Game Narrative Designer & Writer

Enchanter’s Gambit

A first-of-its-kind semi-auto battler RPG game. Join the Ascana Military Academy, the premiere school for combat and magic arts! Lead your party to victory using your Enchanter magic, turning the tide of battle with special skills that influence your environment. Gather comrades and develop your bonds, maybe even leading to romance. Protect the nation of Ascana from an invasion and uncover the truth behind a centuries-long magical conspiracy. The perfect game for fans of Fire Emblem—experience all the action and story in a fraction of the playtime.

Welcome to Ascana

For Enchanter’s Gambit, currently in development at Viento Verse Studios, I developed all of the lore for the game’s world, including the magic system, geography, and politics. Based on the feedback from the programming teams, I iteratively adjust the lore to better suit game mechanic restraints.

This world building sample below highlights the three major nations that appear in the game’s story. To develop the story’s main conflict, I applied my background in psychology and public policy to consider the drivers of conflict between nations.

The following branching dialogue sample is an excerpt from the beginning of Enchanter’s Gambit, following character customization. For this game, I am writing all of the branching dialogue between the player and non-playable characters (NPCs).

In this game, the dialogue appears in a text box at the bottom of the screen with an accompanying anime-style portrait of the character who is speaking. Certain dialogue options will increase “Hearts” with characters. Accumulating enough Hearts for an NPC unlocks side stories regarding their past, and eventually leads to romantic scenes with the player-character.

(Note: Rayn is the default name of the main character, if the player does not choose their own.)

Heat of the Battle

In Enchanter’s Gambit, the player will go on Missions to progress. Each Mission involves several waves of battling enemy mobs. This game is an auto-battler, meaning that all of the NPC Units will fight on their own according to AI controls. The player, as a rare Enchanter class, can cast spells that influence the battle area. (For example, summoning vines to snare enemies and trap them in place.)

Before each Mission, the player will select the NPC Units they want to participate in the battle. Each character will be represented as a pixel sprite in the Unit selection menu. On the Unit selection menu, during a battle, and in the post-Mission menu, character barks will appear in speech bubbles above the sprite’s head.

I designed all eight of the following characters, including appearance, personality, and backstory. I am also writing all of their dialogue and barks, sampled below.