Lead Narrative Designer | 2023-

Senior Activity Designer | 2021-2023

The iconic skateboard simulator, now with more than 15 Million friends to skate with in a chaotic open world multiplayer sandbox.

Please note, since skate. is a live game, I am limited in what I can show and say about it.

skate. Official Website

  • Design Direction

    Defining best practices, processes, and vision for the teams I work with.

  • Narrative Systems

    Researching, designing, and implementation of robust, scalable Narrative Systems to enhance storytelling capabilities.

  • Content Design

    Thoughtful, unique, and engaging content design that delivers on the core fantasy.

  • Prototyping

    Rapid prototyping to discover what works and what doesn’t. I love getting messy and finding the fun (fast).

  • Worldbuilding

    Building believable, interesting, and unique fiction will give your game legs to stand on. Players can’t get lost in your world if you don’t know what it is.

As Lead Narrative Designer

  • As the Principal Activity Designer for 2 years, I was responsible for defining the vision for Activities, along with our UX director. This included:

    • Design and documentation of our 4 primary Activity “Archetypes” and their role in the player experience.

    • Activity Pillars - used to evaluate content and designs to ensure they met quality and product goals.

    • Regular data and feedback reviews from players, our player council, the Full Circle team and executive leadership.

    • Design for server-side Activity tools to allow for live-serviceability of content.

    • Working closely with metagame designers to integrate content and our core loop and economy together.

  • While none of the content I created as an Activity Designer shipped in our Early Access build, since it was using deprecated tools and technology, my content was still enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of players because of our development model. Key accomplishments during this time:

    • 100+ Daily Objectives and Achievements

    • 100+ Unique Challenges

    • Multiplayer mode design, and matchmaking design.

  • My first work on skate. involved rapid prototyping to hone in on what our Activities should or could be. I quickly onboarded onto Frostbite’s new visual scripting toolset, allowing me to prototype:

    • 30+ Activity types

    • Several novel system designs for GaaS games such as an entire Objective System, scripted NPCs, dynamic server objects, and more.

    • Multiple functional tools for Activity Design, such as locator behavior scripts, server-synchronized Activities, and procedural difficulty scaling.

  • Document and evangelize Narrative vision to ensure a consistent, even tone across all disciplines

  • Work closely with VO Lead to establish and iterate on Narrative Systems.

  • Establishing, documenting, and enforcing Narrative best practices across the project

  • Work with Activity Designers to take Missions from concept to completion - including design, writing, and implementation

  • Collaborate with World Design and Art Direction to build authentic and unique fiction

  • Develop long-term storytelling plans with the Creative Director

  • I am the principal designer for Narrative Systems on skate. This means I work closely with our VO Lead, Art Directors, UX Designers, Engineers, and more to:

    • Design Narrative Systems that are flexible and scalable.

    • Define our VO Pipeline, manage assets, and document processes.

    • Research and design new Narrative Systems for more effective tools in live-service storytelling.

  • As Narrative Lead, I work with our Seasonal Creative Lead, Seasonal Design Lead, Art Directors, Activities Leads, and Marketing partners to ensure Narrative supports and enhances the game. I’ve done this by:

    • Documenting and communicating our Narrative vision to the team.

    • Setting up clear processes for how narrative can and should support other teams.

    • Pursuing new opportunities for Narrative to raise the quality of the game.

    • Defining long-term roadmaps to guide seasonal work towards a “north star” - and setting up processes to evaluate that seasonal work against those goals.

    • Defining Narrative Content Best Practices and guidelines to ensure consistent quality across the game.

  • In addition to Narrative Systems and Narrative Design Direction, I work closely with our art teams and Lead Writer to expand our world and create fertile ground for all our teams to work in. I have done this through:

    • Lore writing to support the goals of World Art - allowing them to draw on an authentic and unique fiction to create a more authentic unique world.

    • Writing and casting support.

    • Working with Mission Designers to create Missions that explore the history of the city and skate culture.

  • As one of only 2 Narrative Designers, I am also a key individual contributor to content in the game. In this capacity I:

    • Shipped 25+ fully voiced Missions in 6 months.

    • Monitored data and player feedback to adjust Early Access content in subsequent releases

    • Adapted to rapidly changing content and goals through mastery of our tools and pipeline - and conscious risk management.

    • Wrote several Missions in support of the Lead Writer.

    • Worked with mission designers to create more compelling gameplay experiences through strong Narrative Design integration.

As Senior Activity Designer

  • Took Activities from prototype through pre-production using Frostbite Visual Scripting

  • Worked with the UX Director to define the Pillars of Activity Design and our MVP Product

  • Regularly presented ideas to a Player Council, gathering feedback and adjusting accordingly

  • Designed multiple modes, features, and systems to support scalable live service development

  • Adjusted Design Direction and Activity Designs in response to player, team, and executive feedback