Design Director - Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay
I find an incredible joy in creating highly interactive stories for players to experience, and leading a team of talented artists to a common goal. Up until the Coronavirus pandemic, that took the form of live threatre. Often interactive or experimental theatre. But as that industry shut down, I dipped my toes into a longstanding interest of mine: video games.
I joined Beyond Skyrim in September of 2020 as a writer for Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay. Early on, I also wrote dialogue and quests for the currently released version of Wares of Tamriel as well as Beyond Skyrim: Roscrea and Beyond Skyrim: Elsweyr.
In January of 2022, I took over as Writing Director of Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay. At the time, the writing department had no active writers. In only a few months, I revitalized the writing department and got us back on track. Slightly over a year later, Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay had over a dozen active writers, and though much of our writing progress got reset when I became director, we were farther along in our writing than the team had been in the roughly 9 years since its inception.
By July of 2023, I had gone beyond simply writing the quests, and began implementing the game logic for them myself. When the implementation department lead decided to step away, I stepped up and began leading the transition of existing writing into playable quests and settlements.
Now, in 2024, our team is gearing up for an upcoming release of several small zones which are fully playable. The team has gone from an internal reputation of toxic in-fighting to being one of the most productive and genuinely fun teams to be a part of within the Beyond Skyrim umbrella. And our next steps are only looking smoother thanks to the strong foundations we've put down.
Baldurs Gate 3: College of Friendship Bard
With the recent release of the Baldur's Gate 3 Toolkit, I've dipped my toe into modding for the follow-up to the classic series. This particular subclass is a simple affair, made for my partner who likes to play BG3 by collecting as many followers as possible. Summon all the friends! Click the image to linkt to the mod page on Mod.io.
Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay Creation Mod Con 2024 Showcase
I filmed and edited the Iliac Bay showcase for 2024. This one showcases more of the vibe of working on the project, which has become very fun. The continued use of Skyrim Together Reborn to collaboratively bug test and internally show off our latest builds has been a great tradition for the team. And in between the funny cuts, quite a lot of new 3D work, level design, and other such progress is showcased. I also (with permission) made an alternative cut for my personal youtube channel, featuring some extra outtakes at the end.
Creation Mod Con 2024
I took a leadership role again on Creation Mod Con 2024, this time with an expanded team. We were able to expand our offerings, while lessening the strain the event places on individual projects. Additionally, we added a charity element and raised over $600 for Doctors Without Borders over the course of the event.
Swim Spells
In growing my implementation skills utilizing Skyrim's Creation Kit, I released my first mod to the Skyrim Special Edition Nexus in September of 2023. It is a simple collection of lower level spells which only work while the player character is swimming. This allows characters to better defend themselves against underwater threats, where combat options are extremely limited.
Creation Mod Con 2023
Creation Mod Con 2023 was an interesting beast. I joined the Organization team at the departure of one of the original members. Soon after, however, the other original Organiation Team member dropped out, leaving me as the sole organizer. While this was stressful, the changes I made to the structure of the event made it easier to put together, and led to our most watched year of streams yet. Like last year, I also shot and edited the Iliac Bay showcase for 2023. In addition, I was responsible for all of the AI behaviours, encounters, navmeshing, NPC implementation, dialogue implementation, crafting recipes, and weather implementation showcased on the islands of Herne and Cespar.
Creation Mod Con 2022
For Creation Mod Con 2022 I took a very active role. I was first involved with outreach to various content creators on Youtube. This led to a collaborative video with Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay, and a well-known Elder Scrolls lore youtuber, FudgeMuppet. I was instrumental in getting this video made and getting Scott the resources he needed. I also led in the creation of Iliac Bay's Abecean Isles Teaser and intermission footage, and spoke on the Iliac Bay showcase, as well as streaming that section of the online convention.
A shot of the Abecean Isles from Beyond Skyrim: Iliac Bay
