Video Games

On top of the various novellas I’ve written, I’ve also been involved as lead script writer (and other non-coding roles) in various Game Jams, as well as a couple of other video game projects! I’ve always been interested in game design and development, but have absolutely zero skill with coding, art, or music. Thankfully, games still need writing, be that story, lore, or a bunch of item descriptions! You can find the currently available games I’ve worked on below in order of latest to oldest work!

Somnipathy

Somnipathy was the first full length game that I’d been involved with – between April 2022 and February 2024 – and was released on Steam on September 12th, 2023. I was the Lead Script Writer and Narrative Director for the game, and wore a few other hats in regards to implementation of content being generated by the art and coding team of Tearcell Game Studios.

Somnipathy is a story focused point-and-click adventure/thriller where you help Aggy survive nightmarish sleep-disorder themed dungeons. During the day meet people, buy items, and solve puzzles; at night explore, advance, and banish the relentless monsters that stalk her world. This blurb sits on prominently on the Steam Store page for the full version of Somnipathy! Following the Ludum Dare 50 Game Jam the team of us that worked on the game formed a small indie game studio in order to carry out the ideas we conceived during the game jam to their fullest extent. We’ve expanded out the original arcade-style core game play loop into a full narrative experience, made many mistakes along the way, and have learned a lot in the process. Definitely give it a look and a Wishlist if you’re interest in what you see: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2069260/Somnipathy/

Game Jam Projects

Somnipathy – The First Night

This was Team Tearcell Studios’ submission to the Ludum Dare 50 Game Jam. This Jam was in celebration of Ludum Dare’s 20th anniversary and the theme of this one was ‘Delay the Inevitable’. The inevitability we decided to delay was the need for sleep in an isometric, point-and-click horror game about trying to stay awake. In Somnipathy, you take the role of Aggy, who is desperately trying to avoid sleeping for unclear reasons… to the point where a monster has begun chasing her through her apartment, trying to drink her sanity and wakefulness. She must run around her apartment, wolfing down stimulants and interacting with and avoiding various creatures that may or may not be figments of her imagination. We’re pretty proud of this one, so definitely go check it out at: https://zaknafean.itch.io/somnipathy-game

Debts and Pandamonium

This was Team Mixed Martial Arts and Craft’s submission to the Ludum Dare 48 Game Jam. This was our second Jam and the theme for this one was ‘Deeper and Deeper’. Since we are a group of cheeky bastards, we decided to make a game about going ‘deeper and deeper’ into debt in a top-down RPG-lite battler. In Debts and Pandamonium you play as the mighty Panda, brought low by crushing debts. You wander the mean streets of a Roaring Twenties-esque world of anthropomorphic animals. Panda must gamble on going further into debt to better equip himself to carry out criminal jobs for The Boss. But every second that passes, the interest on your debts compound and thus Panda is doomed to a life of crime. This one was a lot of fun to write, even if at submission time it was rather lacking in polish! Still, it was a funny game you can check it out at: https://zaknafean.itch.io/debts-and-pandamonium

Kobolds of OSHA

This one was Team Mixed Martial Arts and Craft’s submission to the 2020 Mix and Game Jam. This was our first ever Game Jam and it sure shows, doesn’t it? The Mix and Game Jam had us mixing game genres in order to come up with something approaching unique primary gameplay loops. Our genre mashup of choice was Adventure/CCG/Visual Novel and we told the story of Corbon the Kobold. Corbon is OSHA dungeon health inspector inspecting a dungeon to make sure there are no safety violations! Adventurers may kill a kobold nearly instantly, but that doesn’t mean they should risk it all in the day to day of the workplace! This was a goofy game that didn’t work all that well and doesn’t have a particularly satisfying primary gameplay loop… But a surprising number of people stuck with it just because of the derpy art and goofy writing, so it might be worth giving a try at: https://zaknafean.itch.io/the-kobolds-of-osha