An initiative of Fellow Traveller, a narrative games label known for The Pale Beyond, Beacon Pines, Citizen Sleeper and Paradise Killer, LudoNarraCon 2023 celebrates five years of showcasing indie narrative games. LudoNarraCon continues to pioneer the digital game festival, replicating the community-led atmosphere and engagement of physical events through a global online format hosted on Steam.

Running for its fifth year, LudoNarraCon (May 4th - 8th) was the first digital festival of its kind and has since become a fixture for fans of interesting, story-rich indie games.

Please see below the full details on each of the upcoming panels including information on hosts, timing, and what each segment will cover.

Inside the Game Actor's Studio!

Developers and actors from acclaimed narrative games As Dusk Falls, Immortality, and A Plague Tale: Requiem discuss their varied approaches to videogame performance. Join Natalie Watson and Sam Barlow (Half Mermaid), Sébastien Renard (Asobo Studio), and Caroline Marchal (Interior/Night) as they speak with game actors Ryan Nolan, Charlotte McBurney, and Manon Gage.

Beyond Representation - A Southeast Asian Approach to Narrative Games

The Southeast Asian developers behind titles such as "A Space For The Unbound", "Kabaret", "What Comes After" and "Afterlove EP" reflect on how they approach embedding regional culture into their narrative games by reflecting on post-colonialism, rapid economic development, and embracing nostalgia. Join streamer Arief Johan, as he speaks with developers Saqina Latif (Persona Theory), Dimas Novan D. (Mojiken) and Sasha Ariana (Toge Productions and Pikselnesia).

Memory, Society, Hope, and Heartbreak by Marginalized Protagonists

Marginalized characters can humanize narratives that criticize oppression, question historicity, and search for common ground and a sense of belonging. Join Tanya Kan (Vivid Foundry), Abhi (Venba game), Marina Ayano Kittaka (Analgesic Productions) and Remy Siu 蕭逸南 and Natalie Tin Yin Gan 顏婷妍 (Sunset Visitor) as they discuss how their games' diverse characters are designed to explore post-apocalypses, new worlds, dystopias, and modern migrations. How do concepts of hope and authenticity play into game devs' creative processes to bring characters' complex roles to life?

When social is part of the narrative

From tabletop RPGs to MMORPGs, the notion of multiplayer narrative games is far from a recent invention. With the rise of social gaming, we've seen this genre making a comeback with innovative gameplay. Join Yoyu Li (Team Dissonant), May Wong (Interior/Night), Dr Richard A. Bartle, and Samuel Partridge (Tributary Games) as they discuss how they incorporate social elements into their narrative games.

Forming Meaningful Relationships in Games

Explore dating sims, how they entice players, and why adding them can increase player engagement. The panel will discuss games that use these mechanics and how they can change a game. Join Cam Perry (Schell Games), Jamie Camera (ValiDate), Radiant G (Himbo Hunter) and Monica Fan (Pipeworks) as they discuss what it means to form relationships with the characters in games.

Once upon a time in a faraway land…

Explore how to build atmosphere in a curated single-player experience as well as the importance of world-building and creating tension. Join James Tinsdale (Fallen Leaf), Xalavier Nelson Jr. (Strange Scaffold), Benni Hill (Bonsai Collective), and Pete Bottomley (White Paper Games) as they discuss how they integrate these aspects into their respective games.

Approaching Narrative from Opposite Ends of the Word Count Spectrum

In 2022, Finji released two games: Tunic and I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. They each took very different approaches to game narrative: Tunic's in-game manual is mostly written in indecipherable runes while I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has a script with over 600,000 words. Join Nathan Black, Lindsay Ishihiro, and Andrew Shouldice (Finji) for a conversation about language and narrative approaches in games.

Creating Unexpected and Spectacular Heartthrobs in your Dating Sims

A team of Indie game writers, directors, and producers will join to discuss their character creation process when developing fresh and intriguing characters with believable, relatable romance narratives in video games. Join Teddy Dief (OFK), Yasmine Lee (Survios), Amanda Gardner (The Deep End Games), and Dani Lalonders (ValiDate) to learn how to create the perfect heartthrob of your own!

Survival Storytelling

In theory, storytelling in a survival game is straightforward: do or die. The reality is, as always more complicated. How do you raise tension when the stakes are already as high as they can go? How can you offer pacing breaks without ruining the vibe overall? Are there themes besides hope and despair that might be surprisingly well-suited to exploring further in survival games? Join Raphael van Lierop (Hinterland), Tanya X. Short and David Dunham (Kitfox), Giada Zavarise (Selling Sunlight), and Julián Quijano (Beautiful Glitch) as they tackle these complicated questions!

Using Systems-Based Writing to Make Player Choices Have a Lasting Impact on Your Narrative

Narrative systems can be a compelling way to introduce more nuance and complexity to player choice and outcomes in narrative games, all while making the task of writing these games more manageable. Join Tony Howard-Arias (Black Tabby), Son M. (Perfect Garbage), Emily Short (Galatea), and Sarah Northway (Northway) as they discuss how to have a lasting impact on your narrative!

Game Stories Told in Most Unexpected & Surprising Ways

Game Stories aren't told just through dialog and scripted scenes – games tell stories throughout the experience, in subtle and surprising ways. In this panel, veteran writers and designers talk about all the unexpected ways game narratives work, from environmental narrative to marketing materials to character animation to stories told in game mechanics themselves. Join Richard Rouse III (Paranoid Productions), Richard Dansky (Tom Clancy's series), Latoya Peterson (Glow Up), Daniel Benmergui (Storyteller) as they discuss the subtleties of storytelling.

In addition to the above panels, we'll also be hosting three Fireside Chats with industry veterans:

Ron Gilbert speaks with Rebekah Valentine

Ron Gilbert is a veteran video-game designer, programmer, writer, director and producer of over eighty titles spanning three decades. He is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. In 2017, Ron established his new studio Terrible Toybox, who went on to achieve critical acclaim with their debut game Thimbleweed Park. In 2022, Gilbert reunited with writing partner Dave Grossman on Return to Monkey Island. Join Ron Gilbert as he sits down for a fireside chat with IGN's Rebekah Valentine!

Felice Tzehuei Kuan speaks with Rachel Watts

Felice Tzehuei Kuan is a Narrative Director at Deck Nine Games, where she leads a talented team of writers and narrative designers creating cinematic narrative adventure games. She was a staff writer on Life is Strange: Before the Storm and a senior staff writer on Life is Strange: True Colors, for which she helped create Alex Chen, the game's queer Chinese-Vietnamese American protagonist. Felice has an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU and was a bookwriter & lyricist before working in games. Join Felice Tzehuei Kuan as she sits down for a fireside chat with Rock Paper Shotgun's Rachel Watts!

Scott Chen speaks with Malindy Hetfeld

Co-Founder of SIGONO, and designer of the OPUS series. Scott has been exploring the possibility of narrative-driven games, crafting unique gameplay experiences that complement their story. His goal is to design games that is unique to his Asian roots, but still can be relatable and enjoyed by people all over the world. Join Scott Chen as he sits down for a fireside chat with Malindy Hetfeld!

Some notable demos being made available digitally for the first time at LudoNarraCon include:

• 11bit's The Invincible
• Don't Nod's Harmony: The Fall of Reverie
• KO_OP Mode's Goodbye Volcano High
• Summerfall Studios' Stray Gods
• UN JE NE SAIS QUOI's & UMANIMATION's Dordogne
• Necrosoft's Demonschool
• Polygon Treehouse (Röki)'s Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island
• And a new unannounced game from Fellow Traveler!

During the digital festival, the 44 exhibiting narrative games will give behind-the-scenes insights via live streams on their store pages, with more than 35 developers providing playable demos. You can visit the LudoNarraCon website now for full information.

In addition to celebrating the fifth edition of LudoNarraCon, Fellow Traveller has more big things planned for the week including the reveal of a new game and the one-year anniversary of Citizen Sleeper. The critically acclaimed RPG launched as part of last year's show and developer Jump Over The Age has more to share as part of the celebrations.