Game Design
My work often blurs the boundaries between performance and games, but here are a few items that really are, arguably, games. You can download many of my games via my itch.io page.
i am to see to it i do not lose you (2022)
You are two refugees from an Earth where all human life was destroyed in a climate disaster. As your consciousness inhabits a different version of yourself in a parallel universe, you reflect on what brought you here and what comes next, for you and for the Earth.
This storytelling game was written for the IndieCade Climate Jam for Earth Day 2022, and built on the StorySynth platform. The digital interface allows players to see the game prompts on their mobile devices, whether they’re playing in the same place, or far apart.
Carnival ‘o Consent (2022)
Written for the Clitical Hits Game Jam, this collaborative work is an educational roleplaying game designed to help high school students practice skills related to consent. Educators can print the materials for classroom use, and the game is designed to last for one 45-60 minute class period. Carnival ‘o Consent was created in the course of one weekend. My fellow designers were Caroline Hickey, Alec Lossiah, and Glitch Pixel.
End of Days Community Workshop (Coming 2022)
This pitch won a StorySynth Microgrant (funded by Grant for the Web), and is being developed for the StorySynth platform. End of Days Community Workshop is a game in which you play a person who thinks they're oh-so-prepared for the end of days.
You've got your canned goods, your shotgun, your stack of firewood. But, when the endtimes come, you realize what you've forgotten to gather are things that make survival worthwhile. You join a workshop that promises to teach you how to build important things every good survivalist needs. You select a homemade machine to prototype with real objects from your environment (eg. a machine to crush anxiety, a machine to relieve touch starvation, a machine to simulate hope, a machine to delegate blame), and as you build your machine with help from other workshop attendees, you find yourself building relationships as well; either the machine or the connections you build might help make life worth living again.
Voyageurs: A Larp Duet (2020)
In 2020, my Golden Cobra Challenge entry won ”Best Game That Transcends Distance and Brings Us Closer Together.” Voyagers is a long-distance larp for two that explores connection, the possibility of change, and the power of music. In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager satellites, each containing a golden record with audio greetings from the people of Earth, images of Earth life, and musical selections. These messages were sent in the hope that some traveller might find them. Said the recorded message from the Secretary General of the UN, “We step out of our solar system into the universe… to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate.”
You are a scientist who has discovered a small, temporary hole between universes. You have a chance to make contact with a version of yourself from another universe, but the ways in which you can communicate are limited. Using questions and musical selections, you will communicate with your parallel self and try to derive some comfort or wisdom from another life lived.
Said the Golden Cobra judges:
We particularly appreciated the tight design and innovative use of technology and music. The limits placed on communication here really set the mood and grant special importance to what little you are able to say to one another.
Are You There God? It’s the Quarterly Earnings Report (2019)
Before it was cool to play games over Zoom, I wrote a live action online roleplaying game about faith, friendship, and finding meaning for a group of five to eight players and one facilitator conducted through a video conferencing system. A group of angels is convening for their quarterly meeting, and they’ll be electing the angel who will lead this division for the next thousand years.
AYTGITQER was the winner of the Special Judge’s Choice Award, in the 2019 Golden Cobra Challenge. Here’s what the Special Judge had to say:
“The writing's first-rate; the roles are clearly defined, yet roomy enough for personalization; the special powers are brilliant; the plot is wonderful. Absolutely terrific game.” - John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats