At GDC 2025, Tom Francis, director of Tactical Breach Wizards and founder of Suspicious Developments, took the stage to talk about storytelling and comedy in games. Among his many insights, one surprisingly practical takeaway stood out: animate text word by word—not letter by letter.
Francis, whose previous work includes Gunpoint and Heat Signature, argued that this small shift in how dialogue is presented dramatically improved the feel of Tactical Breach Wizards. And judging by the audience’s reaction (and the game’s strong showing at the IGF Awards), it’s a change worth taking seriously.
Word-based animation brings rhythm to dialogue
In earlier games, Francis followed the conventional approach: animating text letter by letter. But while working on Tactical Breach Wizards, he decided to experiment with word-by-word animation instead. The result? Dialogue that lands with clarity, rhythm, and punch.
“Letter-by-letter animation feels smooth,” Francis explained during his talk, “but that’s kind of the problem. It lacks rhythm. Word-based delivery has more texture—it changes speed depending on sentence structure, and that makes it feel more alive.”
The team paired this with typewriter sound effects, adding an extra layer of tactile feedback. Players who prefer to speed through can still tap to skip ahead instantly, preserving accessibility and user control.
Why more developers should care about text animation
While AAA games often rely on voice acting and cinematic cutscenes to deliver dialogue, most indie and mid-tier developers still depend on written text to convey story, tone, and character. But when text is delivered without attention to pacing or visual style, even great writing can fall flat.
Francis noted that most indie games still animate dialogue letter-by-letter by default, missing an opportunity to enhance narrative flow. That technique works when used intentionally—Animal Crossing, for example, pairs letter-by-letter text with character-specific vocalizations. But in many cases, it’s more about convenience than impact.
“There’s so much more potential in making text feel like a performance,” Francis said. “And animating entire words at once creates better timing, especially in comedy.”
Text should feel like gameplay
Interactive dialogue isn’t just a placeholder between cutscenes—it’s part of the gameplay loop, especially in story-driven titles. As a player, pressing a button to advance dialogue is often the first meaningful interaction you have with a game. If the text is sluggish, dry, or poorly timed, you risk losing engagement before anything even happens.
Francis isn’t the only developer thinking this way. In past interviews, Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz explained that the game’s entire text system was built to feel like Twitter meets instant messaging, with short, punchy lines and constant feedback to keep players hooked.
“You have to do everything you can with the meaning of the text to make it as punchy as possible,” Kurvitz said.
Timing is everything, especially in comedy
Francis stressed that word-by-word text animation isn’t just cosmetic—it’s a narrative tool. It gives developers control over delivery and pacing, and it’s especially useful for games that rely on humor or dramatic timing.
Classic Game Boy Advance titles like Golden Sun and Fire Emblem already understood this. Their memorable text delivery—often paired with expressive portraits and sound cues—helped define character personality long before voice acting was an option.
Modern indie games can take the same lesson forward.
