At Write Club during GDC 2026, with a full house at Johnny Foley’s cheering along, we were thrilled to announce something a long time in the making for our community: the IGDA Game Writing SIG Lifetime Achievement Award, which goes to none other than Richard Dansky.
It is impossible to talk about the craft of game writing and its evolution without talking about Richard. He is one of the founders of this SIG. He championed Write Club before most of us ever tried to write a punchline on a cocktail napkin. He mentored an entire generation of narrative designers and writers, many of whom are now mentoring their own. For a quarter-century, in books, on panels, in classrooms, in hallways, and in late-night emails, he has insisted that game writing is a craft worth taking seriously, and that the people who do it deserve to be taken seriously too.
Giving the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Richard wasn’t a hard decision for our Committee. It was the obvious one.
The Announcement at Write Club
If you weren’t in The Cellar at Johnny Foley’s, you can watch the moment here.
The Presentation: NarraScope 2026 in Albany
Because Richard deserves a moment that isn’t surrounded by the comings and goings of GDC-ers, we’re saving the actual presentation for a conference full of people who live and breathe interactive narrative.
We will present the award to Richard in person at NarraScope 2026, the annual conference dedicated to narrative games and interactive storytelling, held this year in Albany, NY. Richard will also be speaking at the conference. Given Richard’s two decades running the Game Narrative Round Tables at GDC and his long tenure on the Game Narrative Summit advisory board, a narrative-focused conference is exactly the right room for this.
The Ceremony: SIG Write Club at NarraScope
The award ceremony will take place at our Game Writing SIG Write Club at NarraScope 2026, hosted at City Line Bar and Grill in Albany. We’d love for you to be there, whether you’ve known Richard for twenty years or you’re a student who just discovered his work last week.
Grab a ticket to Write Club at NarraScope 2026
Expect prompts, laughter, a few tears (possibly Richard’s, definitely ours), and the kind of room that reminds you why you got into this field in the first place.
About Richard Dansky
For those who need an introduction, or a refresher, here is a look at just some of what Richard has done for our craft and our community:
Richard Dansky entered the video game industry in 1999 with Red Storm Entertainment, and stayed on board when it was purchased by Ubisoft in 2000. He has since worked for Crytek and Romero Games, and is currently the principal at Dansky Narrative Services. He has worked on over 70 video games. Roles have included Designer, Lead Designer, Writer, Lead Writer, Narrative Director, and Design Department Manager, among others. His longest role was as Central Clancy Writer for Ubisoft until his departure at the end of 2022.
Franchises he has worked on include Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, The Division, The Crew, Might and Magic, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Blazing Angels, Hunt: Showdown, and many others.
He is the author of The Video Game Writer’s Guide to Surviving an Industry That Hates You, and has contributed to several other books on video game writing. He has spoken extensively at conferences around the world, including in Brazil, Sweden, Canada, Germany, France, and more.
Richard served on the Advisory Board for the Game Narrative Summit and its predecessor conferences from 2007 to 2025. He oversaw and judged the Student Narrative Competition at GDC from 2007 to 2026. He curated narrative content for the East Coast Game Conference. And he ran the Game Narrative Round Tables at GDC for close to 20 years.
He was one of the founders of the IGDA Game Writers’ SIG. He has championed Write Club at GDC and other conferences for many years, including, yes, the present.
Prior to joining the video game industry, Richard was a noted TTRPG and LARP designer and writer, with credits on over 130 titles. He has mentored numerous students and junior game writers and narrative designers over the course of his career. His tabletop work includes Vampire: the Masquerade and its LARP spinoff, Wraith: the Oblivion, Solemn Vale, Exalted, Trinity, Vampire: the Dark Ages, and more.
He is the author of 9 published novels and 2 short story collections, most recently Ghosts of Smoke and Flame. He is also the author of Vaporware, described as one of the two most realistic novels about game development ever written. He writes on video game narrative and craft regularly on LinkedIn and on his Patreon.
He was also, briefly, the world’s leading expert on Denebian Slime Devils.
Why This Award, and Why Now
A Lifetime Achievement Award from this SIG isn’t just a plaque. It’s a way of saying, on the record, that a body of work shaped our field, and that the person behind it shaped our community as much as their credits.
Richard’s fingerprints are on the three foundational textbooks this SIG produced. They’re on the roundtables many of us attended as our first taste of professional game writing discourse. They’re on countless careers, including more than a few on this committee, because he answered an email, gave a pep talk, recommended someone for a gig, or told a young writer the hard truth that helped them grow.
It feels right that the first name on this award is his.
Join Us in Albany
Richard, thank you. For the books, the roundtables, the mentorship, the advocacy, the SIG itself, and for still showing up, year after year, for the next generation of writers who are going to carry this craft forward.
We can’t wait to hand you this award in person.
See you at NarraScope.