Narrative Design

General Experience

I've been writing creatively and semi-professionally for 8 years. From my time in the Dublin Institute of Technology for Games Design, to my job as a QA Localisation Tester for Keywords Studios, I've worked with scripts and narrative documents for indie and AAA titles, and with varying degrees of editorial control. I have also been a hobbyist Dungeons and Dragons DM for several years, which has given my much experience writing creatively with several fiction, worlds, and styles.

Specific Experience

During my time at the Dublin Institute of Technology, I was the co-founder of a weekly D&D event, which hosted 80+ people, all of whom ran and played with DMs running campaigns in parallel and within the same world space. My fellow co-founder and I tasked ourselves with maintaining narrative cohesion across these teams, in parallel with running the event itself. This was a challenge, but thankfully, we successfully ran this from 2017 to 2019.

Cade Caesura, The Rusted Knight:
‍Men died in these fields! The king has an army! If he wanted these lands,he’d send down his men, and they would fight for it! But he doesn’t care, so he lets his guards, merchants, and nobles, innocent men and women, wander into these fields! Those people die because the king doesn’t care about the men who gave their lives for this mud pit!
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‍Ryan Loklen:
‍Cade, this land is useless to the king because you won’t let them fix the soil! Look at yourself! You’re rotting away in a suit of armour because you won’t let yourself heal, just like you won’t let this land heal! It rots because of your need for vengeance!

‍<The rotting corpse knight before you is an agent of vengeance. A wraith that haunts the world, living in the shadow of a past that is trying to escape. Emotions like chains bound Cade, and he became the Rusted Knight. The land won’t heal so long as he remains here.>
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‍The Rusted Knight, Cade: This land rots because the king let his men go for nothing! This land rots because soldiers like you comply with the orders of a coward! I will not let this land go until the king himself comes down here and spills his blood across the mud.

‍<The Rusted Knight grabs his sword by the hilt tightly, rescuing it from the swallowing mud. It will not be forgotten either. Not to him. Not to the men whom he carries on his back. The king will bleed, just as they did. Cade died that day. Only the knight remains, carrying his memories in his armour. Trapped forever in the final moments of war.>‍

‍The Rusted Knight, Cade: I will carry them on my shoulders for as long as my body allows because no one else will! I will strike anyone down who dares to desecrate this place. This mud and these waters are sacred. They carry the bones of men who gave their lives for the cowardly, festering oligarch. And it is here he will be buried. If not here, where

Mission Dialogue Script — "From Blood to Rust"

LINK TO THE FULL SCRIPT

This dialogue is based on an RPG situation where the player can leverage various dialogue choices in line with their character's traits and background. It also makes use of a hypothetical "FAVOUR" system which relates to the player's favour with the character and allows for alternative dialogue choices based on the current value of "FAVOUR".

"Alcohol-Soaked Bandage"
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An old bandage soaked in rubbing alcohol. Wrapping it around a wound will stop it from festering… at least until you can get to a physician.

"Drawstring Patch"

A sanitary, polymer adhesive patch with a built-in drawstring. Placing the patch horizontally over a small open wound and firmly pulling the drawstring will close the wound behind, while keeping it free from additional infection.

"Flash and Freeze Patch"

A flexible plastic-polymer adhesive patch with an external battery and a medigel vial. Pulling the blue tab sends a brief charge to the cauterising mesh. Waiting 5 seconds and then pulling the red tab will release fast-hardening antiseptic medi gel to seal and clean the wound.

Item Description: Past, Present and Future

LINK TO THE FULL LIST

These are excerpts from a document that explores item concepts as they might appear across three distinct time periods: Past, Present, and Future. Each section presents a unified concept through these items, showing how similar concepts might evolve in form, function, and thematic relevance within a game world.

Name: House Zero
Tagline: “Born with everything. Deserving of more."
Faction Type: Performative Gang
Primary Location: Waston
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Core Concept: Once just the rebellious children of Night City’s wealthiest elite, House Zero evolved into a gang that thrives on power, indulgence, and controlled chaos. Shielded by legacy, bribes and dismissive attitudes, they imitate the chaos of the streets for thrills; a break from their usual lap of luxury. Formerly, aristocrats playing dress up; now they’re too deep in the act to stop. They don’t just play pretend anymore. They play god.

Clothing: House Zero members dress paradoxically. Their attire is a deliberate fusion of opulence and rebellion. They sport tailor-fit streetwear made from high-quality materials. Carbon fibre bomber jackets, faux leather sneakers, fur-lined hoodies. They both stand out and perfectly imitate, like a child's drawing.
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Colour Palette and Style: The gang's visual identity is anchored to their true identities. Monochrome blacks and whites, with electric blue and deep crimson. Their attire is sharp-edged, flat, and proper. The juxtaposition of polished but perilous is core to their colour palette. They sport acid wash patterns and laser-engraved edges, a style intentionally distressing to witness for those close enough to view it.
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Iconography, Logos and Graffiti Tags: House Zero's logo is a stylised zero circled by a crown that fails to align in the centre, a symbol of their rebellion against the legacies they claim to refute. The zero is a flat white with the crown glowing bright gold. The name "House Zero" itself is an ironic nod to aristocracy, positioning themselves as the approaching genesis of a new, chaotic ruling order.
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Cyberware Preference: Their cybernetic enhancements are cutting-edge tech, often custom-made, and serve more as status symbols than a practical tool. At the end of the day, they must return home and appear as they once were, rich and grateful heirs. Some members opt for easily concealable cyberware, such as monowire, subdermal

Faction Design: Cyberpunk 2077

LINK TO THE FULL Document

"House Zero" is a concept for a gang in the game Cyberpunk 2077. The document outlines the gang’s origin, beliefs, structure, and role within the world of Night City. It offers quest hooks, environmental storytelling elements, and posits thematic relevance to the player character. It showcases my ability to create immersive, lore-appropriate content that ties into pre-established lore and broader narrative themes, as well as player experience.

//The drive up through the Canes to Boakersdale was peaceful. The mountains rose and fell as the hours past by the windows of the truck. They were snow-covered monoliths of deep grey, towering above all things that could be seen. They are the very backdrop to the valleys they formed, like enormous stone frames handing down visage after visage to those who journied through them.

The baby blue sky and the endless march of deep green pine forests never disappeared from sight. Long gone were the rustic apartment blocks and towering skyscrapers. Grey replaced by green. Shadow replaced by sun.

The air was crisp and cold. It carried no wafting smells of freshly cooked bread, or stinking car exhaust, as you had grown accustomed to. It slightly stung your lungs when you stopped to stretch your legs and take a deep breath of clean air. It truly was a different air.

There was a silent ceremony to run into the mountains. It was both comforting in its unchangeable nature and yet daunting in its promise of change//
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CHOOSE ONE:-----I always loved hiking - Gain the WOODSWALKER' trait — You've always loved a good hike, probably could start a fire, and generally like being outside.
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[[SELECT->I always loved hiking]]

I never thought I'd end up living in a place like this - Gain the HOMEBIRD trait — You prefer to stay at home. You can cook, clean, repair, redecorate, maintain, manage... but leave the wild to wild.

[[SELECT->I never thought I'd end up living in a place like this]]-----
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Narrative Design Excerpt: "Obscure Our Faults"

"Obscure Our Faults" is a Twine-based narrative horror game I'm making/made. This is a small series of excerpts from the game. The excerpts demonstrate my ability to craft emotionally resonant environmental storytelling, highlighting my skills in tone control, lyrical writing, and worldbuilding through narrative framing.
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I've also included the CSS used to style and store variables relevant to the games visuals.

Narrative Design and Creative Writing

Writing stories, scripts and everything in-between

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