Deathbow

I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and well during the COVID crisis. While it was unfortunate that the pandemic meant I could no longer speak or connect with friends at GDC or the East Coast Games Conference, I’ve been fine, holed up in rural North Carolina, and keeping busy with remote contract work.

This year alone, I’ve worked with 10th Muse, Crazy Maple Studios, Dorian, Double Loop Games, Fogbank Entertainment, Gone Gypsy Games, Sarepta Studio and a number of small consultancies.

I’m looking to line up more writing, narrative design and design work for the coming months and into 2021. I hope you’ll contact me through my website if I can be of help with one of your projects! If there’s a possibility of permanent hire, I will gladly discuss that as well.

Nobody thought 2020 would go like this, but here we are. Since late February, I’m holed up safely in rural North Carolina with my Significant Other, who really is the world’s best quarantine buddy, but I am really missing my family. We are basically okay, but I am trying to stay busy, productive, and working as a freelance game writer! So far, so good! I hope anyone reading this is safe and well.

Inquiries I get from this site all ask one important question, so I thought I’d answer that right here: how do I work with clients? There are three ways that I have worked with various clients, which has been negotiable on a case by case basis.

• Hourly Rate: Yes, I have a per hour rate range, but you have to contact me to discuss it so that I know whether your project entails a short contract or a long one, the size of your project and the deadlines involved, etc.
• Hours Bank: You may choose to set aside an hours bank at the agreed-upon rate. That way, I only charge you for what you use, helps me plan my availability, and it keeps both you and I from going over the intended hours. You get an inventory each week of the hours I’m billing for out of that hours bank, and precisely how that time was spent.
• Flat Rate: Some projects have a flat rate, and I’m happy to work that way as well.

It all depends on the specifics of your project and your company, so, please reach out at deathbow@deathbow.com. Let me know what you’re up to!

After a busy summer working on an unannounced title for Disruptor Beam as a contract writer, and speaking at the Silbersalz Conference in Halle, Germany in June, I have more exciting news to share!

I am featured in the new Extra Credits episode that dropped today, about Mental Health in Games. It was my pleasure to co-write this episode with my friend and colleague, Kelli Dunlap, PsyD. Thank you to Extra Credits for taking up this important topic! I’m so proud to join the ranks of the Bean People, in a pirate hat, even!

Silbersalz Conference in Halle, Germany, June 22-24

I have been generously invited to participate as a panelist at the Silbersalz Conference in Germany where the theme this year is “The Science of Love!” I can’t wait to return to the land of currywurst to make new international friends!

SILBERSALZ Conference – Programme Overview

New Contract, and Preparing for GDC

Well, honestly, I never left. I just let my website lapse. For three years. Now, I’ve become an independent contractor, so I need this site to show everyone what I’m up to and what I can do.

I was unemployed for a few months, and that allowed me to reflect on what kinds of things I want to do in the future. I realized that while I held my most recent job, I completely lost sight of the things that I myself want to put into the world. I was throwing so much of my energy into someone else’s dream that I completely neglected my own. That will not be happening again.

I am now on a cool full time writing contract for Disruptor Beam, and preparing for GDC! My GDC talks for 2019:

• Advocacy Microtalks
• Have Laptop, Will Telecommute
• …and I will be present at the annual roundtable I founded in 2015: The IGDA Romance and Sexuality SIG Roundtable, where attendees will be able to get a special discount on my book, Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games.

If you are interested in an appointment at GDC, check out my Public Google Calendar for GDC 2019 and do an invite or shoot me an email. I started with the whole scheduling thing super late, but, now that I’m on it, I expect things to fill up.