interactive fiction - story & character design - scriptwriting - directing
game design - technology demos - expert testimony - custom services

Today's games seem to hold out the promise for combining traditional narrative with interactive gameplay, involving audiences ranging from a single person to thousands. Classical story structure works because an author is able to create and revise with knowledge of the entire work, using the development of the work to bring out and reinforce the themes and underlying ideas that give it coherency and depth.

When the audience is able to directly affect the story structure, the author's ability to control the result is greatly reduced. Although this is an exciting idea, it is very difficult to create a result that is anywhere nearly as satisfying to the audience as a traditional story.

I bring concrete principles of traditional narrative and gaming to my work with game and entertainment companies. Combining these ideas with their goals and in-house talent, I help companies navigate the dangerous waters of interactive fiction to create experiences that work both as games and as stories.

Creating great stories and characters is hard work, but there are two saving graces: it's a lot of fun, and there are solid principles that one can rely on to guide the creative process.

I help companies conceive of new stories and characters, develop them, and refine them until they're solid and rich. Depending on the nature of the organization and the work to be done, I work with individuals or with teams, either in a structured process or by leading or participating in brainstorming sessions. The results are practical, specific story and character designs.

I help in the structuring and writing of short and long-form screenplays for games, films, and other entertainments. I can work with existing creative teams, or develop new ideas from scratch and carry them through to a final script.

I direct animation and live-action for games, films, training, and online. I can work in 2D and 3D animation, and live action. My extensive computer graphics background gives me special expertise in situations involving a lot of CGI post-production, but I'm also comfortable with natural and realistic projects.

I use solid principles of traditional storytelling and modern game design to help create exciting console and online games that grab an audience's attention and don't let go. The trickiest waters in game design now are in creating large-scale narratives for massive multiplayer games; I help clients navigate those dangerous waters to create new forms of interactive online storytelling and gaming.

Great technology deserves a great demo. A great demo doesn't just show off what a piece of technology can do: it shows the technology doing something so wonderful that it's irresistable. I help clients create great software and hardware demos by combining technology expertise with experience in writing and directing pieces with high production values.

I provide an expert's point of view in legal issues involving my specialties.