While I can't reveal any specific details about the setting, gameplay or genre on the project codenamed "Storm", I was a chief architect for creating the entire game universe. 

Working closely with the Art and Game Directors, I created cultures, geographical locations and histories for several 'factions' and defined their relationships with one another. Variation and making each one have a distinct feel was paramount. (I even had to come up with language dialects and speech patterns for the people.)

Payday 2 started out as a simple story about bank robbers, but there were several hidden layers of arcane mystery hidden underneath that might one day be revealed. 

I designed the final year of the PD2 narrative to make use of environmental clues and themes from the entire lifetime of the game, tying it all together, but allowing players to approach it in a non-linear manner. 

The 'endgame' story-line unfolded in real time over an entire year, with players in the community following every step, even 'helping it along'.

Throughout the game (and outside it, through marketing materials) story elements were layered, engaging players to speculate and search for the answers they needed to piece it all together. Parts of the endgame (examples on the left) were built around a series of coded puzzles and riddles, much like what can be found in a Role Playing Game, stretching the limits of what could be done with the creaking game engine! 

A community of hard-core followers made dozens of hours of videos on YouTube discussing the story as we went along. 

Trivia:
The handwritten parchment on the left was done by me digging up my lapsing cursive skills!

Making downloadable content such as skins, trophies and gameplay features fit into game lore can often feel like solving a jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces inverted, but with Payday I wanted everything to somehow belong.

One thing I did was to incorporate a lot of world-building into achievements, masks and trophies, because the player base was naturally inquisitive and would actively seek out hidden twists and secret bits of story for a greater understanding. 

For the each live service release of the main Payday 2 story, we did a week-long marketing event that tied directly into the narrative. Gamers could follow and pick up hints from various places in social media, including a special 'event websites' where we had bits of lore, audio clips and filmed news reports like the one on the left, which I wrote and directed. 

Trivia:
The news footage was filmed in a concrete storage room at a football field in Barcelona, at the same time as the other live action cinematics for the 'endgame' storyline. However, due to some casting issues, the actor playing the part of the newscaster didn't have time to memorize all her lines! In the clip to the left, when she looks down at the page, she's actually looking at the screenplay! But she persevered and came though. As luck would have it, the slight uncertainty when she relays the headlines works pretty well with the dramatic 'breaking news' theme. 

Another marketing tie-in I did was write the story and branching pathways for an old-style choose-your-path text adventure for Payday 2!

It's a fun challenge finding ways to make different styles fit with an IP. Some need to follow a very specific theme, where others let you 'go nuts'.

When work began on World in Conflict, the term "narrative direction" wasn't really in widespread use yet, but after Ground Control I recognized a strong need to take Massive Entertainment's next game on a narrative path that synced with the overall vision as early as possible. (The story in GC2 came fairly late in development.)

During pre-production, I developed a narrative style guide, meticulously researching the themes, 'visual look' and feel of 1980s pop culture, since the game was set during the height of the Cold War and 'VHS era'.

The narrative was ultimately recognized by the Writers Guild of America.

Ground Control 2 was the first 'proper' game I worked on and since even triple-A teams were small at the time, some of us wore many hats. After initially working on the GDD and mission design, I had to take over the story and screenplay and redo it from scratch, when the (famous) author who was originally hired didn't work out. 

I also scripted most of the in-game cinematics and directed pre-rendered ones (and their MOCAP).

Drawing on my love of SciFi from childhood helped me inject a few epic themes into the narrative. Game stories and characters were often 'cartoony' or over-the-top at the time, and GC2 is no different, even if the story itself is rather serious. (So serious, in fact, that several fans admitted to shedding tears at the ending, thus meeting Steven Spielberg's criteria for a storytelling art form!) 

The campaigns of GC2 were somewhat linear affairs, followed by the over-arcing story, but in building the individual single player missions I had to take into account unexpected actions by players and structure the narrative flow accordingly.

When I read the first "Dragonlance" novel as a child, it cemented my love of Fantasy and Role Playing Games.

Countless hours of my life have been spent playing them- as video games, pen'n'paper or on the tabletop. I've created rules systems, written settings, adventure campaigns, and drawn my fair share of maps! 

A few years ago I was tasked by Paradox Interactive to do a reboot 'bible' and reinterpret a long-established Fantasy IP, for which I sketched the map to the left, where the world has changed significantly due to a world-altering calamity. 

When working on an existing IP, I go to great lengths to be respectful and careful of that which has been come before, so as not to disappoint any existing fan base!

On occasion, I've had to edit stories and screenplays written by other writers. Impire is a hybrid RTS-RPG that relies heavily on comedy, with a writer who as not a native English speaker, so I had to help out with the script.

Trivia:
I oversaw the casting process, and wanted to have a comedian play the main character. The late, sadly departed,  John Pinette was perfect for the role, but after weeks of trying to reach him through "Hollyood casting agencies" we had almost given up. On a last chance, I created a Twitter account and sent him a direct message. To my surprise, he replied with his manager's personal phone number! A few weeks later I was reading lines against him in a studio in New York, as I directed his VO session! Moral of the story: don't be afraid to try the unexpected to solve a problem!

Using what I learned working on RTS games in my early career, I helped the developers of Ancient Space redesign their entire GUI and created mission briefings for their complex, multi-objective levels.

As always when it comes to conveying gameplay objectives, which game often feel abstract, it was important to keep as much as possible 'in universe'. 

I provided schematics, design instructions, storyboards and even animatics (including all the mission briefing dialog) so they could be built with minimal resources.

Lone Star Pilot, of which the video to the left is a crude gameplay mockup of, is an indie game I've been working on periodically for a few years, partially within the 'Electric Thief' partnership. At the core, it's an old-school space exploration game (though not a 4X), inspired by classic 16-bit titles, but updated to take into account modern design specs. 

Out of necessity, it will use a lot of conventional storytelling tools and methods, but the idea is to implement them in such a way that each player will get a slightly different and unique experience, without the feeling of procedural generation.