Samples
Teāna (Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire) (link)
When my colleague in Area Design showed me the map of Tikawara and asked if there was anything special I wanted to add, my eye went straight to the drum overlooking the beach. Teāna was a completely spontaneous idea - a mute NPC who communicates through music and shares a brief moment of kinship. That was one of the reasons I loved writing for Deadfire. We could do anything with narration.
Maia's romance (Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire) (link)
When brainstorming Maia's romance, my first thought was how to incorporate her bird. Step one was getting the green light to assign him a portrait and speaker tag, which (to my surprise) worked flawlessly. Players who interact with Ishiza discover that Hylea (goddess of birds) is spying on them... and can then offer a few romance tips. The sudden appearance of a goddess in the middle of this courtship took a lot of players by surprise.
Waidwen (Beast of Winter) (link)
I was completely blown away by Daniel Keating's environment art for the Bridge Ablaze, so you can imagine how overjoyed I was when I got to work on the design and writing for this scene. Ever since I wrote the Guidebook, Waidwen had seemed deeper than history could portray. What if he wasn't an unwilling vessel of a god's power? What if a father's abuse drove a saint away from religion? Waidwen's folksy and introspective upbringing made him a gentle soul with untapped potential.