Jake Kriegman

Recent Game Projects

Writer & Editor | The Bureau of Fantastical and Arcane Affairs

Lead Narrative Designer & Writer | Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2

Writer & Producer | Glow Defenders

Narrative Design Portfolio

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 -- Narrative Design

Narrative Design and Writing - 3rd person horde shooter in the Alien universe.

Our greatest narrative hurdle was storytelling and objective communication in a hectic co-op horde shooter within Alien IP constraints.To fix this, I ensured that narrative moments occurred free from combat wherever possible. This meant clearly outlining narrative's needs to other teams, multi-conditional voice over triggers, delivering larger story moments in safe areas such as cutscenes or in the hub world, and setting expectations for complex objectives that must be completed during fights from the very start of the mission.The result was a coherent and clear story that players can follow through hails of gunfire. Playtesting data showed players understood what they were doing and why significantly more in this format than prior designs, and multi-conditional triggers for voice overs ensured that important dialogue was never stomped on by either combat or other dialogue.

Unreal Engine 5 Narrative Implementation -- Linear Narrative

Create a short, playable demo in Unreal 5 for displaying scripting and linear dialogue in 6 hours.

In 6 hours I built a conversation system on top of the Unreal 5 first person template and scripted a short experience. Players need to gather items for a needy husky in order to put in a job application before the deadline.The level blueprint uses volume triggers to run dialogue and scripted events, importantly activating other triggers in order to prevent players from breaking the level logic. The dialogue is run by a UI widget which is populated from fields in a string table that is set by a struct.If I dedicated more time to this, I would allow players to choose if they wanted to deliver the ball or the bone first, and run different dialogue lines depending on which one they brought. I would also add more moments of bantering between characters and the ability to skip through dialogue lines with a click or key.

The Bureau of Fantastical and Arcane Affairs -- Fishing Quest Design

Quest Design and Writing - 1st person fantasy-comedy RPG adventure.

For this title I designed and wrote a quest that utilized the fishing mechanic - the only mechanic in BFAA which players can fail.
I started with a compelling character, a retired demon king who loves fishing, and needs your help to reconnect with his estranged daughter. From there it was important that I didn't overburden the player with long/numerous conversations--players talk with NPCs all the time in this game, fishing is one of their few escapes from that. I made sure to reward them with narrative content based on performance, and make their performance matter to the world around them. If the player doesn't complete the quest or does so in an interesting way, we make sure to acknowledge that in-game.
Feedback that we have collected from the team is that this quest is one of the most gripping and fun mechanically and narratively. They feel more invested in the story because the characters acknowledge and reward their choices.

Articy Draft -- Branching Narrative

Create a sample articy:draft project showcasing branching narrative

Challenge: Gate the players progress into a space by forcing them to talk their way around some guards.
Solution: Stay true to the game's premise--give the player attractive options that reward their curiosity and sense of play. Additionally, for those who decide to try, integrate the fishing mechanic into the conversation.
Result: A compelling and fun branching conversation that encourages players creativity and curiosity.

Game writing is hard, don't make it harder.

Game writing is an incredibly competitive field. Amir Satvat posted about the relative odds to find a job in games, and found that Writing & Narrative roles were by far the most unlikely to land, being 22x harder. Now more than ever we need to support and lean on each other, and pay it forward.Here are some resources that I've used and collected in my journey to becoming a game writer. I hope they can be of use to you!

I wrote about my takeaways from GDC 2026, find them in Narrative News!People to follow - a non exhaustive list
• Susan O'Connor - Founder and instructor of masterclasses at The Narrative Department with great info in her blog posts/mailing list.
• Richard Dansky - Writer of The Video Game Writer's Guide to Surviving an Industry That Hates You who shares great insights on LinkedIn.
• Rose Behar - Author of the Narrative News.
• David Gallaher - Regularly posts insights for writers in Narrative Operations.
• Greg Buchanan - Runs the Writing Interactive Academy.
• Raphael van Lierop - Insightful Canadian games industry content.
• Amir Satvat - Industry support leader.Discord servers
• IGDA Game Writing SIG - International Game Developers Association Game Writing Special Interest Group is exactly what it sounds like, a gathering place for game writers and narrative designers.
• Narrative House - Much smaller but active server with plenty of narrative powerhouses in it.
• Cave Bear Games - Developer made up of volunteers, their discord is used for other early career devs to network and find some volunteer gigs.Job Boards
While applying through job boards is relatively inefficient compared to leveraging your network, it does happen where writers find jobs through them. At the very least, they are helpful for identifying openings at studios where you may know someone or know someone who knows someone.
GameJobs.co • Hitmarker • WorkWithIndies • Outscal • Remote Game JobsOther random things
• Many other writers have created lists like this, my favorite that I often go back to is Ash Poprik's.
• Twine is a free tool great for beginners to create narrative games, portfolio pieces, and even branching narrative prototypes.
• Some of my favorite game dev/writing podcasts are Script Lock, The Corner of Story and Game, and The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook.Building a website? Try this exercise!
Whether you're just getting started or an industry veteran, maintaining your website and portfolio is a significant chunk of work. Take a look at my site and the websites below. What are some common pages/fields? How many samples do they have? How many clicks does it take you to see their work? What kind of work do they show off?Ash Poprik • John Ryan • Philip Balli • Yao Chang • Lis Moberly • Ashley RuhlNew to game writing and need some help figuring out what samples to put in your portfolio/website?
Have you created a custom DnD campaign? Mocked up design documents? Spicy fan fiction? Come up with an idea for a new Overwatch 2 character?
Guess what, you're a game writer! Remember - hiring managers don't care if you can write. They want to know if you can write for games. Good luck on your quest!