Project Passion

So want to know a little bit about me? First we'll start off with the fact that I'll be going by Isakole here, which is my PS4 gamertag.

 

I'm a twenty five year old woman, gleefully married to a gamer guy, living in Austin, Texas with two adorably fluffy felines, Vau and Squish. I'm a huge Star Wars nerd to the point I can speak one of the languages, and video games are my life. Not my hobby, not my way of passing time, it's my life.

 

The question of the day is probably this; "Why did this chick put all this work in for a job she probably won't get?". My answer is; "Because I can!". There's probably tons of applications for Narrative Designer so I had to do something to stand out, especially since I have no 'working' video game industry experience. I say 'working' because I qualify in a different way.

 

Below is all of the requirements Bungie has asked for, along with my explanation of why I fit the bill. Some may agree, some may disagree. What matters is whether Bungie considers me at all.

 

 

 

Bungie's Requirements For Narrative Designer

 

Minimum 3 years game industry experience or one, shipped AAA game which had significant narrative components.

Since 2007 I've been playing a game called Second Life [SL] every day, save for a few exceptions. It's basically a 3D grid where you can do literally anything you want to, and there's quite a few simulators [sims] devoted to roleplay of different genres.

 

Within SL I have managed my own sim from 2012 to the present, which includes building objects both in-game and in Blender or Maya, scripting using LSL which is comparable to Lua, debugging when the build and scripts are not cooperating, creating textures in Photoshop, and writing the setting and corresponding material such as applications and backstories.

 

On other simulators, since 2008, I have either been at the head of a faction or second in command which has the responsibility of generating roleplay and planning simulator wide story arcs. The planning itself involves the owner of the sim, other faction leaders, the sim staff, and the build engineers of which communication was done via in-game text or Skype calls. Hours upon hours have been spent pouring over documents, roleplay logs, character sheets, and excel spreadsheet timelines. More often than not I have multi-tasked in Maya or Photoshop while being in a roleplay scene or in a planning meeting with others.

 

How is this comparable to game industry experience? The same way a volunteer can qualify for a job in the same field, the way a volunteer can donate their time at a shelter to gain experience to work in a vet's office. Just because I enjoyed the roleplay and the work I put into the simulators doesn't mean it should be discounted as mere entertainment. Unfortunately it's not like the owners and staff I've worked with can be reached with a mere phone call, thus another reason Project Passion was made, to showcase my skills with writing.

 

If that's not convincing enough then consider this; I've been on SL since 2007 and let's say an average of 5 hours a day atleast, which is on the slim side. That's 5 hours a day, every day for 8 years, comes to 14,600 hours. Break that down into an average work schedule of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. That equals 7.6 years of volunteer work. Over seven years of roleplaying with every flavor of player, dealing with every type of problem that can crop up in a storyline, and maintaining continuity in a strictly immersive play environment along with aiding on several 3D builds and providing maintenance.

 

 

Prior in-game scripting/design experience.

Within my own simulator I have built several environments, from snowed in military outposts to neon glowing metropolises to complex spacestations. I've also assisted with several other builds using Maya, Blender, and Photoshop, depending on the need. It's through this I've gained hands-on experience with all three programs, providing small item props to completely meshed architectural structures.

 

 

Familiarity with scripting languages such as Python/Lua.

Second life has it's own scripting system called LSL, which is comparable to Lua. With this language I've written my own scripts for several different needs such as text alerts triggered by an avatar passing a line threshold, and building components such as elevators, doors, and windows. If there is a 'disconnect' per se between LSL and Lua I'm more than happy to study on my own free time, and even take classes. Life is about learning.

 

 

Functional understanding of Max/Maya.

With my volunteer work I've come to know both Blender and Maya to the point of creating simpld items I need in-game. To be quite frank, designing architecture in Maya is one of my favorite things to do, especially when it comes to making the most simplified bounding box. Self-taught through tutorials and general experimetation has provided a plethora of knowledge, which only continues to grow.

 

 

Strong content debugging skills.

With writing scripts and building simulators comes the inevitable debugging. Not only do I have experience with such on Second Life, I've also debugged console games and programs at my real life jobs. It's a running joke that I always break my video games every time I play them.

 

For example, on Skyrim it's possible to trap an NPC dragon underneath the environment's ground plane if you can trigger their body slide over five times. It's randomized on which attempt is successful but eventually the dragon's hit box will get stuck under the physics barrier of the ground. You can damage the dragon from afar with magic or a bow but the dragon won't die, even when the health meter reaches zero. The only way to kill it is with melee attacks.

 

Another example is on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier where in several places the dialogue is not triggered by the avatar passing the threshold due to not being expanded from border to border of the environment. Even if the avatar doubles back and passes the threshold the trigger is not activated which results in enemy NPCs not spawning into the level. The only fix I found was completely restarting from the last checkpoint.

 

There is a bug in Destiny I found on Venus in the Ishtar Commons. When the Fallen and Vex are having it out between themselves you can trip a Vex into an infinite loop of firing. Killing several Vex in a matter of seconds can result in one Vex being stuck in one place, unable to walk or turn, but the red light of the eye and the damage script of the firing weapon still works. This means the player still takes damage but the Vex itself is untouchable due to the avatar body having disappeared due to the delayed area cleaning procedure. The first time was a fluke, the second time I could intentionally trip the system. I've been unable to recreate the issue since, the Titan I was using was deleted and it won't work on my Hunter so it seems to be class specific since both characters were Exos.

 

But, my experience in debugging is not only confined to video games. At my current job, which is the Central Operations of five North American call centers of one company, we have Excel spreadsheets that are scripted to pull information from three different systems. It's not uncommon to have a bug crop up atleast once a day and I always try to fix it myself before contacting the team member who creates the files for my department. When I do have to contact him I always screen share so I can see exactly what the solution is. The programs we use on a daily basis often have need troubleshooting on our end since it is a fast paced environment and no one has time to sit in a call queue for customer service.

 

I'll admit, debugging is not my strongest skill that I have, but it can certainly be worked on. It'll be worth the time, and though I'm not perfect I can try to come as close as I can.

 

 

A natural ear and eye for pacing and drama.

More often than not I leave a movie or finish a game critiquing the story, and nothing bugs me more than continuity errors, plot holes, and missing details. I want a story that makes me want to look up the wiki pages and learn more because I'm enthralled, not because I'm confused. This is what I strive for in my writing, I want it to be so enrapturing you have to come up for air. For examples, please see the Archive page.

 

 

Good understanding of narrative storytelling.

While I could explain away that I do understand storytelling of the narrative style, it's best to see the Archive page.

 

 

Good communication skills.

My entire working career has had the need for excellent communication skills. Most of my years has been with external customer service, the most recent two years working with internal customers, such as team leads, supervisors, associates, and associate directors. The most common forms of communication I deal with on a daily basis is email, text messages, phone calls, and face to face conversations either one on one or with multiple people.

 

 

A willingness to take design direction when it is offered and collaborate with team members from different disciplines.

This isn't "Game by Isakole" this is "Game by Bungie". The game itself is a collaborative effort of several sets of skills and refined talent from all sorts of different fields. To be given a direction is an opportunity that will be met with enthusiasm, whether there is a desired outcome or not. Working with the entire team is essential because we're all here for a common goal, to make a video game so great people talk about it for decades.

 

 

The focus and motivation to work independently when needed.

This shouldn't need any more explanation than this: Look. Look at this site, the rewrites, the explanations, and the original content. If this doesn't scream focus and motivation, then I don't know what does.