Stevie Rodriguez

Game Writer | Narrative DesignerCurrently working as:
- A narrative design intern at EarReality
- A writer on LoveBites, a sapphic werewolf visual novel

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Stevie Rodriguez

Game Writer | Narrative Designer

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★ Currently Playing: Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Magia Exedra
★ Favorite Games: Deltarune/Undertale, ENA: Dream BBQ, In Stars and Time, Portal 2, Slime Rancher
★ Favorite Print Authors: Aiden Thomas, Andrew Joseph White, Shirahama Kamome
★ Favorite Animations: ENA, Madoka Magica, Frieren, The Owl House, Jentry Chau vs The Underworld, WALL-E

Hello! My name is Stevie Rodriguez (they/them). I am an award-winning game writer specializing in RPG and visual novel style games. I am particularly fond of crafting romance and fantasy stories, but am flexible towards other genres as well. Over the past few years, I've worked as a freelance game writer on visual novel style mobile games, and am currently looking to get more involved in the indie games space.I'm constantly striving to improve my narrative skills through new projects. At the moment, I am working as a narrative design intern at EarReality on their app TWIST Tales. I am also contributing towards the final release of LoveBites, a werewolf sapphic visual novel, featuring three love interests, partial voice acting, and a complex morality system.I am an alumni of Susan O'Connor's Game Writing Masterclass, the IGDA Foundation's Virtual Exchange program, the Indie Game Academy, and the Art and Design: Games and Playable Media B.A. program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. During my time at university, I served as one of the writing officers of the Game Design and Art Collaboration club on campus as well. In addition, I was recently selected as a Different Games Ambassador for this year's GDC.I take pride in crafting immersive stories emphasizing the power of friendship and love, with hope prevailing against all odds. I'm also committed to featuring diverse characters in my games in a way that feels authentic and uplifting to the player. Overall, I strive to craft interactive stories that make a difference in the player's life. Whether it's a huge impact or just bringing a bit of joy to their day, I love to create games that inspire people!I am currently open to game narrative opportunities. Please feel free to get in touch if you'd like to chat, collaborate on a project, or have any other inquiries regarding my work. You may contact me through email at [email protected], LinkedIn, or through the form below!

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I worked on Turnstyle as the lead writer and an artist. I aimed to create a narrative with diverse characters, focusing on their queer identities and complex relationships with each other.While the basic battle mechanics were decided early on, I was given a lot of freedom to determine what the story of Turnstyle would become. We decided as a team to surround the story around the cast's conflicts, both with each other and their inner struggles.

For the class, I decided to write a chapter focused on the character Amery. This chapter also introduces the world and other main characters. A major struggle I faced was attempting to give all the narrative aspects enough screentime, while also being able to finish Amery's character arc in four cutscenes. Overall, I feel that it went well and that this project has been a valuable experience in learning how to achieve a good story balance.

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LoveBites (2024)
_{Visual Novel Writer}^{LoveBites: An Existential Romance is a werewolf sapphic romance visual novel. You find yourself ripped away from your monotonous life, kidnapped by a mysterious werewolf woman. Will you escape your captor's claws with your humanity intact, or embrace her corrupt love for a chance at a new life?}

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Our Vampire's Den (2024)
_{Game Creator, Writer}^{Our Vampire's Den is a visual novel style vampire romance game, featured on the mobile app Dorian: Interactive Dramas Hub. Form close bonds with four alluring vampires in order to solve the mystery of why they have captured you in their vampire's den. Gain clues to escape...or fall in love trying.}

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Turnstyle (2022)
_{Writer, Character Concept Artist, Background Artist}^{Turnstyle is a turn-based RPG where you balance five party members on a rotating pentagon. Navigate a public transit system infested with monsters, budgeting the party's cash and their patience with each other as you make your way around the city.}

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Magical Mending (2022)
_{Writer, Designer}^{Magical Mending is a magical girl-themed TTRPG in which players are tasked with protecting the dying realm of Lolarina and bringing hope and joy to all. Will you succeed in restoring magic prosperity to your realm or will your magic burn out permanently in your efforts to protect the people of Lolarina?}

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Buds (2020)
_{Writer, Concept Artist}^{Buds is a platonic visual novel and plant care simulator where you play as someone who is coping with the recent loss of their sister. Although you are hesitant to move on, you slowly warm up to the new people you meet. See your relationships grow and bloom as you interact with the people of Hitachinaka!}

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While designing Magical Mending, I researched games that were thematically similar to my idea, in that they were also magical girl focused. I also took inspiration from the experimental TTRPGs we played in class, such as Tearable RPG and Lasers & Feelings. I had never made a TTRPG before, so this process was a new and fun experience for me!

I knew that I really wanted to make something similar in plot and tone to Madoka Magica, which has been my favorite magical girl anime for many years. Through many playtests, I was able to figure out what mechanics and plot points were working well to achieve this experience goal. Overall, I think this project turned out well for my first TTRPG and I would like to make more of these kinds of games going forward!

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Throughout the development of Buds, I acted as the writing lead for the project. Buds was one of the first games I ever worked on, much less with a large team. I came into the project unsure of if I had the skills to lead the writing department, but I was willing to take on the challenge.My main contributions to the game were organizing narrative documents and writing the main character Shiori's dialogue. While I struggled through some aspects of writing development due to inexperience, I feel that the game turned out well in the end and that I learned from my early mistakes.

Buds received a World Building Award for “excellence in written, interactive, or environmental storytelling” during UCSC’s 2020 Games Showcase.I'm really proud of receiving a distinguished award on one of my first games! I am glad that I was able to successfully lead the writing team and that we achieved such a significant goal.

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In preparation for the Dorian Legends pitch contest, I played through similar titles on the Dorian app (Crimson Bonds, SlashFic, etc.) in order to get an idea of what Dorian readers find engaging in their favorite stories. From this, I created rough concepts for my story and characters. I then put together my pitch carefully, balancing worldbuilding, characterization of the MC and four love interests, and emotional stakes all within just 1000 words. This work all ended up paying off, as I ended up being one of the winners, earning $500 towards my initial pitch! Over the next few weeks, I worked hard to deliver weekly episodes, prepare moodboards and character briefs for my collaborating artist, learn further about Dorian creator best practices, and more.While not a requirement of the Dorian Legends program, I also took on the challenge of using the Dorian Text Importer tool. Although Dorian creators have the option to manually write content in each node (similar to tools like Twine), the Text Importer tool allowed me to format my story episodes in a spreadsheet and directly import my writing into the game engine. While I have worked with writing in similar spreadsheets before, this was my first time implementing narrative content into a game by myself. This ended up going very well, in fact I enjoyed writing directly in the spreadsheets! It also helped make my workflow faster, being able to instantly import my writing into the engine and test for bugs seamlessly. I am grateful for the opportunity to get more experience writing in spreadsheets, and hope to experiment more with implementing my own writing in-engine for future projects.

Character moodboards, beta designs, and final designs for the love interest characters (Kalissa, Emerson, The Queen, and Dagney)

View of the node graph on the Dorian story editor page

Overall, Our Vampire's Den ended up performing well during the duration of the Dorian Legends Creator program, earning an additional $500 towards the game! As shown from the Performance Review Image, the pilot episodes exceeded expectations for reader retention.Furthermore, Dorian readers left many kind and supportive comments on the Our Vampire's Den page. Many expressed attraction towards their favorite love interests, interest in the dynamics between characters, as well as excitement to see how the story will develop further. It was great to become more involved with the Dorian app community through the Legends program and to see everyone's love for my story!

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