In real life, people don't wait around for you to interact with them—so why do non-player characters do this in video games? The team behind Wayward Strand have created an intricately detailed real-time narrative adventure where all the NPCs are just as busy as the player. In this 2023 Independent Games Summit talk, narrative co-directors Georgia Symons and Jason Bakker talk about their process for structuring a world of simultaneous stories in a way that feels nourishing to the player. GDC returns to San Francisco this March 18-22, 2024! For more information, be sure to visit our website and follow the #GDC2024 hashtag on social media. Subscribe to the GDC newsletter and get regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or RSS. Join the GDC mailing list: http://www.gdconf.com/subscribe Follow GDC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_GDC GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.