Nata Pokrovskaya (they/them), narrative designer at Wargaming (new unannounced project), writer, film director. Website: pokrovskaya.com
Nata Pokrovskaya (they/them), narrative designer at Wargaming (new unannounced project), writer, film director. Website: pokrovskaya.com
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I started in fashion magazines before becoming a copywriter for major international brands. This gave me deep experience in commercial writing, taught me to work with “yesterday” deadlines, and handle comments like “the color should be vivid, preferably black” (true story!).
After 10 years, I felt advertising had nothing new to offer. Wanting to work in IT, I “pivoted” to tech startups, combining my project management and communication skills. Simultaneously, as a writer and director, I began making films with my creative partner Anton Outkine. Our first sci-fi short “Summer” debuted in 2015, garnering festival nominations and awards.
Then, in 2016, our startup got shut down, so we co-founded our studio, “Lateral Summer”. As gamers, we naturally wanted to explore interactivity in storytelling. So when we got an offer from a non-profit media focused on social issues to make a young adult web series about an HIV+ girl, we proposed to make it interactive.
This became “It’s Complicated”, Russia’s first interactive series and my first narrative design work. We developed the mechanics, designed the interactions, co-wrote and shot the series. It’s been taken down due to repressive Russian laws, but a backup is available (in Russian only).
The series was very successful, leading us to explore various interactive media: narrative VR, immersive shows, edutainment, and video games — and even writing the first Russian textbook about it.
I’ve always wanted to learn something new while leveraging my forte: storytelling and communication skills.
At times, this meant starting almost from scratch. When Russia’s full-scale war began, I realized I couldn’t tell the stories I wanted in Russia anymore. We closed our studio to focus on video games. Wanting to learn from industry leaders, I joined Wargaming after 6 months and 50-ish job applications. I feel like this is the perfect place for me to apply my experience and challenge myself every day.
Make sure you’re going for what you love. There’s no stability left anywhere, so prep your financial airbag and go for it. Not saying you shouldn’t be fairly compensated!
They are both about communication. And in narrative design, you also have a “client” — the game designer (unless you’re both, like Hideo Kojima).
As for my previous experience, I’ve always worn multiple hats, and narrative design turned out to be the space where I can finally combine most of them! I believe video games are a medium that gives you the maximum possible ways to tell a story, even in non-story-driven games.
“Narrative designer” job can mean different responsibilities in different studios: from coming up with a story and implementing it in-engine to writing characters and dialogue. I believe anyone with strong storytelling skills and a love for video games can become a narrative designer. Filmmaking background helps a lot, but there are things to unlearn as well, because in a game, the player is always the main character, and the “show, don’t tell” principle becomes “let do, don’t tell”.
Unevenly is about narrative design and all things around it, with peeks into my Belgrade life. I started it a year ago to share my journey with people who might want to learn narrative design and start working in gamedev, and also to promote myself in the international community.
“Unevenly” stands on the shoulders of my first personal newsletter that I’m writing in Russian: “How to succeed at everything (no way)”, I launched around 2016. Friends kept asking how I juggle so many things: full-time work, beauty blogging, making photobooks, etc. Instead of repeating myself, I decided to write to everyone at once. I love the personal touch of newsletters; I write thinking of friends, addressing them directly in my head. It’s grown organically to over 4,500 readers and I’ve started with that base for “Unevenly”.
It helps me structure and reflect on my experiences while staying connected with my community and meeting new like-minded people!
Establishing myself as an expert, especially now that I’m co-writing a book on narrative design and interactive storytelling, and testing some of my theories, getting feedback from readers.
Newsletters are safe from algorithms that aren’t helpful at all these days. When I’m subscribing, that means I’m ready to invest my time and attention; and I just love hearing the author’s personal voice coming through.
LinkedIn for professional goals and Bluesky for a mix of personal-professional, since there’s a great gamedev community there. I’m still on Twitter, but since it’s “ensh*ttification” I don’t really post anything. Used to be on TikTok, but I’m not a fan of my every breath being collected as data, so I quit. After all, I feel most comfortable with my newsletter, so I’m focussing on it.
Most of my audience are creatives in that way or another, and the majority of them are interested in storytelling, either as established professionals or aspiring writers. As I mentioned above, I used the subscriber base of my personal Russian-language newsletter, and it turned out to be the right move: so many people stayed and are reading it! I’m especially proud that all my subscribers came organically: I’ve never done any promo, it’s all readers’ shares, friends’ recommendations, my personal social media, and a couple of interviews.
From my daily work (without breaking the NDA), professional buzz on social media, or from my book. But I’m at my happiest when readers send their requests!
I love Arnold Schwarzenegger’s emails for they are truly the positive corner of the internet they claim to be.
Pixel Prophet by fellow multi-hat wearer Phil Strahl reflects his passion for video games, especially indies and vintage.
My friend Natasha Rostovtseva has launched an email newsletter about professional freedom: reading it isn’t just useful, but also a way for me to keep in touch with her.
Jörg Colberg’s delightfully grumpy CPhMag is my longtime companion on photobooks and contemporary photography.
Keep it personal. Even if the week’s most significant event was your cat puking on your Acronym kicks, please share it with us along with all your professional updates.
