Writing and Narrative Samples

Level Narratives

The Wellspring

The Marshal's Complex was one of four new levels I was responsible for on the Outriders: New Horizon Update.

As the level and cinematics where already created - I had to write an new narrative that pieced together the varrious elements of the level and told a new story that made sense within the context of established lore.

As there were too few story moments where the main characters of the vanilla story simply reacted to an unique scenario together, I chose to write a fun and light-hearted scenario where they did exactly that.

The Marshal's Complex

The Marshal's Complex was one of four new levels I was responsible for on the Outriders: New Horizon Update.

As the level and cinematics where already created - I had to write an new narrative that pieced together the varrious elements of the level and told a new story that made sense within the context of established lore.

I chose to push the story forward between two characters from Vanilla Outriders who had previously worked together, but did not have a chance to meet again by the end of the main story to Outriders.

Molten Depths

The Marshal's Complex was one of four new levels I was responsible for on the Outriders: New Horizon Update.

As the level and cinematics where already created - I had to write an new narrative that pieced together the varrious elements of the level and told a new story that made sense within the context of established lore.

For Molten Depths there was no exisiting narrative context for the level. I chose to link the narrative I wrote to the character we last saw in charge of Eagle Peaks - Corporal Dunham.

City of Nomads

We had an unresolved conflict revolving around two characters from Vanilla - The Wanderer and Kang (a opposing militia leader). I chose to move their story forward for both these characters in this Expedition.

Enemy Bestiary Entries

Frostborne Strix

"Strix likely wouldn't survive in the current climate if it were not for the Anomaly; in response to the declining temperature, they have begun mutating once more. The adaptations they have developed to the sub-zero conditions have proven so effective, that these Strix survive despite the ice forming over their carapaces.

Would-be predators, if Strix have any to speak of, are likely to be deterred now both by the danger of being sliced open by the Strix's bladed tail and by a likely case of frostbite."

Harbringer Hama, Hander of Heads

"A somewhat unpleasant Feral discovered in Uketu Atara. Hama had no particular combat skills of note, but he did wield a rather enormous (and arguably impractical) weapon, which he used to unleash a relentless barrage of hard-hitting (though not particularly skilful) attacks.

He did possess an inexplicable understanding of Earth vocabulary, a rare skill among Ferals which Hama used not to communicate with humans, but to insult them as he attempted to send their heads upon and extended leave of absence from their shoulders.

Whatever motivated Hama to dedicate his time to being so extraordinarily unhelpful towards others remains unclear, what is clear however is that even among Ferals, his soul was most certainly dark."

Harbringer Hama was non-canon hidden boss cooked up by a level designer and I for the New Horizons update to Outriders.

He was a Dark Souls easter egg that had a Dark Souls boss fighting style, was extremly difficult and screamed "parry this you fucking casual" and "get good" at the player.

We also gave him a journal entry (see left) comparing him to and lampooning the average invader in Dark Souls.

Freshmolt Acari

"A less mature example of the Molten Acari encountered while aiding Corporal Dunham in securing the mountain regions of the valley.

Both Acari lived within the vent of an active volcano, though the one in Eagle Peaks had caved in somewhat. Perhaps Acari feed on the minerals within the walls that form their hatching grounds as they grow.

Acari, like Strix, do not seem to mutate as severely due to the Anomaly. It's possible that invertebrates tend to only grow larger after exposure.

Seems that not even the Anomaly can make spiders more ugly."

Teratomus Behemoth

"The anomaly does incredible, impossible, and unpredictable things. It can grant a man the ability to spew fire from his hands or cause him to explode into paste at the mere touch of an energy flare. It can tear the ground asunder, leaving it as little more than floating debris. It may, on rare occasion, bring life to those approaching death.

And sometimes, it causes a creature to grow tumours, then it causes those tumours to grow teeth, and then that creature goes on to become the most hideous thing on the face of Enoch.

This would be the latter scenario."

Novel Excerpt

Aileen awoke slowly, unravelling herself from beneath a thick, fur blanket that had been placed over her as she slept. At first, she could not remember where she was. The room was dark, and her mind was still groggy from sleep. She was at the foot of strange, uncomfortable bed, and whatever room she was in smelled nauseatingly clean. The only noises audible to her were the snoring coming from the opposite end of the bed; a quiet groaning elsewhere in the room, and the winds howling outside.

She looked towards the source of the snoring, and saw her father, looking deathly pale and weary as he slept, and everything started coming back to her. She was in the medical cabin, a small, makeshift hospital in the Caliberian town of Croproot. Where her mother worked during the day, and her father had been admitted to after his injury. She had fallen asleep at the foot of his bed. Her mother must have left her there.

Her drowsiness beginning to dissipate, Aileen noticed that she was hungry. She was not sure what time it was but judging by the inky blackness beyond the ward's snow-logged windows, it was well past midnight, and she hadn't eaten since breakfast the previous day.

Carefully manoeuvring herself off the bed as to avoid waking her father, a courtesy he was not paying others on ward with his snoring, she searched for her shoes that had presumably been taken off as she slept. Finding them at the foot of the bed, she hopped off the uncomfortable mattress, and knelt to slip them on. She then began fumbling around in the darkness, careful not to make any noise, for an oil lamp that had been on her father's bedside table. Finding it, she lit it, and the ward was bathed in a warm but eerie orange glow.

Taking it off the table and holding it ahead of her, she started creeping down the ward, passing by several empty beds, and one occupied. In it lay a young man, an outdoorsman, no older than twenty-five with untidy, greasy blonde hair and an angular, pointed face. He let out another quiet groan as she slept

He had been found out in the forest by tree-fellers, according to the nurses, collapsed in the snow with a bullet in his right arm and right shoulder. They had decided he had to have been the survivor of an attempted robbery, and Aileen had little reason to disagree with this theory, but she thought that he had been dressed unusually for an outdoorsman in Caliberia.