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Artur Ganszyniec

@agansz.bsky.social

260 followers 880 following 97 posts

Consulting Narrative Designer Poland based game designer, writer, and educator Co-author of https://howandwhywemake.games Masterclasses, workshops, mentoring https://narrativedesign.online Writing about narrative design https://the-narrative-designer.com

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Nov 21

Short introduction:
- Witcher 1 & 2 Lead Narrative Designer for CDPR
- text-based journalistic indies for Different Tales
- cute mobile puzzle-based games for ATGames
- AA and Tripple-I prototypes for 11 bit studios, Anshar Studios, and BLANK.
- teaching story design at Lodz University of Technology

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · 9d

In another episode of our "The Witcher" adventure, we are trying to solve the investigation in Vyzima, only to realise that we must go back to the swamp forest. Again.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwim...

#witcher #thewitcher #geralt #gamedesign #narrativesedign

Ep. 7 –The Witcher with a designer's commentary: Chapter 2 (part 4)

YouTube video by Artur Ganszyniec

www.youtube.com

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · 16d

In today’s episode of the Witcher play-though with a designer's commentary, we visit the confusing and mosquito-ridden swamp forest.
#witcher #thewitcher #gamedesign #narrativedesign
youtu.be/nfAcEpPOJek?...

Ep. 6 –The Witcher with a designer's commentary: Chapter 2 (part 3)

YouTube video by Artur Ganszyniec

youtu.be

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Sep 12

Continuing our The Witcher play-through with a designer's commentary we dip our finger in the Temple Quarter of Vizima, meet two the-witcher-team lookalikes and help some working girls. Enjoy :)

youtu.be/AO-zY0dGY8U

#witcher #thewitcher #gamedesign #narrativedesign

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Sep 5

Wersja polska najlepsza, się wie :)

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Sep 5

In the third episode of playing The Witcher 18 years after the release, we uncover dark secrets, continue romancing in suspicious circumstances and finish our adventure in the Outskirts of Vizima.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQiV...

#thewitcher #witcher #gamedesign #narrativedesign

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Aug 30

Today, on the Witcher playthrough with a designer’s commentary, Chapter 1 (part one).
youtu.be/_9lANHosFk0

#thewitcher #witcher #gamedesign #narrativedesign

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Aug 27

Glad you liked it! The next instalment (Chapter 1, part 1) airs this Friday at www.youtube.com/@artur-gansz...

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Aug 24

Eighteen years after the release, I play The Witcher, a game I worked on as the Lead Story Designer. Come and watch for designer’s commentary and anecdotes from behind the scenes.

The plan is to post new episodes once a week🤞
www.youtube.com/watch?v=epJH...

#thewitcher #narrativedesign

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Aug 12

Today’s post on The Narrative Designer was triggered by an old photograph, and digs into some ancient gamedev history.

I muse about what happened to the team who made the first Witcher game, and how game studios are like the Ship of Theseus.

www.the-narrative-designer.com/the-question...

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Apr 21

In the newest issue of The Narrative Designer, I write about curiosity-based stories. the-narrative-designer.com
#narrativedesign #gamedesign

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Mar 17

My, narrative designerzy, jesteśmy zwykle samoukami. Przy braku formalnej edukacji i platformy do wymiany doświadczeń, wyważamy często drzwi, które inni już nie raz otwarli.

Zapraszam na warsztaty z narrative designu przygotowane przez zawodowca dla zawodowców.

Więcej na narrativedesign.online

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Mar 10

What keeps us on the edge of our seats is the tension between hope and fear. To feel it, we must understand what the protagonist wants to achieve and what’s at stake if they fail. This is especially true when, as players, we are responsible for carrying out the plan.
the-narrative-designer.com

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 25

So far, on the-narrative-designer.com we’ve discussed the big picture: goals, conflicts, protagonists, story structures, and nonlinearity.

This week we zoom in on the basic building block of any interactive experience, the triad of crisis, struggle, and resolution...

#narrativedesign #gamedesign

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 24

Bardzo się cieszę, że okazały się inspirujące! :)

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 24

Wydaje mi się, że tak, prowadziłem wtedy zajęcia w Krakowie :)
Te bieżące warsztaty są bardziej nastawione zawodowo, dla osób już pracujących w branży lub chcących się do niej dołączyć.

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 24

Zwolniło mi się parę miejsc na warsztaty z narrative designu, które prowadzę w ten i przyszły weekend.

Nie jestem pewien, kiedy będzie kolejna edycja, więc to świetna okazja, żeby rzutem na taśmę dołączyć się do kameralnej grupy i w miłym towarzystwie popracować nad designerskim fachem.

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 19

Projektowanie dobrych historii w grach to fach, którego można się nauczyć.

Warsztaty z narrative designu: 1-2 i 8-9 marca, od 10:00 do 14:30, piguła wiedzy i praktyki z dwudziestu lat doświadczenia, case studies, dyskusje i czas na przećwiczenie narzędzi.

Więcej na narrativedesign.online

Home - Polski - Narrative Design Workshop

Czego sie nauczysz? My, narrative designerzy, bywamy samoukami. Trudno o formalną edukację w naszej specjalności.We własnej praktyce zawodowej często intuicyjnie czułem, które rozwiązania działają, al...

narrativedesign.online

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 14

Today on the-narrative-designer.com I share some thoughts on how we can structure nonlinear stories.
#narrativedesign #gamedesign

Reposted by Artur Ganszyniec

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · Feb 7

I wish we had different terms for the different play experiences games offer. not to be a gatekeeper (though inevitably they'd show up) but to genuinely help differentiate EVEN A LITTLE between infinite-rabbithole-sandbox vs two-hour-melt-your-heart-story vs collection-of-little-distractions etc

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Reposted by Artur Ganszyniec

Josh Bycer @gwbycer.bsky.social · Feb 5

for my latest design piece, I discussed studying game design, why it should be given more respect, and where a lot of developers and critics mess up when analyzing a game game-wisdom.com/critical/str... #indiegamedev

The Struggles of Studying Game Design - Game Wisdom

The ability to study game design continues to elude many people, and I wanted to discuss why this can feel like a mysterious art to some.

game-wisdom.com

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Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 4

All games we make represent some viewpoint on reality, show through text or systems some stance on politics. Pretending that it isn’t so is cowardly. We cannot avoid it so we should be at least make a conscious decision about what we want to say.

Artur Ganszyniec @agansz.bsky.social · Feb 1

We are standing on the shoulders of giants. When it comes to shaping stories it’s giants all the way down to Aristotle, who—of course—was standing on top of his own pyramid.

More on story structures in the new article on the-narrative-designer.com

#narrativedesign #gamedesign #gamewriting

Reposted by Artur Ganszyniec

Jane Ng @janeng.com · Feb 1

In gamedev, we joke about how we shouldn't care so much because "we ain't curing cancer" so chill, right?

But you know what? These last few weeks reminded me that the Arts, esp accessible Art like videogames is incredibly important because games have a big place in sculpting cultural norms.

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Reposted by Artur Ganszyniec

David Pierce @davidpierce.bsky.social · Jan 22

Thinking a lot lately about the idea of “authorial voice” and “system rhetoric” in game design. What are we saying about the world (however indirectly) through our mechanics and systems? (From: How and Why We Make Games, Marta Fijak and Artur Ganszyniec)

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Reposted by Artur Ganszyniec

Draculanna 🧛🌿👁️ @annacwebs.bsky.social · Jan 21

Sad to see that the GDC State of the Games Industry '25 confirm what I have suspected for a while: narrative roles particularly hard-hit by layoffs in the industry. Narrative is sometimes seen as expendable on a project: when the reviews of our story come out, are we still on the team?

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