Narrative Design: Gameplay Samples
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
ZERETH MORTIS
Zereth Mortis is the result of great communication and risk-taking between the narrative, quest, encounter, and sound design departments. For the opening questline, we constructed a visual and auditory language that paid off in large scale for the final raid.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
SEPULCHER OF THE FIRST ONES
WoW boss dialogue telegraphs phases and attacks, but some of the Sepulcher bosses only spoke the musical Zereth Mortis constructed language.
With clear narrative guidance, the sound and encounters teams created a rhythmic, visceral experience for players.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
TAZAVESH
Tazavesh is a Broker city. My narrative design document drew inspiration from Moroccan souks and detailed several Broker families.
Designers pulled inspiration from this document to create immersive characters and encounters. The audio team created ambient sound tech to make Tazavesh feel like a real city. The result is one of WoW’s most thrilling, cohesive, and fun megadungeons.
SAINTS ROW
NEENAH’S CAR
Neenah’s the only lady Saint in the reboot. She had to kick ass.
Her revenge mission starts with an emotional gut punch and ends with a fun-as-hell slap to the face. In between, I worked with the mission designer to incorporate high-skill driving (and piloting), combat, timed objectives, huge explosions, and even a hilarious sequence using the game’s complex car modification UI to torture info out of an enemy.
Cutscene Samples
saints row (2022)
the idols kidnap kevin
In the hierarchy of game narrative conveyance, dialogue comes last. For Kevin’s cutscene, the cinematics team and I used classic horror cinematography rather than words to create tension.
world of warcraft
tyrande and malfurion
Tyrande’s been through literal hell to save her people, and she never shows weakness. But when her love, Malfurion, must leave her alone to fight once again, she breaks down at last.
Cutscene Script Samples
HACKED
SAINTS ROW sample script
“This shit again? I don’t eat no ham and eggs. Damn bots tryna kill me with this cholesterol.”
BUGS
HORIZON ZERO DAWN sample script
We dive, graceful and swift, through the treetops. The humming intensifies as we level out and speed over the blade-sharp tips of the grass. Descending closer to the ground, we hear a buzzing and snapping sound that crescendos; the tripwire comes into sight a split second before we rise up again, just in time to avoid electrocution...
A HUNT WITHIN A DREAM
WARCRAFT sample script
“It was before the Second War. You joined my father in a hunt - you, and your sisters, and your brother. The elves were the prettiest people I’d ever seen. You especially. I had my own little bow, but Father would not allow me to join the hunt. I was angry…”
Writing Samples
No Use Resisting!
Vainglory Lore
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy
“Resistance is useless, Princess. I have come to…”
“Kidnap me, yes. For the bounty.” The princess stood, smoothed her dress and kicked over the curule chair. “It took you long enough.”
Dave
Unpublished Short Story Excerpt
Dialogue Heavy
Genre: Contemporary
"If you go to Huntington, take Dave to the shelter there," Cate pleaded, but she may as well have been speaking from another dimension. Some dead ghost, giving the living a shiver. They paused, looking at or through her, one of them with his finger wiggling in his ear, another blinking up momentarily from his iPhone.
The Under-Bridge
Unpublished Action Scene
Genre: Cyberpunk
For a year, Hibiki ate plain ramen out of the sink so he could put money away for good armor. Most Conveyors work nights only in the beginning; Day Conveyors get bicycles and little ringy bells and high tips. Day Conveyors have to die to make space, which happens in the fast port traffic of Black Bay with regularity. But Hibiki chose to be a Night Conveyor even after he built up his rep and day spots opened up…
Tony’s Rise
Vainglory Lore
Genre: Fantasy
Branching Narrative
Promomotional Material
The hike takes all day, so you take a rest at the Sanctuary. Over the edge, you can see the Storm Queen’s palace and capital city. You hock up a loogie, spit it out, and watch it fall.
Well, time to get to work. There are three paths stretching away from the Sanctuary…
The Walker Archives
Vainglory Lore
Genre: Fantasy
Constructed Language
Multimedia Promotional Materials
I must make these notes before I submerge again, for I forget more and more the language of my birth; I hear the Churn whispering in and out of the Calm now. The whisper is my only companion, or perhaps ikri ust beu idam; in either instance there is only one living world for me now. For I am the Churn, and the Churn is mine, and I will not stop my work, never. Ikri idat, e voda vl’ebbut.
All secrets are worth knowing,
Martim Walker
REUNION
SAINTS ROW sample script
The Boss points at a door and it opens. JULIUS LITTLE enters, looking how he did a decade ago, when Val saw him last…