GDC Gold-Winning Essays
Project Type
Analytical Essays
Skills/Tools
- Technical Writing
- Critical Analysis
- Narrative Design
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Project Overview
These papers are analytical essays that I submitted to GDC's Game Narrative Review contest, an essay-writing competitions where students analyze the narrative elements in a game of their choice. I wrote my first paper in 2023 on God of War 2018, and I wrote my second paper in 2024 on Pentiment. Both papers won Gold in the competition, landing me a free GDC pass and even an opportunity to speak about my paper on the Game Narrative Summit stage in 2025. These essays show my deep understanding of narrative design techniques and principles, and how they are used effectively in successful games!
God of War Paper
My first paper was on my favorite game of all time: God of War 2018. My analysis focused primarily on techniques employed by the narrative designers to maintain a sense of immersion and agency in a largely linear narrative, like breaks of interactivity in extended narrative sequences and the linear no-cut camera. I also dove into the deeper themes of family and responsibility explored in the game, and how literary parallels through side characters and optional content furthered the development of those themes. Feel free to look deeper into my analysis below!
Pentiment Essay
My second paper was on Obsidian's Pentiment, a small adventure RPG. My analysis focused on the game's branching narrative elements, and how its choice system allows players to feel agency in the story's resolution at all times. I also broke down how the game handles guilt and emotion with its murder-mystery elements, forcing the player not only to find conclusions and answers, but to cast moral judgements. The game really stood out to me, so feel free to look below and read about how it works so well!.