90+
Scholarly citations, per Google Scholar
Narrative Designer — the title, and the practice
I coined the title in 2006. The twenty years since were about proving it was never really about screens.
I design story systems across games, themed entertainment, literature, and music. I call the connecting practice transmedial play: using designed worlds to bring people more deeply into the real one.
01
The work, refracted
One source, of many colors with one root. What follows is where it lands.
Interactive & Games
Design · Writing- 20+ yrsGiantLandsTabletop RPG built with James M. Ward, E. Gary Gygax Jr., and Larry Elmore
- 2011F.E.A.R. 3Narrative Designer, Day 1 Studios / Warner Bros. Games
- 2009Angry BirdsContributing Designer, Rovio Entertainment
- 2006Company of HeroesNarrative Designer, Relic Entertainment / THQ — first professional use of the role
- MFAJourney of JinOne of the first episodic mobile RPGs, written partly in Tsalagi
- 1998Paw IslandFirst virtual land and first commercial game project - where it began
Themed Entertainment
Story · Systems- 2020–25Super Nintendo WorldJapan (2021), Hollywood (2023), Epic Universe Orlando (May 2025)
- 2021THEA AwardsTechnical Innovation and Themed Land, Super Nintendo World
- 2023Mario Kart: Bowser's ChallengeGolden Ticket, Best New Family Attraction
- 2017Evermore ParkDirector of Gaming - the park's "RPG lite" main attraction
Books & Scholarship
Author- 2026Narrative Designer: Fabulator Ludus3rd Edition — the 20th anniversary theoretical framework
- 2026Emperor of the CherokeeHistorical novel of the Overhill Cherokee, 180,000 words
- 2026The Spaghetti StrategyIEEE Computer, Games, Film & Generative AI column
- 2025Fantasy-Reality Tension MapsIAAPA/TEA Academic Symposium Proceedings
Music
35+ Albums- —A prolific catalog across genresMore than thirty-five albums, distributed across thirty-plus platforms
- —Detroit Booty Temple · Profesor PrismWorking personas in funk, bass, and beyond
- 2018"Trancendental Overdrive" (Remix)With krautrock pioneer Harald Grosskopf — a connection to the roots of electronic music
- —On BandcampDodo Inksi · 144bpm · The Best of Me 1999–2019 · GiantLands Music
I learned that relationship between story, play, place, and identity much earlier — as a Cherokee kid painting gorgets and writing in Tsalagi.
02
By the numbers
2006
Coined "Narrative Designer"
THEA
Award winner, 2021
18 yrs
Sustained citation span, 2008–2026
04
The field guide
The resource half of this site. Narrative design is the discipline of integrating story and gameplay within interactive systems — a living field guide to it: definition, theory, history, and vocabulary, maintained here since 2007.
What Is Narrative Design?
The complete explanation of the discipline — its definition, its history, and its distinction from game writing.
→FAQ
Fifty questions answered: career paths, portfolio advice, craft techniques, tools, and theory.
→Theory
Progressive exceedance, Fantasy-Reality Tension Maps, neural coupling, the Holistic Experience Stack.
→Manifesto
The Narrative Design Manifesto — what the discipline stands for, stated plainly.
→Glossary
Terms of art for the practice, from Agency to Verisimilitude, cross-referenced and searchable.
→Timeline
A history of interactive narrative — 35,000 years of the participatory story, from Lascaux to LLMs.
→Books
Fabulator Ludus and the wider shelf — the books that built and carry the discipline.
→The Origin
GDC, San Jose, spring 2006 — the conversation that started a profession, and the original job description.
→
06
On stage
2025IAAPA/TEA Academic Symposium — Orlando
2020Harvard Business School Tech Conference — The Future of Games
2010TEDxTransmedia — Geneva
2010GDC — "Creators of Transmedia Stories"
07
The person behind the practice
I hold an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where I studied in the Interactive Media Division under Marsha Kinder, who introduced the concept of transmedia intertextuality in 1991. My work has always taken her idea further than the screen.
I founded Wonderfilled Inc., a transmedia studio and RPG publisher, and Alien Ranch, a media studio. Across all of it runs a single thesis: the highest function of a designed medium is to return the participant to the unmediated world.
My Cherokee practice is not a research project. It is lifelong, a documented lineage to Amatoya Moytoy of Tellico, and it is the light the rest of the work refracts. I am a single father, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation and Zen, and I work in English and Spanish, with Cherokee and German.
- Currently
- Founder, Wonderfilled Inc. Author. Working full-time on original worlds and the craft of narrative design.
- Studios
- Wonderfilled Inc. · Alien Ranch
- Training
- MFA, USC School of Cinematic Arts
- Lineage
- Cherokee, to Amatoya Moytoy of Tellico
- Languages
- English, Spanish, Cherokee, German
Let's build something that returns people to the real world.
Open to faculty appointments, keynotes, and collaboration. The fastest way to understand the work is to walk through it.