I’ve written sci-fi, crime fiction, middle-grade kids material….but not middle grade sci-fi crime fiction. Yet.
While I have a couple samples here of the work I do, I also have original script samples I’m more than happy to share.
LINK: Here’s a recent script sample I wrote after I left Telltale 2.0.
Be sure to drop me a message if you want to talk further!
KIDS BOOK: THE STINKY ADVENTURES OF DUNG DUNG
Let me introduce you to Dung Dung, a diminutive dung beetle and master of Poojitsu. Born from an insane idea revolving around video games and a healthy helping of poop humor, I created this world with Jason Babler and wrote this first book with my child.
Our books are targeted at pre-teens, with a smartly-illustrated style melding Pixar, Adult Swim, and classic video games. If you have a passing familiarity of nerdy stuff, this is for you. OK, sure, and your kid.
The book is now complete and ready for people craving martial arts videogame-based poop humor. Currently in talks with publishers.
ART BOOK WORK THAT I’VE DONE
Telling stories from within different worlds is half the fun of creating content. At 2K, I was encouraged to explore new narratives for all sorts of brands (seen elsewhere on this site), but I’ve also told whole new stories for a variety of clients. For the examples here: Capcom and Konami.
Devil May Cry 5 Art Book
The original plan: Put together some supporting text that explains the artwork people are looking at in the book. Working closely with the development and marketing teams, we quickly realized an opportunity to tell a story that could spread into social channels, present information in new ways, and provide a unique glimpse into the Devil May Cry lore.
My suggestion: narrate the parts of the book from the perspective of a game character. They loved it.
Contra Rogue Corps Reviewers Guide
When approached to create this, I collaborated with the marketing and PR team to pull together a series of stories that walk through the game features, provide tips, behind-the-scenes interviews and also provide rarely scene details about the game franchise’s lore. Most important, it was all tied together by framing it as a military debrief within the game’s universe.
Mafia III Strategy Guide
I mentioned elsewhere – in the Mafia III section – of how The Maguire Files helped tell the story of New Bordeaux through mixed media. The team at Prima loved what we had assembled, they bundled it into the strategy guide as the “Bonus Materials” Section.
Telling a story is one thing, being able to properly visualize it is another. Outside of scripting work I’ve done for 2K promo pieces in the past, I have been writing scripts for a few years and in different styles. Here are a couple…
Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us 2 Reveal Event (2022)
This big, 24-minute video event was a celebration of the series, the upcoming game, and the rebirth of Telltale. I was proud to be able to storyboard and script out the whole event, which was staged within a virtual set from the game. It was a team effort and I continue to be blown away by what we collectively created here. (See the event)
London’s Royal Ravens
I was tasked with concepting, storyboarding, and writing the promotional video script to announce the new ReKTGlobal esports team to the world. That hype video garnered a lot of positive feedback from broadcasts and the esports community.
HyperX Good Game
In a post-COVID19 world, the folks at HyperX wanted to create a series that acknowledges and honors people doing some good in the video game world. There’s never a bad time for some feel good news. In collaboration with Narz, we selected subjects and I mapped out the tone and scripts for the episodes.
Viveport VR Videos
As a part of HTC’s Viveport service, I helped map out a short “best of” video series.
With Telltale’s return, I joined the team to represent the brand. I created the identity and brand voice for the new Telltale. From the Website and marketing material to the social channels. I did a LOT over the course of those 3 years and you’ll see some of the goofy memes / social posts I created below, but also peppered throughout this site, you’ll find 3D model projects I helped usher through, the WolfIsBack VOD event…and more.
I’ll be updating this soon enough with more info and material.
For Mafia III, I had to recreate the spirit of a mob experience taking place in the deep south during 1968.
Leading up to the release of Mafia III, I had the idea to create a collection of research done by the in-game character, Jonathan Maguire. I worked with the writing team at Hangar 13 and created vintage postcards with hidden messages, surveillance files, redacted war documents and local news stories that gave peeks at the main story of Mafia III. All while tying to the larger campaign beats. (READ The Maguire Files)
The team loved the idea so much, they tried to find ways to incorporate my social story into the game, itself. (A lot of it was used for the special edition of the Prima Strategy Guide.)
Not only did I conceptualize the idea, I wrote all the text and directed the art production for the 70+ pieces created for the campaign.
Another key aspect was looking at the data and smartly pivoting. As we noticed a dip in the performance of the pieces in social, we made them more visual. We refocused on animated GIFs and audio clips to also help tell the story better. With that shift, organic reach jumped 200% on posts.
Borderlands is a beast all its own. An id-driven, crazy-as-hell game series that doesn't take itself too seriously and constantly allowed me to try something different.
The "Cooking with Krieg" recipes was an idea I conceived organized and executed, capitalizing on Thanksgiving…and me being REALLY hungry. That spike gave us the highest organic reach of any piece that’s run on the channel (over 1 million in a couple days)...until I topped myself with the video version. Inspired by all the cooking videos online, I came up with a messed-up cooking video of my own (WATCH IT). I scripted the clip and "acted" as the chef. That video pulled in 1.8 million organic reach over Super Bowl weekend.
Those are just two examples.
We also have been finding ways to expand the existing lore and working with the developers to create on-brand, in-character content that speaks to the fans.
I created copy for fake weapon adds – each one keeping in tone with each manufacturer’s “voice.”
I conducted a FB live chat where I wrote an hour’s-worth of responses and dialogue so that Dr. Zed could give bad medical advice to fans.
I could go on - but I won't.
How do you sustain a brand that doesn't have an active product to sell? Talk to the fans and share the love with them. Celebrate significant dates within the game (like drinks for New Year's Eve) and put them in the spotlight (we asked fans to create their own Vigor. We took our favorite and made it).
I penned several behind-the-scenes blogs for BioShock, but I also helped in laying out the strategic foundation for a yearlong campaign to promote the series at a time when we didn't have anything to push. No products to sell - simply fan service. And during this year, we continually posted record numbers for our content.
The initial vigor bottle post example given here got over 300,000 organic reach. When we surprised one fan by making his vigor bottle, traffic jumped with 1.8 million reach and 27,000 likes.
To cap off our yearlong promotion, my final idea was to post a BioShock-inspired drink to celebrate New Year's Eve. That scored over 2 million fully organic reach, 28,000 likes and over 19,000 shares in a weekend.
Content for XCOM 2 was multifaceted. On one level, we kept the tone of humans fighting a guerilla war against Aliens that rule Earth. The social content I created spanned the gallows humor of war and memes while also revealing information about the game through a wide variety of blogs.
Two big things to focus on here (besides the blog writing):
First, I proposed and oversaw several strategies ultimately used around the anniversary of XCOM 2's launch and the social assets created for War of the Chosen.
Second, I have a quick story about evolving your infographics. In realtime, we realized that by isolating bits of data, we gave each data point more meaning…and spread out a lot more content for the social channels. That also equated to better overall reach and engagement.
When the initial infographic went up containing reams of data, it wasn’t moving the needle with less than 20-30k reach. As we broke them up into chunks, each individual piece averaged 50k reach and 2x the number of likes.
Among the hats I’m wearing: I’m writing indie game narrative…and assisting with game design.
BLOCK BUSTER
I’ve been fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a Kaiju. Block Buster, the Kaiju VR game, is dedicated to every monster movie you’ve ever watched.
I worked behind the scenes to help refine the world of Block Buster. Beyond that, I consulted on core gameplay loop. You know, destroying cities and eating people. I speak from experience.
Learn more over at Blockbustergame.com.
REVENANT’S REACH
I also helped draft the original story for and the larger world narrative behind Revenant’s Reach.
We were honored to be included in the first Shacknews / IOX 2020 stream where I got to talk about - and show - off some of the game. (Check out the video embed below!)
To learn more about that project, head over to RevenantsReach.com. Or watch the video on this page, of course.
When Battleborn was first described to me - 25 different heroes from all over the galaxy - it reminded me of my childhood. Imagine taking all these different worlds and toys and jamming them together.
My pitch: Let's imagine what a toy line in the 1980s would've looked like.
When I started working on Evolve, there were six months left before launch and there was very little content created for social. Material needed to be cranked out and the voice for the channel had to...well...Evolve.
I was asked to become the defacto social lead for Evolve in those last six months of the campaign. In that time, we had to rapidly gear up from a relatively silent social channel with no buzz and a very serious tone. We had an audience that wasn’t engaging with us in any meaningful ways - and the brand account wasn't reaching out.
We needed a change of tone, we needed to loosen things up - and it needed to happen fast. So I worked with the marketing team and created a more distinctive, fun tone for the social channels that still stuck to the core points of the brand.
We latched onto cultural events that made sense (calling out Jurassic World or congratulating Bungie on the launch of Destiny).
We found more fun ways to engage directly with fans and partner companies (#GoliathTakeover, have fun w/ #4v1).
We churned out countless infographics to explain break down a complex game in many fun ways.
At the end of the day, we had quickly formed a highly engaged audience and I had effectively doubled the brand's organic Twitter following.
Some of the biggest fans of your stuff are out there on the Internet, just waiting for you. I specialize in reaching out and finding the right people that are able to bring the visions of their favorite games to life.
To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of 2K, I commissioned a series of giveaway prints that became a limited run item given away at PAX Prime.
I guess I should also give you my bonafides. Short version: I had a long run as a journalist before all this. Over a decade working at entertainment, technology and business publications. From Computer Gaming World to PC World and CNET. Freelancing for the likes of Wired and Playboy. Syndicated in The Washington Post and Fortune magazine. I wrote. A lot.
Then I decided to try my hand at corporate blogging.
I wrote a metric ton of blogs on behalf of HP and then later at 2K as the official blogger for both.
While I haven’t “returned” to journalism, I also contribute a few pieces around the Internet as a dad raising a gamer. Y’know, for fun. I’ve been doing that for places like SuperParent and the ESRB blog.
If you want to find any material from those days, it's worth a google. Or, if you've got specific requests, hit the CONTACT page and drop me a line!
