About

ABOUT

I’m a game developer, narrative designer, experience designer, and WGGB-nominated writer. I’ve mixed up interactivity and storytelling for a living for over two decades. I’ve worked in interactive television, education, puppet-making, larp, film, live events, and the video games industry.

Talespinners

I’m partner and founder of Talespinners, a writing & narrative company dedicated to helping you develop story for your game. I’ve now taken a back seat in that company as I concentrate on my full-time role at Ubisoft.

Narrative Design

I’ve written and designed story for many different types of interactive media. My credits include narrative design, character creation, world design, dialogue, prose, and voice direction for PC, console, VR, and mobile games. I’ve worked on over 100 games, interactive events, and immersive experiences. Alongside co-running Talespinners, I was nominated for a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award as Story Lead on Frictional Games‘ horror title, Amnesia: Rebirth and I was Narrative Director at Ubisoft Stockholm on a brand new cloud-based heavily procedural IP. I’m regularly asked to consult for companies to help them shape and polish the story for their game.

I’ve also directed larps and live-action events for more than 30 years. I’m co-founder of Crooked House, an organisation legendary for its high concept larps and ridiculously over-the-top special effects and sets. This experience has now become relevant to the mainstream due to the renewed interest in VR, AR, and immersive events.

“It was a pleasure working with Ian on The Bunker, he has an expert eye for game design detail and an incredible talent for bringing real humanity to storylines. His logic in game narrative structure is flawless and he brought an amazing attention to detail to The Bunker, providing layer after layer of storytelling, making the game richer and more immersive.”

Allan Plenderleith, Director, Splendy Games

Games Programming

I’ve held a wealth of roles as a programmer, technical architect and CTO. I spent a long time running software teams creating interactive TV systems and produced over 40 educational games.

In 2009, I threw all that in to work in the mainstream games industry, where I’ve since worked as a programmer and designer for gameplay, systems and tools on a wide range of triple-A and indie titles across all sorts of platforms – including SOMA and the LittleBigPlanet and LEGO franchises.

“Ian is an excellent programmer who was also a pleasure to work with. He is a very articulate speaker and clear thinker, with a great sense of code and API design – allowing him to stand out as a clear leadership figure within both the LEGO Systems group, and the company as a whole.”

Paul Connor, Associate Lead Programmer, Traveller’s Tales

Writing

My first full-length feature film, Fallen Soldiers, came out in July 2015. We made it for virtually no money, and with no time. Critics have said things like ‘a very clever piece of genre cinema that is not bound by its conventions’ (Film News) and ‘a great low budget horror movie, with some strong talent and clever ideas.’ (Starburst). I have two other optioned screenplays.

My twisted children’s book Where’s My Shoggoth? is available in all good comic shops. It has been variously described as ‘a firmly recommended gift for anyone in life who has a taste for the bizarre’ (Starburst Magazine), ‘a book you’ll happily put on your child’s shelf alongside Winnie the Pooh & Dr. Seuss’ (Omnicomic), ‘perfect for the Lovecraft lover in your life’ (Ain’t It Cool News) and ‘just right to snuggle up with your budding young mythos investigator on a dark and stormy night’ (Wired), amongst many other accolades.

My novel-length interactive fiction title Pendragon Rising has sold tens of thousands of copies since its publication in 2016.

I’ve also worked as editor and writer-for-hire on projects ranging from novels to gameworld lore. I’m often asked to polish and copy-edit work, particularly when it comes to dialogue.

“Ian doesn’t just do the job you give him. He brings new ideas, new approaches and directions, and pulls, sculpts and batters your ideas until they look far shinier than they ever were – or would have been – without him. He is an excellent writer, coder, and logical mind that will help you and your project in far more ways than what is written on any contract or agreement.”

Olly Bennett Managing Director, Cardboard Sword

Talks

I’m happy to give talks anywhere (just try and stop me!) and have previously given talks at universities and at conferences such as GDC, Narrascope, AdventureX, Level Up, XpoNorth, and Nineworlds on:

Storytelling in VR
Making Horror: Getting Emotional in Interactive Media
How to Build a World
Telling Game Stories Without Words
Getting Into Games Writing
Be Lazy: How To Make Games Development Painless
Getting Into The Games Industry
How Not To Get A Job
Lessons From LARP
The Co-op Studio Model
The Anatomy Of A Triple-A Game Engine

“I learned more from this panel than any other. The examples were fascinating and illustrative. Definitely felt like I was listening to expert advice, and I took a lot away that I can use when creating my own experiences. Thanks!”

“Solid (and funny!) talk by an entertaining speaker… Thoughtful examples that showed how elements of horror work in both digital and real world spaces.”

“Ian was an engrossing speaker; the accent and the humor, coupled with his experience, all made for a great presentation. The video clips really hammered home his messages too. In this era of “what’s your word count? My game is 400,000 words!”, it was nice to to be reminded to be selective with our language, and that sometimes less is more.”

“A great presentation… a fascinating talk, and a good representation of the different kinds of interactive fiction that are out there (e.g. LARP, which I didn’t see discussed in any other presentations)”

Other Work

I lecture and advise on training courses, have acted as a games adviser for BAFTA Wales, co-founded and chaired the Games Wales industry body in Wales, and generally spend a lot of time making a nuisance of myself in an attempt to big up the games industry in my local area. I’m a full member of BAFTA.

I created the setting for Flotsam, the podcast roleplaying series; ran the game, edited it, and composed the music.

I’ve also been known to create art – visit my portfolio here – and music – here’s my artist page on Spotify.