GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Game Narrative Summit: Built in Layers: (Re)Creating History with the Narrative System in 'Civilization VII'
Cat Manning (Narrative Director, Firaxis)
Rue Taylor (Narrative Designer, Firaxis)
Nell Raban (Senior Narrative Designer, Firaxis)
Andrew Johnson (Senior Historian, Firaxis)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Game Narrative
Format: Panel
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Recently, many successful strategy games have adopted emergent narrative events that respond to player actions. These systems listen to the world state and offer players a piece of a story that elaborates on, complicates, or otherwise deepens their experience. Firaxis' narrative system for Civilization VII is designed flexibly in order to navigate the line between history and gameplay in an effort to both entertain and educate its audience.
In this session, a panel of historians and narrative designers will discuss the narrative event system created for Sid Meier's Civilization VII. The talk will provide a high-level explanation of how the system works, while gesturing to some of the unique challenges faced while designing the system. The panelists will discuss how their approach to telling historically-informed stories intersects with the game's mechanics. Questions around sensitivity to historical fact while also accommodating (and encouraging) historical fictions and alternative histories will also be addressed.
Takeaway
This talk will offer insights into how to design a narrative event system for strategy and strategy-adjacent games, though the lessons will be applicable to other genres as well. Additionally, panelists will discuss approaches to balancing history and design that can inform any designer who is approaching historical material as part of their project.
Intended Audience
The target audience is mid- to senior level developers in narrative and design disciplines. The talk is also intended for anyone interested in incorporating history into games.
