Why pre-screen narrative designers before the writing test
Narrative design is frequently confused with game writing, including by candidates. A writer produces good lines; a narrative designer builds a structure that holds up when a player takes the third option, skips the cutscene, or arrives at a story beat forty hours late. The distinction only shows in production, where scope gets cut and a systems designer explains that the mechanic will not support the scene. A short screen surfaces it before you set a writing test that measures the wrong thing.
What actually matters when screening Video Game Narrative Designer candidates
- 01
Body of work
Ask which shipped titles they wrote for, the systems they owned (main quests, companion arcs, barks, codex), and word counts or branch volume delivered.
- 02
Craft and technique
Probe their handling of branching structure in Ink, Twine, articy:draft or a proprietary node editor, plus flag logic, state tracking and player agency versus authored beats.
- 03
Reliability and process
Check how they hit VO recording lock, localisation freeze and cert milestones, and how they tracked lines through Perforce, Jira and a dialogue database.
- 04
Presence with an audience
Explore how they pitch story beats to creative directors, defend cuts in narrative review, and respond to playtest telemetry showing players skipping dialogue.
Pre-screening questions to ask Video Game Narrative Designer candidates
12 questions grouped by what they test. Ask the same set in every screen and score answers on a consistent scale, or send them as an async video screen and compare answers side by side.
Games they shipped
3 questions01Can you give examples of games you worked on where the storyline was central, and what you wrote?
Listen forShipped titles with specific content they owned: named characters, quest lines or systems, rather than credit on the game as a whole.
Describes a shipped game's story as theirs with no specific content, or projects that were cancelled before release.
02Describe your experience conceptualising stories and narratives for games.
Listen forGenre and scope named, with how the concept survived or changed once production constraints and systems design landed on it.
Concept work with no production experience, or narratives described entirely as they were originally imagined.
03How have you kept continuity across a narrative spanning multiple releases or updates?
Listen forA tracking method such as a story bible or database, with a continuity error they caught and one that shipped.
Continuity held in memory, or no experience of maintaining a narrative beyond a single release.
Structure not just scenes
3 questions04Do you have experience creating non-linear narratives? Can you give an example?
Listen forBranch structure described concretely, with how they controlled combinatorial growth and where branches converged deliberately.
Branching described as offering choices, with no plan for how paths reconverge or how content volume was contained.
05How do you create a narrative that adjusts to player choices and decisions?
Listen forState tracked deliberately with a view on which choices genuinely change outcomes and which are acknowledged but not consequential.
Every choice promised as consequential, or no distinction between real branching and acknowledgement.
06How do you handle narrative pacing in a game with both high-intensity action and slower moments?
Listen forPacing designed against the actual play loop, with awareness that players arrive at beats out of order in open structures.
Pacing described as a linear arc, with no allowance for players reaching content in an unintended order.
Cutting their own work
3 questions07Have you encountered a situation where the narrative contradicted the gameplay? How did you resolve it?
Listen forA real conflict with what was changed, including cases where the story gave way to the mechanic rather than the reverse.
No such conflict encountered, or every resolution involving the systems team changing to fit the story.
08Can you describe a time your narrative ideas changed the direction of a game?
Listen forInfluence with evidence, plus an honest account of proposals that were rejected and why they did not survive review.
Influence claimed with no example, or no proposal of theirs ever rejected during production.
09How do you test your narrative designs?
Listen forPlaytesting with observation of what players actually did, including how many skipped dialogue and what that changed.
Narrative reviewed only by the team, or no data on how much of the writing players actually consumed.
Working with systems
3 questions10Have you worked with game designers to integrate mechanics into the storytelling?
Listen forStory told through systems rather than only through dialogue, with a specific mechanic that carried narrative meaning.
Narrative delivered entirely through cutscenes and text, with no engagement with the mechanics.
11Do you have experience working with a development team to implement your narrative designs?
Listen forDirect work with engineers and designers on implementation, including how their writing was formatted for the tools that consume it.
Hands over documents with no implementation involvement, or no awareness of how the narrative gets into the build.
12Which tools or software do you commonly use in your narrative design work?
Listen forNamed narrative tooling or engine integration, with how they manage large volumes of branching text and localisation keys.
Works entirely in documents, or no experience with the tooling that gets dialogue into a game.
How to score responses
Score every candidate on the same four criteria immediately after the screen. At this stage you are shortlisting for panel interviews, not making the final call.
Body of work
35%5Names shipped games and the specific quests, characters or bark systems they authored, with scope figures and links to playable evidence.
Craft and technique
25%5Discusses branch pruning, variable state and reconvergence concretely, and shows how narrative served level pacing and mechanics rather than fighting them.
Reliability and process
25%5Describes writing to hard line budgets and lock dates, versioning cleanly, and flagging loc or VO risk weeks before the session.
Presence with an audience
15%5Pitches vividly, takes a cut without ego, and cites playtest or telemetry evidence when arguing for or against a narrative beat.
Writers and narrative designers apply for the same posting and are not the same job. A one-way video screen surfaces structural thinking before you set a writing test.
Try it on HirevireScreening FAQ
Process basics
How long should a pre-screening round for a narrative designer take?
Fifteen minutes across eight to ten questions, answered async. Enough to confirm what they wrote on which shipped titles, hear how they handle branching structure, and check whether they have worked alongside systems designers.
Should I still run a writing test?
Yes, on a shortlist, and make it a structural exercise rather than a prose sample. Ask for a branching scene with the conditions and the failure states. Prose quality is easy to assess and is not what distinguishes candidates for this role.
Evaluating answers
What is the strongest signal when screening a narrative designer?
How they handled narrative contradicting gameplay. Every shipped game has this moment, where the story says one thing and the mechanic allows another. Designers who have been through production describe the compromise; writers describe the story they wanted.
How do I judge attribution on a shipped title?
Ask which scenes, characters or systems were theirs. Narrative teams are large and credits are generous. A designer who can name specific content they owned is telling you the truth; one who describes the whole game's story as theirs usually is not.
Go deeper on this role
Sanat has been hiring since 2012 and watching the recruitment industry change up close ever since, and turned that screening process into Hirevire's video screening platform. LinkedIn
