Skills & Expertise

Narrative Design | Quest Implementation | Game Design | Level Design

Narrative Design

Branching quests and reactive narrative across engines: Fallout: Cascadia (Creation Kit/Papyrus), Equestria at War & Old World Blues (events/grand strategy), The Old World (Warhammer). Player agency and choice-driven outcomes in every project.

For dialogue, barks, cinematics, quest outlines, codex, and the full range of formats, see Writing Samples. Each piece is framed with why I'm including it and what it demonstrates.

Narrative Design Portfolio

Mods & Community

  • Fallout: Cascadia: Branching quests, faction outcomes, reactive dialogue, Papyrus encounter scripts.
  • Beyond Skyrim (Elsweyr): Quest and narrative content for Khajiit expansion.
  • Arcane University: Creation Kit community; advanced scripting and quest implementation.
  • Equestria at War: Nation paths, character arcs, event text (Hearts of Iron IV).
  • Old World Blues: Branching nation paths and character dialogue (Fallout grand strategy).
  • The Old World: Character bios, lore, quest dialogue (Warhammer Fantasy / Mount & Blade II).

Original Games

  • Schism: Narrative designer: characters, act structure, branching dialogue and faction arcs in Articy Draft (flow, variables, conditionals).
  • Kanpeki: Contract narrative designer: character arcs, dialogue, structure for psychological horror.
  • Winter's Hunger: Wendigo mythos via environmental storytelling, journals, ambient narrative.
  • Interactive Fiction: Branching narratives in Twine and visual novel; choice-driven consequences.

Approach

Conflict first; then reactivity. The world notices choices, stats, and allegiances. I match tone to the world (Fallout’s bleak/absurd/sincere, grand strategy intrigue, horror tension) and structure consequences so they land. Tools vary; narrative and gameplay stay aligned.

Creation Kit Usage

Creation Kit for reactive quest design and implementation in Fallout and Skyrim. Narrative and scripting in one pipeline.

Fallout: Cascadia

  • Quest Structure: Designed multi-stage quests with conditional branching in the Quest Editor, utilizing GetStage, SetObjectiveCompleted(), and global variables to handle faction-based outcomes.
  • Dialogue Implementation: Used Topic Info entries with AV checks (e.g., GetAV("Perception")) to surface stat-based dialogue options and control reactivity.
  • Scripting: Authored Papyrus scripts like ABH_JohnnyEncounterScript.psc to drive complex encounter logic such as fake deaths, AI behavior changes, and reputation shifts. Scripts were attached via object references and managed through property assignment.
  • AI Packages & Triggers: Created travel, follow, and flee packages tied to quest stages. Used XMarkerHeading and TriggerBox objects to coordinate in-world cutscenes and scripted events.

Skyrim: The Mind Unbound

  • Quest: Lore-heavy quest (Julianos priest, College vs. Temple); Elder Scrolls metaphysics, moral ambiguity.
  • Dialogue: Multi-path trees, dynamic variables for NPC reactivity (e.g. Freir, Cendelius).
  • Scenes: Timed dialogue, conditional stages via StartScene / StopScene in stage fragments.
  • Environment: Trigger volumes, notes/books for environmental narrative.

Game & Systems Design

Prototyping and system design across engines: Unity (e.g. Realm Ball in one week), game jams (Gelatoss! multiplayer), and mods (Cascadia, Equestria at War): faction systems, nation progression, narrative-mechanics integration.

Level Design & Environment Art

Level design across Hammer (Source), Creation Kit (Fallout/Skyrim), and Unity. Player flow, environmental storytelling, spatial composition.

  • Hammer: Layouts, flow, gameplay spaces for Source mods.
  • Creation Kit: Level layout, object placement, trigger volumes for quest and narrative flow.
  • Unity: Terrain, layout, props and buildings from scratch.

3D Art & Technical Skills

3D pipeline for prototyping and level design: modeling to engine. Supports collaboration with artists and understanding of environment constraints.

Modeling & Assets

  • Modeling: High- and low-poly environment assets, props, architecture (3DS Max, Blender).
  • UV & Texturing: UV layouts, PBR materials, game-ready assets.
  • Pipeline: Import, organization, optimization in Unity.

Unity

  • Terrain: Sculpting, texture blending, detail placement.
  • Shaders: Shader Graph (e.g. leaf/vegetation).
  • Lighting & Post: Dynamic lighting, post-processing.
  • Performance: Profiling, LODs, batching.