Narrative Direction & Design • Systems Design • UI & UX Design

At Otherside Entertainment I directed and led the design of the narrative and UI/UX for Thick As Thieves, an upcoming multiplayer “kinetic stealth” game from Otherside Entertainment. I crafted the game’s characters, narrative, and player experience, as well as being closely involved with gameplay and systems design in moment-to-moment gameplay.

narrative Direction & worldbuilding

In pre-production, I worked closely with leadership to craft the basis for the world and storytelling, and continued to serve as the primary voice of narrative on the project. Since preproduction I was in charge of building the narrative of the game, and endeavoring to create a unique and inclusive world with memorable characters for players to explore and experience, as well as architect strategies to deliver on an ambitious narrative with a small team and limited resources.

I led narrative and mission content as well as overall player experiences throughout the game. I oversaw writers and mission designers to create an engaging and immersive game world. I led voice casting efforts and directed recording sessions with our voice actors, to bring to life the personalities of both the player characters and AI.

Dynamic narrative & gameplay

I crafted stories into fully playable experiences; collaborating with art, animation, level design, AI design, combat design, and engineering to own and implement narrative moments and gameplay missions end-to-end. I worked closely with other disciplines to drive narrative and mission design within the game, to bring more player agency and create unique, handcrafted moments to excite and surprise players

I brought my experience in building dynamic narrative systems and spearheaded design and implementation of systems for replayability and player-driven content.

Systems, gameplay, and experience design

I worked to create memorable and engaging player abilities and gameplay systems that populate the game world and afford player agency. I was also responsible for player experience both in the UI/UX as well as moment-to-moment gameplay, ensuring that the gameplay feel meets a quality bar expected of immersive sims, while affording rapid “kinetic stealth” and high quality gameplay feel. I worked closely with the lead designer to create and implement exciting player abilities as well as world systems.

I oversaw work on as well as tuned player movement and 1st person camera feel, animations, and abilities.

UI/UX

I oversaw both narrative and UI systems from ideation to implementation, helping to craft a player-driven narrative experience in a multiplayer immersive-sim-like environment.

As the sole UI and UX designer on the team, I created UX wireframes and implemented UI all throughout the game, as well as dynamic animations to attract and inform players.

I also served as the bridge between disciplines to unify narrative, gameplay, UI, and level design into a cohesive experience.

Unreal development

I implemented features primarily in UE5 blueprint scripting, level scripting, UMG, and level sequences to create data-driven systems and unique narrative moments and content throughout the game. I also worked alongside art and engineering to help design or refactor core game systems such as abilities, AI behaviors, and gameplay verbs. I love building beautiful and streamlined solutions to complex problems, and creating systems that are scalable and flexible.