Role: Narrative Designer

In 2022 I joined Chimera Entertainment to work on Shadow & Bone: Destinies, a game they were developing for Netflix. Having worked with TV to mobile IP before, I was confident in my ability to capture the tone and style of the brand and excited to see how I could help to create a narrative that allowed players to delve deeper into the Grishaverse.

I collaborated closely with design to define the narrative scope and identify potential opportunities for impactful storytelling. With a general idea in mind for the narrative of the game, I created a story bible, character outlines, and pitched story arcs to Netflix for approval as well as establishing a feedback loop. I also established a clear line of communication with art, setting up and completing asset tables with references and descriptions. The experience required flexible thinking, pragmatic solutions and initiative. I learned to work with GEM, Articy, Inkle and DSU and created four chapters worth of content for the game along with outlines and potential story arcs for other characters.

Role: Senior Writer

I joined June’s Journey in 2020 and was proud to be on the team that made the world’s number one hidden object game. What made the game stand out against competitors was its narrative and the close collaboration between teams to ensure the story and gameplay worked together in harmony.

As senior writer, my aim was to keep the story and characters engaging while staying on brand. During my time on the team, I helped to develop storylines that were moving, humourous and intriguing. I developed fun and relatable characters that we all grew to love, and got to show off my comedy writing skills.

My role required me to work closely with team leads and run the regular writers rooms. There the aim was to foster a collaborative environment and offer guidance and feedback. I also got to bring characters and stories to life during table reads and story time presentations. Regular collaboration across teams helped me to ensure the release of quality content and address any issues that arose.

After two years, I had helped to create three volumes of content, expand the core cast, and developed diverse and memorable characters . I also got to script a social media campaign, develop competitions and features such as Sweep the Board and Story Event.

Role: Senior Writer, Lead Narrative Designer

Love Island The Game is an interactive fiction version of the popular TV show, providing players with the opportunity to experience life in the Villa and ‘crack on’ with potential love interests. I joined the Love Island team as a Senior Writer on season 2 and was promoted to Lead Writer on Season 3.

In my role as writer I would create a branching narrative script based on the outline I had been provided. The aim was to match the tone of the characters, provide engaging choices and promote premium choice content. As well as creating, fun and sexy content I had to ensure there was continuity between scripts which required careful reading and feedback on parallel scripts. Content also had to be turned around quickly to meet the weekly release cadence and address feedback from ITV.

As a Lead my focus turned more to running writing rooms, setting up documentation and improving processes between the disciplines in order to improve our pipeline. I liaised with proofreaders, editors and ITV on content and feedback. I also provided support and mentorship for junior writers and colleagues interested in narrative design.

Role: Freelance Writer, Senior Narrative Designer, Lead Writer

My first narrative design job was as a freelancer for Fusebox Games. They were working with ITV and a comedy writer to turn the popular TV show X Factor into a mobile game.

The process was much like that of a TV writers room: we beat out the plot for two seasons content spanning the entirety of the competition, created outlines for each script and then set about the task of creating content. The project was a great learning experience; I worked closely with the lead narrative designers to learn how to branch story and set up boolean and string choices and what these would then look like in the game. As we were a small team, it was a very hands on experience. I took the lead on creating documentation, addressing issues with loops, complex branching and missing content. I quickly built strong relationships with art and design, adapting briefs and tables to improve our processes. I also worked closely with marketing, attending some of the live shows and creating copy and content for social media (see marketing).

My work and initiative on the project led to a full-time job offer as a Senior Writer with Fusebox Games.

Role: Script Editor

When I was hired as a full-time Senior Writer at Fusebox Games, my new project was Baywatch, another TV to mobile game planned for release in 2018. I was asked to proof, edit and polish the narrative design of the game for release.

My focus was to identify opportunities to further gamify the script, and give players a sense of agency and consequence when it came to the choices they were making. The process included adding branching choices to the game, modular content and editing choices to ensure a more immersive experience. In addition to editing the script, I updated documentation; redefining character arcs, updating chapter summaries and choice tables so that the writing team would be able to begin work on season two of the game.

Role: Writer

In 2019, I was approached by Arcademic who had been following my blog posts and thought I would be a good fit for a game concept called Parallel Lives. The idea was to put together an all female dev team to create a game that focused on the lives of real women. The idea for the game was inspired by Plutarch’s book of the same name, but rather than focusing on men, the game would be inspired by the lives of everyday women and their personal stories. Arcademic had carried out interviews of women from different backgrounds and wanted to gamify their stories which was where I came in.

The stories they had gathered were diverse and unique and my challenge was to find a way to bring all these unique characters together in an engaging narrative. The final concept was a sci-fi narrative choices game based around a futuristic matriarchal society. Using the interviews, I created character bios and a multi- character concept for the game. I worked closely with Arcademic to ensure that the story and its design fit with the vision they had for the game. I then created the first chapter of the game, an 8000 word choice based narrative script.