Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Senior Writer/Narrative Designer

Act I: Chapter 4 (Can’t Trust a Pirate)
Act II: Chapter 5 (The Scenic Route)
Act II: Chapter 6 (The Future in Jade)
Act III: Chapter 9 (To Catch a Spider)
Act III: Chapter 10 (Empty)

The decade-long Elder Dragon saga came to an end in our big 2022 expansion End of Dragons, which I had the pleasure of helping out on as a lead writer for several main story chapters (or what we call “golden path”).

Senior Writer/Narrative Designer

I joined ArenaNet in January 2017 and have since served as a Lead Writer, Narrative Designer, and Lore Writer across several episodes of Guild Wars 2’s Living World episode content.

The Icebrood Saga
Lead Writer

Episode 2: Shadow in the Ice
Episode 4: Jormag Rising

The Icebrood Saga is Guild Wars 2’s fifth season of Living World content, featuring a change of scenery from the sun-scorched lands of Elona to the bitter cold mountains of the Shiverpeaks and beyond. Working in concert with Novera King, Narrative Lead on Living World, I was given a sizable degree of freedom in telling a series of compelling character-driven stories. Together with the Living World design team, we were able to craft fun gameplay both in the golden path quests and in the open world to guide the story along across all available channels, from standard dialogue to non-VO text conversations, scattered pieces of lore, environmental storytelling opportunities, and more.

Season 4, Episode 6: War Eternal
Lead Writer (Chapter 1, Dragonfall Meta, Open World Ambient Dialogue)
Co-Writer (Chapter 2)

The Season 4 finale episode, titled War Eternal, was a massive undertaking for ArenaNet. It was also a supremely challenging episode to write—but in the good kinds of ways; the ways that build character.

Coming off of my work on Siren’s Reef, I was tasked with writing the introductory golden path chapter for the episode, finding a way to—in the span of about 10 minutes—craft both an “all is lost” moment and a complete reversal of fortune, to the tune of needing to resurrect a character and immediately get players to the new map.

I co-wrote the showpiece dragon chase through the ephemeral Mists, took point on all open world and ambient dialogues, and helped punch up each script through regular table reads.

Season 4 Fractal: Siren’s Reef
Lead Writer

Raids in Guild Wars 2 tend to be much more involved than Fractals. The player characters tend to have more active roles in the story, complete with VO, for example. This raid, featuring a slightly insane djinn who takes players on a Willy Wonka-inspired tour of his madhouse home under less-than-savory pretenses, was pitched to me as a lighthearted comedy very early on. I couldn’t have been happier to work on it or more pleased to see how wonderful it turned out.

Season 4 Raid: The Mythwright Gambit
Lead Writer

“We’re thinking pirates.”

“And ghosts?”

“Pirates and ghosts, yeah. Think you can work with that?”

“I think so!”

Our latest Guild wars 2 fractal pits the players against an ancient pirate queen, an island filled with dinosaurs and undead, and cursed treasure. While not quite the same comedic romp that Mythwright Gambit was, it gave me an opportunity to explore the nature of viewing one’s heroes as real people, without the lens of history to obscure their actions. In some cases, particularly with sensationalized pirates, the truth would no doubt be incredibly disappointing (even incredibly uncomfortable) to witness.

Season 4 Fractal: Deepstone
Lead Writer

Fractals are group-focused, streamlined content that emphasize speedy stories (20 minute or less) and unique gameplay quirks. Being able to tell short stories in the Guild Wars 2 universe was a very fun challenge, and trying to take the Fractals wrapper and build out interesting characters and conflict in that short time frame was a great change of pace. The Deepstone fractal revolves around two thieves breaking into an ancient dwarven ruin inhabited by a terrible, eldritch evil. Shenanigans, dare I say, ensue.

Season 4, Episode 2: A Bug in the System
Lore Writer

In Episode 2: A Bug in the System, I wrote a multitude of messages, books, and background lore bits for players to stumble upon, as well as a number of lines for the Inquest, an enemy faction you come across in the episode. Most of my time was spent spinning up on a new project however, as I was slated to take over narrative on Raids and Fractals.

Season 4, Episode 1: Daybreak
Lore Writer

Season 4, Episode 1: Daybreak takes players to the Domain of Istan, where in the course of their adventures they will stumble across a massive library filled to the brim with books of all topics. As an initial test of our at-the-time very new “In-Game Books” technology, I was tasked with helping to write a multitude of these in-game volumes, some based on old lore, some a bit more contemporary in the fiction. It gave fans a lot of new stuff to read through.