In a panel discussion hosted by Mediatonic's Ed Fear, ExPlay attendees today heard from four writers on the subject of narrative in games.

And Edward Stern, lead writer for London-based developer Splash Damage, had some recent expierence of writing on mobile to draw from.

Splash Damage will be launching its first iOS title – Rad Soliders – 'soon', and Stern explained that creating the game's narrative was "very hard, much harder than I'd anticipated.

"It's been a big change for me. It's trying to come up with a populated world for a game that can be shrunk down to microdot size," Stern explained. "It's got to work on an atomic level."

The old rules still apply

Scale isn't the only difference for those moving to mobile to wrap their heads around.

Mobile games, of course, elicit different patterns of play, and therefore require a different approach to story.

"In terms of how people play, it's very different," explained Opposable Games' James Parker.

"All of the things that are true about writing in games generally – being concise, being punchy – these are even more true in mobile games."

Advantageous agility

But while all the panellists empahsised the challenge of writing smartphone stories, there are also clear benefits to working as a writer within a mobile studio. Headcounts are typically smaller, and the team is generally more nimble.

As such, it's easier for a writer to communicate with their development team and to be more fully integrated into the project from its outset.

"Having resources can trip you up as much as it frees you," offered freelance narrative designer Andrew S. Walsh.

He offered an example. In a big studio, you ask someone if the main character could have a red scarf. Two weeks later, after several meetings, the writer discovered that their main character has been given a purple squid instead.

Fingers in pies

Paul Taylor of Mode 7 told a similar story. The small size of Mode 7 meant that it was easy for him to get involved in the art direction for Frozen Synapse before release.

As such, he was able to marry his narrative to a complementary visual aesthetic.

"I was able to shape the look of the game," Taylor explained, and this simply wouldn't have been possible in a larger, more bureaucratic studio.