Senior Narrative Writer - Unpublished R&D Product

As a Narrative Writer, your experience as a published and professional writer across a broad range of media will help you drive creative initiatives that include dreaming up new champions, fleshing out their stories, and imagining their worlds, working together with artists and designers who will help produce them and the passionate players who will bring them to life. And since your ability to develop narrative extends off the page and into pitches, you’ll use your craftsmanship to generate excitement from seasoned storytelling professionals.  Ultimately, it’s your love of gaming, passion for writing, and highly-polished portfolio of work that’ll position you to help players create their own unique narratives through play, and you can’t wait to help them write the next chapter.

As a Senior Narrative Writer on an unannounced R&D game project, you will be an integral part of the creative process in which teams create and bring to life the Characters, World, and IP inside and outside of our game. You will report to the Sr. Manager, Audio Direction of the project.

Responsibilities

• High degree of ownership over the narrative space, including vision setting and execution without need for assistance beyond normal feedback loop
• Write dialog for in-game characters using custom tools, balancing game experience needs with personality and backstory
• Collaborates with Marketing on developing scripts for linear content, and outside of game experiences
• Work with artists and designers to develop bios, backstory, character personas, narrative arcs and worldbuilding that reflects the vision of the game and informs cross-discipline development
• Partner with Creative Leads to develop alternate fantasies and thematics for characters
• Define narrative frameworks and quality standards for the full breadth of the game
• Define, organize, and estimate narrative team needs
• Partner with the team to prototype and build narrative tools
• Understand the relevant audiences for the game, including international audiences, and make decisions for these audiences
• Collaborate, receive feedback, edit, and iterate towards the highest quality product
• Assist in the ongoing development of process documentation, rules documents, templating standards, and style guides

Required Qualifications

• 6+ years of overall experience in professional narrative writing
• 3+ years of game industry experience 
• Deep understanding of how interactive narrative functions and how it intersects with the other parts of a game

Desired Qualifications

• Experience working within a cross disciplinary team through all phases of game development
• Able to manage multiple projects in parallel, including planning, discovery, and execution phases. 
• Experience writing, iterating, editing, and revising within a production schedule

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

 

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

 

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security. 

 

(Redwood City Only) Base salary range between $143,500 USD - $ 202,000 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Client-provided location(s): Los Angeles, CA

Job ID: 7058277

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2025-08-27T18:31:15