NARRATIVE DESIGNER
Diablo IV is a 3D ARPG MMO set in a brutally unforgiving dark fantasy world. I started on D4 as an Assistant Writer on contract, and over the course of 2 years and 2 promotions, worked my way up to a full-time position as Narrative Designer. As a result, I got to touch lots of different parts of the game, from item flavors to campaign dialogue.
My responsibilities expanded when I moved over to work on D4’s first expansion. If you’d like to see what I’ve been doing on X1, click here!
CUTSCENES
Here are some of the cutscenes I wrote for Diablo IV:
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Wrote and iterated on dialogue with a focus on emotion, motivation, pacing, tone, and clarity:
- 3 chapters of the main campaign
- 10 cinematic cutscenes in main campaign
- 5 side quests
- 4 strongholds
- local events
- NPC barks in 7 open world areas
- Implemented gameplay dialogue in engine.
- Reviewed side quests and provided narrative feedback for pacing and tone.
- Collaborated with stakeholders across multiple teams (Cinematics, Quest, Open World, Dungeons, Systems) to ensure my work stayed in scope and met their needs.
- Wrote and iterated on casting documents and character documentation.
- Sat in on voice over recording sessions to represent the narrative team’s goals and to give input on what kinds of emotional beats we’d like to see out of performances.
- Trained new members of the team in processes, pipelines, and tools.
- Quickly became proficient in Diablo’s proprietary engine.
DETAILS
Ship Date: June 6, 2023
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S