I write and design interactive stories, including branching quests, dialogue and character arcs. My work involves planning how a story changes in response to a player’s decisions and keeping those changes consistent throughout the project.
Writing the Earthborn Saga has given me experience tracking characters and events across a long series. I use a similar approach in interactive projects, with notes on faction relationships, previous decisions and what each character knows.
The examples below include a playable prototype, a quest design document and a case study on the Earthborn Saga.
Core strengths
- Planning character arcs across long stories
- Writing branching quests and dialogue
- Developing character voices and motivations
- Tracking faction relationships and continuity
- Revising pacing in interactive fiction and novels
- Playable prototypes in Twine or Ink
- Writing design documents and flow diagrams
- Testing whether story branches remain clear as they expand
Selected work
Interactive narrative demo
A playable scene in which the player’s decisions change the available routes and outcomes. The prototype shows the state changes behind those decisions.
Built in Twine.
Quest design document
The design document for Choosing a Side sets out the quest objectives, branches and consequences. The accompanying diagram shows how the routes connect and what makes each one available.
Available as a PDF document and an SVG flow diagram.
Long-arc story systems
A case study on how the Earthborn Saga handles growing character abilities, changing factions and continuity across multiple books.
Examples from the Earthborn Saga.
How I approach narrative design
I begin by working out what the characters want and what they know. From there, I map the decisions available to the player and the changes each decision causes in the world.
I use prototypes to test those routes early. Playing through a scene helps me find unclear choices, missing reactions and branches that need more work before the dialogue is finished.
Where I add the most value
- Projects with several story branches or many decisions to track
- Long stories with recurring characters and events that affect later chapters
Tools and workflow
I use Twine to build playable prototypes and flow diagrams to map story branches. Design documents record the decisions behind them. I revise the work as I test it, checking that the dialogue and available choices still make sense along each route.
Interested in working together
I’m open to narrative design roles and contract work. Use the contact page to tell me about your project or ask for more information about the examples here.