You’ve worked hard on your story idea.
It’s smart. It’s emotional. It would make your game unforgettable.
You're hoping for your designer to react like this: 🤯 🤩 😍
Instead, you get a reaction like this: 😒 😑 😴
Why is your designer barely responding?
If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting thinking “Did they even hear me?” — you’re not alone.
Game writers, especially early in their careers, often feel invisible in conversations with designers. Like their ideas don’t matter. Or worse: like they don’t understand how games actually work. 😢
But that's not what's going on.
Your designer isn’t ignoring you. They’re not trying to shoot down your ideas. They’re not secretly rooting for the story to fail. There's something else going on. It's a lot more interesting than "they hate my ideas" — and it's a problem with a solution.
The Frustration Every Game Writer Knows 😖
Most early-career game writers come in with storytelling instincts shaped by a lifetime of books, TV, and films. Which is amazing — that’s your superpower.
But when you pitch a story idea that would kill in, say, a screenplay, the response from the design team is... blah.
No spark. No questions. Maybe a tight smile and a fast pivot to “more urgent” topics.
It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing - especially because you don't know what you're doing wrong. And it makes you wonder: What’s the point of even trying?
Before you throw your laptop across the room (again), let’s unpack what’s going on under the surface.
What’s Really Going On With Designers 💡
Game Systems vs. Story Goals 🤓
Designers aren’t being cold. They’re being calculators. They’re thinking about balance, loops, difficulty curves, and player progression — often all at once.
This is the inside of your designer's brain, at all times:
So when they hear your beautiful pitch about the epic betrayal at the end of the seventh level, they aren't evaluating the idea on its storytelling merits. (They might, in fact think it's a great story idea - but that doesn't mean it's right for this game.) Instead, their brains are already running a cost-beneftit analysis from a design perspective, asking questions like:
- How would we build that?
- What system would support it?
- Does it break anything else we’ve already scoped?
It’s not that they don’t care about the story. It’s that they’re wired to look at function before feeling. That's their job.
Designers Think in Loops, Not Lines 🔄
Writers tend to think in arcs — setups and payoffs, beginnings and endings. Designers? They think in loops and mechanics.
To a writer, a compelling moment is an emotional beat. To a designer, a compelling moment is something the player does — and then does again.
So when you present a story idea that’s purely emotional or narratively structural, you’re speaking a different language than they are. No wonder they're not responding!
(I talked more about this disconnect in my GDC 2020 talk, Making The Writer-Designer Collaboration Work.)
How to Get a ‘Yes’ From Your Designer 🤝
Speak Their Language: Systems & Tradeoffs 🗣️
Start with what your story does for the player. Can it emerge from a choice? Can it change the state of the world? Can it impact a system the designer’s already building?
Try this:
“What if the player sacrifices a companion, and it disables a combat skill they’ve come to rely on?”
Now you’re not just talking about story — you’re talking about impact. 💥 (They may still debate the idea, but that's great -- it means they're engaging, not ignoring. This is progress!)
Show, Don’t Sell: Make It Playable 🎮
It’s tempting to pitch feelings, because writers LOVE feelings: “The player will feel grief.” But in games, emotion doesn’t come from narration — it comes from interaction.
Instead of selling the feeling, pitch the mechanic:
“We could give them the option to walk away from the scene... or stay, and hear the final words.”
Playable. Interactive. Now we’re talking. 🙌
Communication Tips That Build Trust and Buy-In 🙌
Practice Pitching With Purpose 🎯
Lead with verbs. (This sounds weird, I know, but verbs, to a designer, means gameplay and player agency, things they are very interested in.) Instead of “the player learns their brother betrayed them,” try “the player discovers a coded message from the brother, and decides whether to report him.”
Now it’s a gameplay moment, not just a plot point.
Ask Strategic Questions ♟️
Designers don’t always love being pitched at. They do love solving puzzles. So instead of defending your idea, invite them into it:
“Is there a system we’re already using that could support something like this?”
“What would need to be true in the mechanics to make this work?”
They’ll engage. And more often than not, they’ll help you make your idea even stronger. And THAT'S the dream.
Final Thoughts 💭
Here’s the truth: great story ideas don’t get made because they’re brilliant. They get made because they’re communicated in ways that click with the team — especially the design team.
This isn’t something you’re just supposed to “figure out” on your own. It’s a skill - one we'll be talking about a lot more over the next several weeks.
Game designers don’t hate your ideas.
They’re just waiting to hear them in a language they understand.
We'll help you translate.
Want to build up YOUR game-writing skills? We can help. We've created an easy 5-step guide you can use to write scripts your players will love.
Best of all, it's free. Just click the button below!
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.