Sightdesign Presents

Narrative Design Awards 2024 Shield and Laurels.
Hosted by Sight, developer and director of the upcoming ttrpg Guild66.

Winners from this Jam will be awarded with a certificate and the shield and laurels to adorn their shop pages, wherever they choose!

This Year's Theme:

Nautical

The Criteria:

Your entry will be judged on how the elements of your game support the story. Look at how your game's mechanical elements support the narrative, and consider how a character's growth enhances the over-arcing plot. Don't forget to consider your game's environment, and what it tells the player about the plot. Judges will consider the following:

• Story Narrative The story of your game, it's main plot.
• Environment Narrative The setting of the game.
• Mechanical Narrative How do the game mechanics work within your story.
• Character Development The journey your characters go through; what they're like at the beginning versus what they're like at the end.
• Narrative Flow Does your story flow nicely? Or does it feel choppy?
• Unpredictability vs Expectation Is there a balance between giving the audience what they expect (does it fit your genre for example) and have you given your audience twists and turns?
• Any alternative criteria a judge feels is relevant to specific entries.

How to Vote:

The Judges have the final say when it comes to winners, but that doesn't mean you don't get any input. Vote with your words! Interact with the content you like, interact on their submission page and in the community forum, express all the things you like about other people's work! Experience what they have created and tell us why you love it!

The Judges:

Sight has been in the world of production for many years, and has worked on a wide variety of projects, from feature length productions to animated infomercials. They have credits as an editor, videographer, host, writer, director and actor. They hold a masters in VFX and have developed multiple long-form literature pieces.

Emily Richardson graduated Oriel College, Oxford University with a degree in French and Linguistics, and has gone on to earn a masters degree in Applied Linguistics. Having studied various pieces of literature from around the world throughout the ages, she has gone on to produce multiple critical papers regarding literature and narrative portrayal. 

Anja Buchko has produced books, short stories, text-adventures, and packaging for tea and coffee. Being a graduate in linguistics and translating, with experience as a creative copywriter in games and literary works, she continues to beautifully enrich her creativity through narrative design. Shaping herself as a narrative designer, Anja investigates where her imagination for writing game concepts and her illustrative skills can converge in a single point.

Holly Mahal has been a narrative designer in the indie space for many years, championing character-driven narratives that change the ways players think and see themselves, aiming make players feel represented by the characters they play and interact with. Having a background in screenwriting for films she brings a cinematic flair to everything she designs. She currently works as the lead narrative designer of a very exciting little indie studio called Lost Wanderer Games who secured UK Games Fund funding to work on their accessibility focused 2.5d rhythm adventure game.

Alina Aleshkevich is a narrative designer and creative copywriter passionate about fostering positive change through her work. With a background at the intersection of health and entertainment, she has a knack for crafting diverse, lore-rich, and immersive gaming environments in English, Russian, Swedish and Polish. Whether it’s set in the glimmering expanse of the Milky Way or a quaint teashop tucked away in the winding alleys, Alina creates exciting, meaningful stories with flair.

Jonathan Breese is a seasoned narrative and game designer with over 15 years of experience. He’s worked for a broad range of games and genres, from first person shooters to tabletop RPGs. He’s credited with work on products such as Far Cry 6 and Dawn of Titans, as well as work on IPs like Dune, Conan, and Star Trek. Throughout his career he’s strived to bring the best narrative gaming experiences to broad audience. When Jonathan isn’t focused on game development, he spends his time mentoring junior narrative designers and participates in charities that see to the welfare of cats and fostering cats until they find a permanent home.

Penny Blake is a TTRPG writer, editor and sensitivity reader with over 18 years experience. She grew up immersed in Romani storytelling culture and this lead her to become a professional storyteller and performance poet – and, later, to attain a BA in Creative Writing and pursue a career in the gaming and publishing.

Arah Collins is a narrative designer with five years in the AAA space, working on The Dark Pictures as well as many other horror projects. In their spare time, they mentor other writers hoping to break into the industry, are a passionate DM and are working on their first romance novel.

Tais Smirnova went from being a forever GM and penning articles on cybersports to developing AAAs and indie games. She’s worn many hats in the gaming world but she’s not just a professional game writer, she’s also a huge fan of all talecrafts who work across a broad spectrum of genres and platforms, having written novels, comics and games, intricate plots and punchy dialogues. She’s super excited to connect with fellow enthusiasts and share the joy of creating!

The Rules

• No Adult themes or content, try to keep submissions as PG as possible.
• Respect the rules of itch.io and do not submit banned or prohibited content.
• Submissions of games made prior to this jam are accepted, but games created during the jam will take priority during judging. This does not mean games made prior will not be considered. For example, in the event of a tie or distinction of marking, the game made during the jam will take priority.
• Harassment and offensive language of other people and/or their submissions will not be tolerated, and will result in warnings and bans depending on the severity of the events.
• Due to the quantity of submissions, feedback is not guaranteed. Though every effort will be taken to provide feedback on every entry possible.
• If a paid entry is submitted, a free version or alternative way to access the content will need to be provided either directly to a judge account or on the submissions page. All entries can only be judged based on the level of access provided. In the event that a free-to-download/free-to-play version is not submitted, the submission cannot be judged.
• You can enter any game format, and we accept submissions with a focus on Linear Narrative, Non-Linear Narrative, Quest Narrative and/or Viewpoint Narrative.
• Keep this a positive space!

AI Generated Content

• AIArt is prohibited. There is a wealth of free and paid content available to creators, check the Discord for help finding resources.
• AI generation to quickly generate or check scripting/coding is permitted.
• Autorigging software or online platforms for 3D or 2D assets is permitted.
• This is a narrative competition, your writing must be your own. AI story/plot/narrative generation is prohibited

Due to popular demand, I'm super pleased to announce we have a discord server!
Join us here, let's go!
https://discord.gg/umdy8hqQ5R

Follow Sight
https://twitter.com/SighTdesigns 
https://bsky.app/profile/guild66.bsky.social