UNSPOOLED (WIP)

SOLE DEVELOPER

PLATFORM: Unity - PC

After finding a mysterious cassette player, two teenage girls in a small Michigan town discover an alternate world that lets them finally be themselves— but a sinister entity lies in wait, ready to use them as a way to break out into the real world.

A greybox playground to test player movement, level design, and controls.

DESIGN INTENT: A space to map out distance thresholds for jumps and text-based narrative prompts.

    • A horror-themed action platformer inspired by Alice: Madness Returns, I Saw the TV Glow, and modern liminal horror.

    • Currently in development

    • Created greybox playground and tutorial levels to test player flow, movement mechanics, and story progression

    • Developed a rudimentary player controller including ledge detection, climbing, short hops, and third person aiming

    • Writing entire game narrative in 3 act structure, from when the protagonists find the cassette player to when the entity breaks out in the final encounter.

    • Created several moodboards to capture specific visual ideas, level design ideas, and draw stylistic inspiration

Moodboard for Buckthorn, the girls' hometown. The visuals carry an emphasis on loneliness, isolation, and cool tones to build an oppressive yet grounded atmosphere.

Moodboard for Buckthorn, the girls' hometown. The visuals carry an emphasis on loneliness, isolation, and cool tones to build an oppressive yet grounded atmosphere.

A section of the moodboard for the Cassette World, a surreal, twisted vision of Buckthorn. Colors are more vibrant, visuals are more explicitly surreal, and intense color choices create a familiar but disconcerting atmosphere.

A section of the moodboard for the Cassette World, a surreal, twisted vision of Buckthorn. Colors are more vibrant, visuals are more explicitly surreal, and intense color choices create a familiar but disconcerting atmosphere.

A section of the moodboard for Charlie Seeming, the player character. Inspired by 90s horror icons like Buffy the Vampire Slayer alongside alongside cheery skate-punk style.

A section of the moodboard for Charlie Seeming, the player character. Inspired by 90s horror icons like Buffy the Vampire Slayer alongside alongside cheery skate-punk style.

A section of the moodboard for monsters seen in the Cassette World. Designs focus on defamiliarization, corruption of the human form, and static disturbance physically affecting living beings when the tape in the cassette player distorts or skips.

A section of the moodboard for monsters seen in the Cassette World. Designs focus on defamiliarization, corruption of the human form, and static disturbance physically affecting living beings when the tape in the cassette player distorts or skips.

EGREGORE (2024)

LEAD NARRATIVE DESIGNER

PLATFORM: Unreal Engine - PC

Using an ability to shift reality based on connecting information together, you find yourself pulled into an occult conspiracy in Cairo surrounding the summoning of a mysterious being called an “Egregore.”

    • USC Games MFA Thesis/Advanced Games Project

    • A classic-style adventure game where information can be linked via node-based graphs to manipulate conversations, objects, and locations

    • Outlined and finalized the narrative for all 3 major levels of the game

      • Tutorial: A Cardboard Box where players are called to Cairo

      • Cafe Ramses: A Historical Cafe/Restaurant where players can change large portions of the location to collect information to make progress

      • Sanctum: A surreal shopping-mall-turned-cult-hideout where the rules established are taken away and players are forced to adapt to the rules of the cult

    • Established unique dialogue for 50+ node combinatorics available at any time to players

      • A standard example: Asking characters about each other for extra flavor

      • An edgecase “reward” example: Moving a bookshelf to the most magical part of the bar and having it spring to life to give extra hints or flavor to players

    • Implemented and iterated on quest design logic using Unreal Blueprints.

    • Crafted 3 primary branching questlines in a node-based narrative scripting tool.

    • Generated documentation for the entire team, including style guides, story beats, narrative outlines, and character sheet

      • I reminded teammates that we were focusing on culture and history and kept reference books in our workspace

      • Writers were instructed to run towards weird/surreal moments instead of shying away from embracing unconventional ideas

    • Update narrative in-game weekly based on team and playtest feedback

    • Conduct weekly narrative meetings alongside other Narrative Designers and the Director

    • Attend VO Sessions to assist VO Director and give additional narrative context to dialogue

GAME DEVS OF COLOR 2024 OFFICIAL SELECTION

ON STEAM HERE!
An example of Graph Combo documentation. Green is in-engine, Orange is under review, Purple means it requires editing/rewriting, and Red is still being drafted.

An example of Graph Combo documentation. Green is in-engine, Orange is under review, Purple means it requires editing/rewriting, and Red is still being drafted.

The Not Yet graph for the first interaction with the character Al-Bawab. Each line between nodes represents both a dialogue option and the state machine's condition required for that option to become available.

The Not Yet graph for the first interaction with the character Al-Bawab. Each line between nodes represents both a dialogue option and the state machine's condition required for that option to become available.

The top option, which allows entrance into Cafe Ramses, is only made available by connecting "Al-Bawab" and "Magic Door" in the player's mind map.

The top option, which allows entrance into Cafe Ramses, is only made available by connecting "Al-Bawab" and "Magic Door" in the player's mind map.

TRY AGAIN (2023)

LEAD NARRATIVE DESIGNER

PLATFORM: Unity- PC

Help a temp asset escape an unfinished game while avoiding the clutches of the game’s designer.

    • An action platformer developed for the USC Games Advanced Game Project.

    • A dark satire of the “plight of the solo dev,” players uncover the story of a game designer struggling with masterpiece syndrome

    • I wrote, edited, and finalized all scripted dialogue in screenplay format

    • I created over 50 lines of barks that could be played in between scripted dialogue

    • Outside of what was seen in-game, I created casting sheets, character backstory, and additional documentation as was required by production

    • I attended VO sessions, giving feedback and direction to our voice actors during sessions

    • In-engine, I worked to add subtitles that matched the pace of VO as each line played during gameplay

    • Led narrative team of 3 in finalizing general narrative of game, including cutscenes and scripted gameplay lines

    • Conducted weekly team meetings alongside director and producers

    • Assigned tasks for all sprints and answered questions from teammates regarding narrative

    • Communicated game/level design and audio teams to ensure each discipline was aware of any and all narrative updates

    • Tested the build with project leads, ensuring 90+ lines of dialogue in 15-minute experience were properly paced with gameplay

IGF 2024 “Best Student Game” Finalist

ON STEAM HERE!

TRY AGAIN FINAL BARK SHEET

The finalized barks from TRY AGAIN’s production. To make the game feel more kinetic and lived in, we worked with the design team to keep track of several variables as indicated in the Action tab.

The complete screenplay written for TRY AGAIN.

  • Early Narrative Meeting Notes

  • Revision of Game's Core Themes

  • Revisiting Builds for Timing/Rewrites

  • VO Casting Sheet for Benny

  • VO Casting Sheet for The Designer

CURTAIN CALL (2022)

NARRATIVE DESIGNER

PLATFORMS: Unity - PC/Mac

Help three college students survive young adult life in a visual novel inspired by Jungian psychology and real-life experiences.

    • Billie’s final date

    • Jodie’s 3rd date

    • Billie’s TTRPG Conversation

    • Jodie’s Music Conversation

    • Jodie’s Breakup Conversation

    • I drafted and implemented 2 long-form “Date” and 3 short-form “Conversation” scenarios for players

      • Dates last 10-20 Minutes with several branches that reward subsequent playthroughs

      • Conversations last maximum 5 minutes and exist to deepen player’s relationship with the cast outside of a date scenario

    • My dates frequently had upwards of 40 different branching character responses per scenario

      • My paradigm was all about agency and excitement, so choices could completely reshape the outcome of a date

      • An example shown above is in Jodie’s date, where players could choose where to explore in the aquarium which alters the topic of conversation. This invites even more branches for player expression and exploration

    1. Start by deciding on a character + location

    2. Simple outline in a word processor emphasizing character moments + narrative beats

    3. Rough draft in Yarn Spinner

    4. Iterated based on feedback from teammates and playtests

    5. Final Draft Implemented in Unity

    Our goals while designing each scenario were to make the characters feel real and have players feel like their choices have value beyond just numeric outputs.

NEW MEDIA WRITING PRIZE 2022 SHORTLIST

MELBOURNE QUEER GAMES FESTIVAL 2022 SHORTLIST

ON STEAM HERE!
Rough draft for Jodie's 3rd date. As a basic outline, it just showcases each major option throughout the sequence before drafting in Yarn Spinner for more extended content generation.

Rough draft for Jodie's 3rd date. As a basic outline, it just showcases each major option throughout the sequence before drafting in Yarn Spinner for more extended content generation.

Yarn Spinner excerpt from Billie's final date. Everything in pink is Markup text that controls game functions during runtime or switches to the next node. Everything in black is text that is presented to the player by making choices during gameplay.

Yarn Spinner excerpt from Billie's final date. Everything in pink is Markup text that controls game functions during runtime or switches to the next node. Everything in black is text that is presented to the player by making choices during gameplay.

Both of these dialogue choices link to either more dialogue or a new node in Yarn Spinner.

Both of these dialogue choices link to either more dialogue or a new node in Yarn Spinner.