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Systems-driven Storytelling

Building reactive, state-based dialogue and world-building frameworks.

Note on Confidentiality: Due to the proprietary nature of these projects and active NDAs, the following entries are high-level summaries and architectural overviews in lieu of the original design documents.

Galahad 3093

Story, character and weapon design for a third-person mech shooter. I also worked on game economies and developed a novel "character bidding" system to balance character selection — this gave popular characters a higher cost, enabling players to try out every character over time.

Pirates of the Caribbean:
Armada of the Damned

Narrative design and dialogue for a 3rd-person RPG based on the Pirates of the Caribbean IP. Over 300 pages — quest chains, spine/side quests, NPCs, locations, flow charts and branching dialogue logic.

FreeMarket

“We are a society of functionally immortal, cybernetically modified, telepathic infovores. You are now one of us. Welcome!” — game text

A transhuman science-fiction roleplaying game set aboard a space station near the planet Saturn. Character “classes” were based on four generations of settlers: the children of the original colonists, their children, immigrants from Earth, Mars or other space habitats and “blanks,” people created cell-by-cell on 3D matter printers. I co-wrote the game with Luke Crane and wrote all the in-game fiction.

Click on an image to read that character’s story…

Ellroy, a First Generation member of the Operators, a noir-themed group of private investigators.

Betty, a 2nd gen jammer and founding member of thje “Moon Patrol” roller derby term.

Qais, a matter-printed human (“blank”) with custom-tailored genetics and a very particular set of skills.

Khenbish, a culture-shocked immigrant from Mars who’s just arrived on FreeMarket Station.

The Lord of the Rings Online:
Shadows of Angmar

Quest design, dialogue and scripted/AI interactions. One of my favorites was the “Pie-Eating Contest.”

Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach

Working on the city of Stormreach, its dungeons and wilderness areas and its various quests, creating dozens of NPCs and monsters, and scripting interactions and dialogue.

Litany of the Dead
Video Trailer

I created the shot list and wrote the video trailer for Litany of the Dead, a mega-dungeon involving a necropolis, the Undead and a trio of vampire monks. I also worked hand-in-hand with the level designer on the quests, characters and dialogues.

Quest Design and Scripting

I also designed the look and feel of DDO's loading screens and dungeon maps, wrote copy for the load screens and created the names and descriptions for over 100 items, artifacts and weapons.

Here are some examples:

Home Sweet Sewer

The kobolds of Stormreach were displaced from their ancestral homes by mysterious forces. Some tribes chose to strike out against the other races. Others prefer to live in peace and quiet.

A dungeon where the goal is to lead a pack of mangy guard dogs back to the entrance without harming any of them.

Arachnophobia

Spiders and other predatory vermin are a natural part of Xen'drik's ecology. But try telling that to Berne Jorn!

Heavy rains drove a swarm of spiders into the crypt containing the remains of Berne Jorn's ancestors. You must clear it out so he can enter and pay his respects.

Haywire Foundry

Laws forbid the creation of new warforged. Unfortunately, Phineas Hayward was never known for his law-abiding ways.

My action-movie dungeon involving traps, puzzles, robotic servants gone mad and a "just in the nick of time" climactic explosion as the player escapes.

The Prisoner

Once a feared sorceress, Mistress Orphne is now a mere shadow of her former self...a prisoner of her own mind

One of my favorite quests. The player must travel into Orphne's memories and restore her sanity by collecting memory fragments. Whenever one is recovered, the memory is shown as a tableau.

An Offering of Blood

The ritual pilgrimage to the Vulkoor Spiral is practiced by many drow and scorrow. Its winding tunnels were supposedly formed where Vulkoor rested from the desert heat.

I created this as a "reverse dungeon" where you enter at your goal and fight an avatar of a scorpion god! Then it's a race through the dungeon back to the start where you can escape.

The Chamber of Rahmat

Raiyum kept an entourage of healers and herbalists by his side throughout his reign. Even in death, Rahmat the Physician cannot escape the will of his king.

One of two quests leading up to the Tomb of the Wizard King.

The Chamber of Kourush

Kourush the Astrologer was Raiyum's chief advisor. When the Wizard-King passed on, Kourush was entombed to serve him in the afterlife.

One of two quests leading up to the Tomb of the Wizard King.

The Chamber of Raiyum

King Raiyum once commanded a legion of soldiers from across the planes. His kingdom is buried beneath the sands, but Raiyum himself rests not so peacefully.

This was an enormous dungeon full of random traps and encounters. My favorite part were the hieroglyphics you could decipher if your intelligence stat was high enough.

Purge the Fallen Shrine

Long ago, say the legends, a hero dared to oppose the cruel reign of King Raiyum. His remains are turned to dust, his crypt defiled, his true deeds forgotten.

I loved this quest—a tale of vengeance and redemption. You must cleanse the tomb to restore a family's honor. Defeating the wraith at the end causes him to resume human form and he thanks you for freeing him from his curse.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Baudry Cartamon has searched high and low for his nemesis Hazadill, but the bugbear smuggler remains elusive....

This quest takes the player on a trip through memory lane, starting in one of the low-level dungeons. A secret door is revealed and soon they're roaming through places and sewers previously visited in earlier quests. Radek and Froz are references to a friend of mine.

Bring Me the Head of Ghola-Fan!

Under the leadership of powerful creatures like the Ogre Magi, the savage ogres of the Restless Isles represent a dire threat to the peaceful peoples of Xen'drik.

Inspired by Apocalypse Now, this quest has the player "sailing up river" to a compound run by a fearsome ogre magi. Favorite part: the Enter the Dragon-style scene of ogres training for battle.

Slavers of the Shrieking Mines

The Shrieking Mines are named for the winds that howl through its narrow tunnels, sounding like the cries of some tormented soul.

Storm the Shrieking Mines and set the wildman miners free! You have to kill their overseers first or else they'll be compelled to attack you. Kill too many and you fail the quest.