Portfolio
This is a current selection of my writing & narrative design work for games. If you're interested in talking shop, please use the contact tab above.
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Quest Design
CONTEXT: Skywind is a total rebuild of the classic fantasy RPG Morrowind, using the Creation Engine that powers its sequel, Skyrim. The video below walks through a quest I wrote and implemented in the base game, using Bethesda's proprietary scripting language Papyrus, to be implemented into the full project.
QUEST: THE BARD'S TALE
The player encounters a charming but hapless bard, Sebastien, on the streets of Riverwood. He enlists the player to help rescue his companion Deirdre, who was kidnapped by a bandit. As the player investigates, it becomes clear the kidnapping didn't happen the way Seb described it, and Deirdre is perhaps more (or less?) than just a companion...
The full quest features:
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Branching conversations leading to multiple quest paths/solutions
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Integration of speech and crafting systems to solve puzzles
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Bespoke skill checks
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New situational dialogue for existing NPCs (I recorded scratch VO for all the dialogue I wrote)
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Multiple custom greetings and goodbyes
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Custom craftable items (which are then equipped by custom NPCs to alter their behavior)
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A multi-character scene with custom scripting for teleportation, weather alteration, shaders, VFX, etc
Narrative & Mission Design
(Unannounced Immersive Sim)
CONTEXT: I did the initial narrative design for a follow-up to The Black Parade, an award-winning immersive sim, set in the universe of the stealthy Thief IP. The existing design team had already come up with a basic premise and devised 7 mission concepts, (a bathhouse, a cathedral, an inventor's workshop, etc). My brief was to:
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Design a central heist for each mission
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Connect these heists to an overarching narrative
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Flesh out a cast of NPCs & factions, and...
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Create and write a new female protagonist
At my disposal were a limited number of between-mission cinematics, a short VO briefing for each heist, and diegetic readables & NPC conversations. All of this needed to work in a modified version of the Dark Engine that powered the Thief and System Shock games.
The goal was to build on the style & tone of the original Thief games, while setting up a new narrative using the same core stealth mechanics. I collaborated remotely with a group of level designers from The Black Parade, using Docs to work through multiple treatment drafts, before settling on a structure that would serve as the campaign skeleton. In these drafts, we workshopped:
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Major story beats
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Character motivations
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Inciting incident(s)
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Mission scope (narrative and level design)
Below are my condensed design briefs for the first two missions, including the player character's opening monologue, major narrative goals, and lore & worldbuilding details for implementation. (Concept art by Alexandru Negoiță.)
Briefing voiceover - Montage of hand-drawn characters, maps, and objects. Sepia. Film noir.
VO: Mid-20s, female, any accent. A little cocky, but not obnoxious. Ready to prove herself.
(Art/production reference video link - Thief: The Dark Project)
“My name is Mara, and my story begins in Terasi, City of Cliffs. Ocean on one side, desert on the other - and a whole lot of darkness below.
I would have fallen through the cracks long ago if it weren’t for Durza. After my parents died, he found me on the streets, saw something in me - I’m still not sure what – and took me under his wing. I owe him everything. Eventually…he offered me work.
The kind of work for which, it turns out, I’ve got quite a knack.
There may be no honor among most thieves, but in Durza’s guild we keep our noses clean. Well, as clean as burglars can; we don’t truck with slavers, assassins, or witches. But if you want to sabotage a caravan or crack a safe in a cliffside villa…you hire us: the Lockshanks.
Tonight’s job is a little more personal. Vadim Bessim is a member of Terasi’s High Council, and he governs the district where I grew up, if you can call that kind of neglect “governing.” Bessim is a slumlord and no mistake. He's expecting to receive some precious cargo from The City across the sea. It’s my job to make sure he never gets his hands on it.
Come to think of it, this is the second time we’ve hit him. We were hired just last month to steal some…compromising documents from one of his townhouses. I don’t know who has it out for Bessim, but I’m more than glad to lend a helping hand.
The handoff is slated for Terasi’s most opulent bathhouse. My guildmates Serif and Raja cased the place earlier, but they’re doing recon for another job tonight, so this one’s just me. Durza will meet me after to pick up the goods. Easy money.
Terasi’s bathhouses are, really, places of commerce. The saunas and pools are just a pretext for backroom deals and exchanging contraband. Ripe, in other words, for a bit of burglary.
It’s time to begin.”
Mission 1: Bathhouse Burglary
The Player's First Heist. Narrative goals are to introduce the world and the new cast of characters, and set up the campaign's inciting incident.
Narrative Brief: Mara infiltrates the bathhouse to steal an artifact called the Star of Melphia- a carved ivory object that radiates palpable magic.Mara makes it to the inner chambers where the Star is being held when – boom! – she’s caught in a trap! Bessim used the deal as bait; he wanted to capture the thief who stole his embarrassing documents the month before, and paid some of them off in advance to betray and deliver Mara. But Durza intervenes and breaks Mara out, letting her escape with the Star. (We learn, in a later cinematic, that the betrayal happened without his knowing – he, too, was backstabbed by his own gang, who have become tired of “clean” burglary and see more profit in doing wetwork for Bessim and his ilk).
Diegetic Lore & Worldbuilding: Throughout the bathhouse, we see representatives from many factions - Hammerites, Mages, Terasi nobility, desert traders, Blackbrook arms dealers, Bohn artists (maybe some easter eggs like a character from the original Thief games). Introduce the player to the larger world via eavesdropping, hearing different dialects and POV exchanges, backroom deals, etc.
The player can overhear conversations and find readables suggesting a power struggle within Terasi’s ruling Council, as well as friction between them and the local Mage Brotherhood. We also hear an ominous description of the Hekah, as a coven of evil witches - sort of Terasi’s boogeymen.
Mission 2: Unsafe Passage
Narrative goals: Establish protagonist's agency facing new villains, propel the primary campaign quest, foreshadow later developments with supporting characters.
Narrative Brief: Fleeing the bathhouse, Durza tells Mara she needs to get out of Terasi:
“Bessim will get the whole council looking for you now. The Lockshanks are done. You need to go to ground. Take the Star back to The City – I know a fence there who can help you pawn it while you lay low. I’ll send word when it’s safe here.”
Mara makes her way to the shipyards. The only thing in Terasi better-guarded than the Vizier’s vaults are the shipping lanes and trade routes. Terasi’s wealth and power rely on its position as a commerce nexus. Nobody gets on or off any ship in that harbor without the dockside authorities knowing about it – and the Vizier’s golems make quick work of anyone who doesn’t pass the verification test. So Mara needs to break into the main shipping/census/excise office, steal a clean set of documents, and forge a new identity - securing passage on the merchant ship headed back to The City.
Diegetic Lore & Worldbuilding: More intel on the rift between the Council and the Mage Brotherhood (several members of the council, including Bessim, want to restrict the Brotherhood's freedom to study magic – guilds like The Lockshanks have convinced several council members that unregulated magic is a threat to Terasi’s dominance; the Mage Brothers obviously disagree).
Optional area previews the Hekah: somewhere near the docks, a site where a thaumaturgic ritual was recently conducted. Cordoned off by the Council, like a magic crime scene.
At some point, Mara also comments on the Star artifact - it’s warm, as though it’s alive. And she feels like it’s watching her. She can tell it’s full of strong magic and she’s looking forward to getting rid of it as soon as possible. (Foreshadow the eventual twist that it holds the soul of a dead witch...who was Bessim's lover, until he killed her...)
Screenplay Sample (Cyberpunk/Sci-fi)
Context: This is a short, self-contained scene showcasing my general facility with dialogue, characters, and my understanding of sci-fi/cyberpunk genre & tone. I am always curious about the ideas of community, connection, and loneliness. How can we give each other what we need without losing ourselves in the process? What does it mean to be human, to grieve, to love, to find grace amid the ruins?
INT. FACTORY FLOOR - DEAD OF NIGHT
A so-called “Dark Factory” - an entirely roboticized manufacturing plant, wherein windows, overhead lights, air conditioning, etc were never installed. Two overnight repairmen are taking stock. Murky yellow emergency lights glow up from the floor throughout; otherwise it’s totally black. The machines are silent, cyclopean hulks.
DYSON
These places always smell like
blood?
EMIL
It’s the machine oil. Plus the lack
of ventilation. A few months running
in a darkshop and the fabricators
start to smell kinda, well...human.
DYSON
Ugh. As if taking our jobs wasn’t
enough. That’s bleak.
EMIL
Yep. You could even say...dark.
(PAUSE)
DYSON
Fuck you.
EMIL chuckles. They walk, surveying the looming mechs with nightvision specs. DYSON holds a drone remote in one hand; the drone, a luminous blue orb, hums ahead midair.
EMIL
Sooooo what’d you do to get stuck
on the tombstone shift?
DYSON
Stuck nothing. Applied for it.
EMIL
Bullshit. Nobody applies for this.
DYSON
Guess I’m just a very special boy.
EMIL
Aw come on, man. Spill. What am I
gonna do, judge you? I’m nobody.
You’re the first non-AI I’ve spoken
to in like four days.
DYSON
(appraises EMIL)
No one would hire me. Then Prestech
loosened their background checks.
EMIL
Shit. So, what, you used to be some
kind of merc?
DYSON
You could say that.
EMIL
(a bit nervous now)
Wow. So, uh...what happened?
DYSON
You know that merc cliché? About
living as a nobody or dying a legend?
I chose life. That’s all.
The drone suddenly beeps, glows red, and zips off ahead.
DYSON
Drone’s got the anomaly.
EMIL
Oh. Good.
They follow, making their way around a corner of a vast pressing machine. DYSON maneuvers so that he’s behind EMIL.
EMIL
What the -
EMIL stops. The drone, still red, is projecting letters onto the blank side of the machine. They read: “YAKUSHIMA 47-45.”
DYSON
What does it mean to you?
EMIL
That’s...the name of lab I used
to work in. I, uh - there was an
accident. But why is your drone -
He stops. Swallows. Starts to sweat. Turns slowly. Hands up.
EMIL
I swear, I haven’t told anyone.
Please. I kept up my end of the deal.
You don’t have to do this!
DYSON says nothing; he extends a hand. EMIL flinches back, crying now. DYSON’s hand lands softly on EMIL’s shoulder.
DYSON
Before we go any further let’s be
clear: It wasn’t an ‘accident.’ At
Yakushima. Thirteen men died.
EMIL
I know, but I swear -
DYSON
One was named Frederico Saltz.
EMIL
(confused, sniffling)
...yeah. Freddie. G-good guy.
DYSON
He was. So good that I married him.
EMIL
(profoundly confused now)
Wait what? You’re...that Dyson?
DYSON
I’m that Dyson.
EMIL
Okay, look, I do not know what is
happening, but I am so sorry. The
chemicals were mislabeled -
DYSON
I know. And I’m not here to zero
you. I ripped the incident report.
Prestech iced the loose lips, but
they still needed a patsy, alive.
Just in case. Didn’t they.
EMIL
(cautiously)
They - they told me I was lucky,
that I should be grateful. I could
keep my life if I took the fall.
DYSON
So they stuck you on tombstone time,
forever. Some life.
EMIL
(fighting tears again)
I w-wasn’t even in the lab when...
The drone turns blue. DYSON drops his hand. He speaks gently.
DYSON
I know. It took me a week to arrange
this power outage, but I had to take
your measure in person.
EMIL
Why me? What it is you want?
DYSON
Accountability. I can forgive
accidents, but cover-ups need to be
exhumed. And you know where these
bodies are buried.
DYSON thumbs the drone remote. The projected YAKUSHIMA text is replaced by a list of names.
DYSON
These supervisors weren’t iced -
they just got reassigned to new labs.
Like predator priests shuffled
around dioceses.
EMIL
If you’re talking about murder -
DYSON
No. I don’t need any more ghosts.
Accountability...can take many
shapes. Freddie taught me that.
EMIL
(studying DYSON)
He’s why you chose life instead
of glory, isn't he? As a merc.
DYSON
He showed me grace when I didn’t
deserve any. And I can’t let that
go to waste.
EMIL
I am...so sorry about him. Truly.
He didn’t deserve what happened.
DYSON
Neither did you. Which is why I
hope you’ll help me.
DYSON extends his hand again, to shake. EMIL hesitates.
DYSON
Emil...merc life and corpo life -
they’re both illusions. Nihilism
disguised as glamour. They’re systems
designed to eat men like us. The
question isn’t whether you live a
nobody or die a legend - it’s how
you choose to live while you are alive.
So. What’ll it be?
EMIL extends his hand. Takes it. Shakes. Slow. But firm.