Game Story Writer

Storycraft that changes the game.

20 Years, AAA to Indie

For over a two decades, Lorne Nudel has shaped character, story, and gameplay for world-class AAA studios and indie developers. Having held senior roles on major global releases, he brings a battle-tested approach to studios and creatives seeking narrative complexity, cohesion, and emotional impact.

Parallel to his studio work, Lorne has spent over ten years teaching and mentoring. Delivering high-impact instruction for individual writers, classes, and bespoke, in-studio workshops for professional game development teams.

For over a two decades, Lorne Nudel has shaped character, story, and gameplay for world-class AAA studios and indie developers. Having held senior roles on major global releases, he brings a battle-tested approach to studios and creatives seeking narrative complexity, cohesion, and emotional impact.

Parallel to his studio work, Lorne has spent over ten years teaching and mentoring. Delivering high-impact instruction for individual writers, classes, and bespoke, in-studio workshops for professional game development teams.

He is trusted by studios seeking clarity, cohesion, and a best-practices approach to interactive storytelling.

He is trusted by studios seeking clarity, cohesion, and a best-practices approach to interactive storytelling.

Areas of Engagement

My consultancy operates across two core pillars of narrative design to serve studios, indie teams, and serious individual writers. Whether you are seeking an objective eye to assess and focus your game story, make your characters truly standout, or looking to align your portfolio with studio standards, these frameworks are entirely customizable to your project's specific scope and timelines.

If you want to push your storytelling or your team's narrative execution to a global excellence, let’s map out a strategy.

Narrative Design & Core Architecture

Story Mapping & Flow: Shaping plots that align seamlessly with gameplay mechanics, maintaining pacing without losing coherence.

Character Depth: Building multidimensional characters with believable motivations, profound arcs, and natural, memorable dialogue.
Purposeful Worldbuilding: Crafting immersive worlds where every detail, from lore to environmental storytelling, serves the overarching narrative.
Player Agency: Designing branching paths and impactful player decisions, rewarding agency without breaking the structural spine of the story, or project scope.

Portfolio Architecture & Studio Alignment

Sample Building: Creating short, high-impact narrative beats that showcase your range across dramatic scenes, branching dialogue, and environmental prose.

Refining & Tightening Drafts: Elevating existing drafts and rough concepts until they are professional, clean, and industry ready.
Studio Standards Alignment: Shaping and tailoring your body of work to align with what AAA studios and premium indie developers look for in writers and freelancers.

Core Story Philosophy

While the core of storytelling remains universal, game writing demands a masterly marriage of narrative design and player agency. True game writing is an incredibly varied, deeply collaborative effort. It requires a multifaceted contribution at every level of the development cycle, including world-building, quest design, and narrative direction, working in close concert all the way from ideation to launch.

While the core of storytelling remains universal, game writing demands a masterly marriage of narrative design and player agency. True game writing is an incredibly varied, deeply collaborative effort. It requires a multifaceted contribution at every level of the development cycle, including world-building, quest design, and narrative direction, working in close concert all the way from ideation to launch.

The most memorable games balance authorial intent and player freedom, using strong narrative architecture as foundation for creative innovation.

The most memorable games balance authorial intent and player freedom, using strong narrative architecture as foundation for creative innovation.

Testimonials

"I got a job in the industry within my first year!"

"If every teacher I had was as kind, enthusiastic and knowledgeable as Lorne, I would have had an impossible time choosing which industry to work for."

Amy

"I learned how to structure and write stories as in script form, craft character bios and how to reference them when trying to keep a character consistent, and more. It was an inspiring and enriching experience that has greatly influenced my approach to storytelling in all it's forms, not just video games."

Kevin Asla

Foxboy Productions

"Lorne’s classes were insightful and fun and I learned so much from participating. The information I gained not only improved my writing but also my understanding of the practice and my workflow. The biggest part of taking Lorne’s class, for me, was the feedback I got from Lorne which was clear and incredibly helpful."

Nathan

Battle-Tested Methodologies