Team Projects
Star Trucker - April 2023 - December 2023 - Lead Writer
“Star Trucker” is a truck simulator in space! Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?! I worked with the great folks over at Monster and Monster as the lead writer on this project. I can’t talk too much about it since it isn’t out yet, but I designed characters, an overarching narrative, and wrote dialogue for an ensemble cast of truckers that take place entirely over CB radio. The story and characters have a Western feel to them, but we still maintain a fairly grounded tone despite being, well, out in space. There are also small dialogue branches for player input with the radio mechanic.
“Star Trucker” put out a demo as part of Steam Next Fest, and folks at PC Gamer, TheGamer, Eurogamer, and Rock Paper Shotgun seemed to like it!
gridhack - sole writer
“GRIDHACK” is a sci-fi action puzzle game revolving around solving nonograms (randomly generated picross puzzles)! I helped refine the cast of established characters and wrote scenes for GRIDHACK’s vertical slice as the developer looks for full funding. ARA (Advanced Repair Android) the robot wakes up on a new spaceship just as its main systems are hacked by a rogue AI, and the player must solve nonograms to save the ship and its crew. I might be a little biased, but I think someday it’ll be a huge hit! You can check out GRIDHACK here!
Endoparasitic - October 2022 - Sole Writer
“Endoparasitic” is an indie horror game about a man who has three out of his four limbs ripped off and is infected with a parasite he has to keep from reaching his brain. It’s a project I was really excited to write for! Besides having a few parameters of a shared universe with the dev’s other projects, I had free reins over the plotline and characters. I wrote all in-game text, dialogue, and cutscenes in addition to the overarching plot. While it was very much gameplay first and narrative second, I enjoyed working to support the interesting gameplay with (hopefully) an equally interesting narrative.
Markiplier played “Endoparasitic” in full for his YouTube channel, and I’m so happy he enjoyed it!
Waves of Steel - February 2021 - December 2022 - Sole Writer
“Waves of Steel” is an alternate history natal combat simulator. I was brought on as the game entered early access to write the approximately 40 missions that comprise the story mode. Collaborating with the developer Chris Weisiger, I worked with a pre-established plot and cast of characters to create a fun and engaging narrative to go with the gameplay. We also worked with sensitivity consultants to ensure our diverse cast and topics were handled correctly. The total quest wordcount came out to around 30k! I really enjoyed working on a genre typically outside of my comfort zone and collaborating with Chris to make sure we could achieve his vision for the story.
“Waves of Steel” releases in February 2023!
OnlyCans: Thirst Date - February 2021 - Lead Writer
“OnlyCans: Thirst Date” has been described as a “sexy can photography simulator” - and that’s just what we were going for. With elements of a rhythm game as well as a dating sim, “OnlyCans: Thirst Date” is a comedy game with a short gameplay loop that involves taking pictures of soda cans in various settings.
I was brought on initially as a writer and quickly became the lead writer by taking the reigns on the underlying deep lore of OnlyCans and the Shize brand. I also wrote the majority of the “flavor profiles” included with each can, detailing the can’s personality as well as the company history they’re attached to, after brainstorming with the rest of the writers. I worked as part of a large team of programmers, artists, UI/UX experts, and voice actors. OnlyCans has been featured in PCGamer and TheGamer website and was the subject of a Game Theory video.
Romantic rainbow deligHts - march 2020 - writer & creative director
“Romantic Rainbow Delights” is an ice cream-themed dating sim developed in Unity for the #NotGDC Jam 2020. It was made in a week by our team of nine and tells the story of a new employee at Rainbow Delights, an ice cream shop with appropriately named customers. There are four love interests with three different endings for each.
I worked as the creative director on this project, as well as the writer for Rocky. It was a blast to work on even with such a small timeframe. I learned a lot about what it means to lead a team and how to communicate effectively with writers, artists, and programmers alike.
Fallout: Cascadia - Unannounced release - Writer
“Fallout: Cascadia” is a highly anticipated, complete replacement mod for Fallout 4 featuring new characters, factions, stories, and environments. Taking place in the Pacific Northwest, it aims to bring a new experience to Fallout players while still aligning with the franchise’s extensive lore.
I worked as a writer on “Fallout: Cascadia” primarily on quirky side quests. It was a great place to experience working with a gamedev team for the first time, as well as hone my snappy dialogue skills. The mod is still under development.
Solo Projects
tiny little things - December 2022
“tiny little things” is a tiny little non-fiction Twine piece I wrote in December 2022! It was an exploration in how difficult it is for me to write non-fiction, and I ended up really proud of how it turned out. It’s linear and not very technically complicated, but it was fun just to play in the space for a while! You can play it here.
The Forest of Candles (And The Man With A Lighter) - June 2022
“The Forest of Candles (And The Man With A Lighter)” follows Maggie, a young woman with a fear of forest fires sparked by an old town folk tale. She's spent years trying to escape her hometown and the fear it inspires in her, only to be called back for the funeral of an old friend. As she looks into the mysterious death, she finds all is not as it seems - not her friend's death, not the folk tale, not even her long-time boyfriend.
This is my largest Twine game to date, clocking in at around 12k words. It was definitely a passion project! It’s primarily linear but is mostly a testament to finishing what I start, despite how difficult it can be to wrangle a narrative. I started this game in September 2021 and it went through a dozen scraps/rewrites before finally coming together over six months later. It originally cost $2.99 to play, with 25% of all purchases going towards TreePeople, a local nonprofit that helps re-plant trees after wildfires. It is now free to play, and you can play the game here!
4th Time’s the charm - February 2022
“4th Time's The Charm” is a short, IF horror game about moving over and over again. You seem to have a knack for moving into haunted houses and apartments - in fact, every place you've lived in the last year was haunted. You're hoping this new apartment will be different.
“4th Time's The Charm” was commissioned for Indiepocalypse #24, which you can still buy here to support indie devs, including a neat zine that talks more about “4th Time's The Charm” and the other ten games in the collection.
Welcome Back - February 2021
“Welcome Back” is a text-based game about the space between endings and beginnings. It is a short, cathartic interactive fiction story about a train station that only services liminal spaces, and your journey to find someone important to tell them something important. This game was submitted to the Evening Games Bundle in 2021.
“Welcome Back” was a way for me to explore variables in Twine. Most of the variances in gameplay isn’t determined by branches (like most of my other Twine games) but instead by answering questions that coincide with if/then variables in the engine. Mastering this mechanic has proved immensely useful in my other Twine adventures. You can play it here!
I Knew You Would Find This - October 2020
“I Knew You Would Find This” is a short Twine game that experiments with the program’s link structure. By clicking on individual letters, the player reveals a secret message left to them by a lost lover. The secret message is left within Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass which passively adds a theme of being lost, and wanting to belong among the flowers.
I’m very proud of how this game turned out, considering it was developed in approximately a week! The idea for clicking on letters to reveal a message came from wanting to underline letters in old books before I donated them. Since Twine is built to use links for traveling from node to node as opposed to revealing, I had to do my own research on how to create my desired effect. I also learned how to import fonts for this project! You can play the game here.
I wrote a short postmortem in the form of a Twitter thread which includes links and more details of my process as well as coding screenshots. You can find that thread here!
If I’m Broken, You Are Too - June 2020
“If I’m Broken, You Are Too” was developed for the Narrascope Game Jam in June 2020. It took three days to develop and is under 1500 words in total, but it packs quite a punch! I tell the story of a horror writer waiting, knowing their fictional monster will confront them. It was a fun exercise in exploring the implications of our creativity, and how much of what we write is really part of ourselves.
Technically speaking, the way the dialogue is presented is what I’m pleased with. Instead of traditional dialogue tags or being written in a prose format, the human’s dialogue is aligned to the right, and the monster’s dialogue is aligned to the left, with the narration being aligned in the middle. Each portion is a different color to emphasize the different speakers. It’s intuitive and simple but adds to the vague horror of the game. It has two small branches, and this is where I learned that less can really be more in terms of decision-making in nonlinear narratives! You can play the game here.
jagged bone - October 2019
“Jagged Bone” is the first game I ever made. It was developed in Twine for my narrative design class I took during my time at the UCLA Extension program. It consists of two primary branches with eight unique endings. The interesting thing about this game is its narrative structure branches at the very first decision. One option brings the player to a story of a human encountering a monster in their own home, while the other option brings the player to the perspective of the monster on the hunt. It utilizes click-to-reveal links to pace the story effectively, a mechanic I’m very proud of!
“Jagged Bone” is the sole portfolio piece I had when I was awarded the IGDA Velocity Scholarship, as well as my mentorship with Greg Buchanan. In 2020, it was featured as part of Code Coven’s Indie Haunted House. I wrote a postmortem in the form of a Twitter thread for this piece as well, which includes screenshots and more technical details. You can read it here!
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