NarrativeDesigner.com
Spring 2026

Now

What’s current, what’s available, and how to connect.

Current

Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Tampa - Film, Animation & New Media. Teaching narrative design, game development, and interactive media. Writing Completing Narrative Designer: Fabulator Ludus, 3rd Edition - the 20th anniversary edition of the definitive theoretical framework for interactive narrative design. Studio CEO, Wonderfilled Inc. - GiantLands, Emperor of the Cherokee, and Temple of Booty. Anniversary Marking twenty years since the conversation at GDC 2006 that led to the Narrative Designer role.

Available For

Speaking

Keynotes, panels, and lectures on narrative design, interactive storytelling, the future of the discipline, and the intersection of story, technology, and play. Available for conferences, universities, and corporate events.

Consulting

Narrative design consulting for game studios, themed entertainment companies, interactive media producers, and organizations building story-driven experiences. From narrative audits to full design direction.

Leadership

Narrative Director and Lead Narrative Designer roles for projects that require senior narrative leadership. Twenty years of experience across games, themed entertainment, and transmedia.

Academic

Guest lectures, curriculum consultation, thesis advising, and collaborative research in interactive narrative, game design theory, and transmedia storytelling.

About

Stephen Erin Dinehart IV pioneered the Narrative Designer role in the games industry in 2006 and became the first person to hold the title professionally. He holds an MFA in Interactive Media from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he studied under transmedia scholar Marsha Kinder and Scott Fisher, and a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. With over 25 years of experience, his career spans THQ/Relic Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. Games, Rovio, Universal Creative (Super Nintendo World, Volcano Bay), and Wonderfilled Inc. His work on Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge received the Golden Ticket Award for Best New Family Attraction (2023) and two THEA Awards (2021). He is the author of Narrative Designer: Fabulator Ludus, has published in IEEE Computer and the IAAPA TEA Academic Symposium, and his thesis on transmedial play has been cited 96 times across international scholarship. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Film, Animation & New Media at the University of Tampa and is CEO of Wonderfilled Inc. As a descendant of Cherokee Emperor Moytoy of Tellico, his transmedia work with GiantLands funds the preservation of Indigenous cultural sites.

Contact

Appointments Book a Meeting via Calendly Email contact@narrativedesigner.com Social @narrativedesigner.bsky.social Papers Academia.edu - University of Tampa Credits IMDB  ·  MobyGames  ·  FilmFreeway Studio Wonderfilled Inc.