When Worlds Collide

A video game insider reveals how stories power the best computer games

Video games are now bigger than the global film and music industries combined – and they’re quietly transforming how stories are told. When Worlds Collide: How Video Games Reinvent Storytelling and Why It Matters is a groundbreaking video game storytelling book that shows, in clear and compelling prose, exactly how this new medium works – and why every writer, designer and curious player should care.

Drawing on decades as a game writer, narrative designer and academic, Colin Harvey takes you inside the writers’ rooms, VR labs and blockbuster studios where today’s most innovative stories are made. From Sony’s VR action game Blood & Truth to epics such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Grand Theft Auto and cult indie titles, he reveals how video games reinvent storytelling by handing agency to the player – and what that means for plot, character and emotion.

Organised in short, highly readable chapters, the book explores:

• Games versus stories – why games aren’t just “interactive films”, and how interactive storytelling and game narrative must solve problems other media never face.
• The hidden history of non‑linear and participatory tales, from Tristram Shandy to Choose Your Own Adventure, that paved the way for modern games.
• The craft of narrative design in video games – pacing, player choice, “ludonarrative dissonance”, and the tricky business of aligning what the player does with what the story wants.
• Dialogue, character arcs and “world logic” – the nuts and bolts of writing stories for video games so they feel alive rather than scripted.
• Time, space and open worlds – how game storytellers choreograph exploration, repetition, side‑quests and hub‑and‑spoke structures to create satisfying journeys.
• Pipelines, performances and collaboration – how writers, level designers, actors, coders and artists actually work together on large productions.
• The ethical dimensions of game design: choice, consequence, violence, representation and the politics of letting players “do anything”.
• Worldbuilding in the age of franchises, live services and streaming – from tightly crafted indie gems to sprawling universes, Harvey offers a practitioner’s guide to worldbuilding for video games.

Later chapters look ahead to the metaverse and mega narrative, interrogating what happens when stories stretch across films, comics, novels, streams and...

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