land if it doesn’t make sense to your team.
But when you can speak even a little design — your ideas start to resonate.
You become a collaborator, not just a contributor.
And your stories? They don’t just live in cutscenes — they come alive in the player’s hands.
Want to go deeper?
This post is part of our series on how game writers can collaborate more effectively with designers.
If you want to be the writer your designer can't live without, our course How To Work With Game Designers: A Writer's Guide - taught by designer Will Shen (Fallout, Skyrim) - opens May 19th, 2025.
In this six-week course, you’ll learn:
✅ Design literacy fundamentals
✅ How to pitch ideas designers say yes to
✅ Real-world collaboration strategies from award-winning game designer Will Shen
✅ How to grow your creative influence inside studios or freelance teams
👉 Join the waitlist now and be first to know when doors open.
🎁 Bonus: When you sign up, you'll get a free copy of The Writer-To-Designer Conversation Starter Pack: 10 Questions That Build Trust, Spark Ideas, and Prevent Idea Shutdowns.
Susan’s first job as a game writer was for “a slumber party game - for girls!” She’s gone on to work on over 25 projects, including award-winning titles in the BioShock, Far Cry and Tomb Raider franchises. Titles in her portfolio have sold over 30 million copies and generated over $500 million in sales. She founded the Game Narrative Summit at GDC. Now, she partners with studios, publishers, and writers to help teams ship great games with great stories. She is dedicated to supporting creatives in the games industry so that they can do their best work.