I’ve recently completed a Creative Technologies MSc at the University of Portsmouth, taking the games pathway and developing my knowledge and skills in game design. In particular I investigated narrative design and taking a player-focused approach to design with particular playstyles/player-types. I also have a first-class BSc in Games Technology from the same university, where my final year project also dived into how game design can be used to approach sensitive topics such as mental illness, grief, and trauma.
I’ve played games all my life but really started thinking about them from a design standpoint in my late teens. Playing Dragon Age Inquisition, I fell in love with the narrative and started getting more involved in the online community in search of people to talk to it about, and this began a love of all things narrative design.
These days I find a lot of inspiration in games like Outer Wilds and Her Story – I love the use of curiosity as an intrinsic incentive for players, and this influences a lot of my narrative design for personal projects. Of course I am always looking for other ways to shift my design perspective for new projects – there’s always something new to learn!
Bethany White 