Writing Examples

Various examples of my writing, from 4 student projects.

An Ordinary Day

A small platformer game made in Knytt Stories with a story focused on choice and self determination.

Since this was the focus the Ending in which you always did as you were told has the smallest narrative weight, being the shortest and only praising you in universe itself. Furthermore while you start looking at a screen and following orders, in this ending you end end the game looking at a screen while having followed orders.

The other two endings present the choice of leaving the virtual world you where trapped in by aliens for a uncertain future in freedom, or choosing to return out of your own free will. As this is a game about choice and self-determination both choices would have to be given the same narrative weight, as treating one choice as the correct one would lessen the players self-determination. So both ending consist out of three slides, and both frame your decision as the right one for you.

In the compliance ending you voluntarily return to the safety of the simulation, sacrificing your freedom for security, but doing so as a choice. The only choice that matters for you. The background shows the VR device lowering itself onto your head, in a predicable progression, ending with the start of the simulation. Because you know what will happen afterwards and this is the entire reason you chose to do it.

The escape ending on the other hand presents the player with uncertainty, both in text and from the visuals, which show a blinding light through a crack. You do not know what happens after you leave. That is the entire point, you chose freedom because you want your choices to matter and because knowing the result isn't important for freedom. The future is uncertain but important thing, the players choice has already happened.

Start:

Congratulations Employee,

your diligent work has been noted and you have been granted a pay raise.

Continue to follow orders and make the Company proud.

And

Compliance Ending:

Good Work Employee,

Your obedience and quick action have been noted. For this you are hereby granted a promotion.

Continue to follow orders and make humanity proud.

Choosing Safety over Freedom: Return Ending

As the VR-Device blocks your eyes, you have made your choice.

Freedom from choice. Security over lofty ideals.

And for you it was a good choice, the only one that matters.

You close your eyes, in the knowledge that they will take care of you. In exchange for obedience.

Simulation Start

Choosing Freedom over Safety: Flight Ending

As you jump the air rushes through your hair, your eyes are blinded by the sun above. Your future is uncertain.

Death may be imminent, or a hundred years away…

You will remember your first moment in true freedom forever.

Where or even whether you land is unimportant.

Only your choice counts.

Extraplanetary Quest

The first major student project with the setting being sea/low sea animals with WW2 weaponry added to them. The rough backstory was that upon losing, the Axis blew up the planet, with the rest of humanity barely managing to escape. They rallied after rebuilding in deep space, but before they could acquire a new world, they were beaten back by aliens using human technology fused to space creatures. Now humanity is in danger, and you have to recover an alien artifact to save everyone.

In the Terrors of the nigh event I tried to place the player into the shoes of a soldier who fought through WW2, the rebuilding, the fights with the aliens, and only has seen humanity as a whole beaten again and again. Someone who is now tasked with the survival of the entire species, and how this would wear them down, especially being alone in their spaceship.

Terrors of the night

Dark thoughts have been haunting you for the entire day, thoughts of failure, of the past. Sometimes you wish you had someone to keep you company, someone you could talk to instead of the endless uncaring void. Your hand massages your forehead. Today will be a difficult night … with dark thoughts come nightmares. Your head turns towards the medicine cabinet. You could take more Placidyl than usual ...You would sleep like a stone, with all the advantages and disadvantages

Take the normal dosage
Take more
Take the Alien drugs. You will stay awake. [LT Combat drugs](A special Ability one could find)

[Option 1]

[80%]

Your sleep is shallow and full of nightmares.Dreams of dying, and of seeing death. So many faces to haunt you in the night. Mocking, questioning. You are a hero of humanity... Aren’t they humanity, why didn’t you save them? Aren’t they worth it? The face of a former squadmate. Are you too weak? Your alarm clock rips you from your dreams, sweat drenching your bed.

[20%]

You don’t know how long you have thrown yourself from one side of the bed to the other, as you can’t seem to grasp the safety of sleep. Haunted by your own mind, there is no escape, there never was. Though the blaring alarm at least offers you some distraction. Your mind foggy from your medication, you stumble into the cockpit and ready yourself for the fight.

[Begin Combat]

[Option 2]

[60%]

As you lay down you swallow the two pills. At least the sugar makes them sweet. You close your eyes as sleep slowly takes hold of you. A deep, purging sleep, you desperately need. No nightmares plague your mind and as you rise in the morning your mind has settled. You are ready to continue your journey.

[40%]

You cough hard against the smoke that fills your cabin, stinking and rough. Cable fire. Your adrenaline pumped mind stills needs some time to figure everything out, to recognise the blaring sound that torments your ears. Attack alarm … something hit your ship. Your body needs some time to respond to the signals your brain sends, and you stumble, like a drunk, into the cockpit, as adrenaline purges the drugs from your system...or at least suppresses them.

[Health -4, Start Combat]

[Option 3]

Your carefully examine the pill on your hand. It’s colours. How familiar it looks. You know the effects, you have taken it often enough… and you are sure it will help you through the night. Stay awake and sharp. And as you swallow, you wonder, whether being addicted to two things is really worse than being addicted to one. It can’t get worse worse, can it? You ponder this for a while, as the clarity, the cool calculation of the drug spreads. You now realize the solution to a problem that bugged you the entire time. Allowing you to finally repair a minor damage that has kept your ship from performing. You smile and get to work.

[+5 Health]

The Curious Wonderland

A student made mod for the game Curious Expedition that sadly never reached completion. The premise was an adaption for the mod with characters and settings from Alice in Wonderland. In the game, you move an expedition over a map and have to balance Sanity (depleting by events and movement) and your goals. You can interact with the members of your expedition via events. You and other characters can gather ailments and perks which effect the game negatively and positively, respectively. You also can collect items that will help you in your travels.

The the Girl and the Cat I again tried to write an event where a character is placed in a foreign situation far from home with a lot of stress on them, yet in this case there are others around to help. So the players decision is whether to seek help from others, something which I tried to show as a good thing, because sometimes it is more then carthatic to allow yourself to let out your feelings. Something which I tried to show by making the first option the strongest healing option.

Similarily distracting yourself can be a viable strategy too, if you don't want , or can, open yourself up, which I tried to show by making it a slightly weaker but still good healing option, as well as reflecting the idle distraction in text.

Meanwhile the Dodo Games were meant to be a more lighthearted event, were one can trade an item for strong healing, as simply enjoying yourself with play is likely to raise the spirits, just like a day of planned lazyness and enjoyment is.

The girl and the cat

[Only if Alice has Ailments, Dinah and the Duchess are in the Party]

[Can only be seen once]

It was a wonderful day and the horizon was full of interesting things, one more curiouser than the other. And yet, Alice couldn’t find joy in it, couldn’t rekindle the spark of wonder in her heart. For it ached for home. For a world where things made sense, where people were just people. A heavy sigh escaped her chest as the Duchess gave her a small pat on the back. “Maybe your cat, such a wonderful little feline, might be able to lift your spirits? Give you a taste of home, you long for?” Alice turned her head, slightly. “Is it this obvious?” Her only answer was a small nod.

Alice agreed
The cat wouldn’t help [Book of Songs, isn’t used]
Snap at

Option 1:

She could barely nod before she turned to search for Dinah, who jumped on her lap with a soft purr. Alice slowly began petting her, deep in thought. How long was it since she had seen her family? To her dismay she didn’t even remember… her family…… The first tears began to roll over Alice's face, for even a big girl has to cry from time to time. And while her hand wandered through Dinah's pelt, her tears fell on it, and while the cat purred she sobbed silently. It had been too long, she had gone too far, had been too strong for too long. She just needed to cry, for once. She was just a child after all. Not matter how strong.

[All Ailments on Alice are healed. +10 Sanity]

Option 2:

Alice gave a sad little smile. “Maybe reminding myself of home wouldn’t be the best idea, maybe I should do something else to distract me from my woes.” She sighed, and turned towards her back, rummaging through it until she found her Song Book. “Maybe we could sing a little tune to lift our spirits?”

The Duchess thought of it, then smiled: “That we can certainly do, dear Alice.” She took the book carefully, and began to flip the pages, before stopping at one.

“This song?”

Alice looked over her shoulder and nodded. And soon after their duet rose to the strange skies.

[+10 Sanity]

Option 3:

“I don’t need pity. I am strong! I’m not a little girl!” Her voice trembled ever so slightly while she snapped at Duchess, who flinched back. “I AM FINE!” Her scream scared a few birds away, while Alice turned and stomped away.

[-20 Sanity, + Perk Strong Facade](A perk making you better in combat)

Dodo Games

It was a warm afternoon, come to think of it wasn’t it always? Time seemed indeed curious in this place... so why was the rabbit always so worried about being late (to what exactly he didn’t deign tell)? Anyhow, the Dodo approached her, a smile on his beak. “My dear Miss Alice, I fear our group had awful little excitement in the last time and I fear, without a remedy we may find ourselves in an inconvenient situation. Luckily, I can present the ultimate remedy to all ailments. Dodo-Catch. I would only need some items to mark the bounds.”

A splendid idea [Lose one random item]
Now is not the time [Needs Books of Quotes, doesn’t use it up]
No [One blue die, Head needed] (A skill check)

[Choice 1:]

After quickly marking the field, the Dodo organized them along the rough rectangle, one here, the other there, and he stood in the middle, explaining the game. It was, to be honest, rather simple. One was only tasked to run around as fast as one would like to and to hug whoever’s path one would cross, catching him thusly. Though they were free to either hug back or run along as they pleased. It was rather enjoyable for a time, and in the end they all felt better doing it.

[+20 Sanity]

[Choice 2:]

Alice gave the Dodo a friendly smile, before quoting from one of her favourite childhood books, though she had to admit she had to look it up to get it completely right.

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” She cleared her throat. “And it is true, sometimes being lazy is the right thing to do, to relax in the sun and enjoy the warmth.” The Dodo thought of this for a while, then he nodded. “Very well, we shall do it so.”

[+5 Sanity]

[Choice 3: Success]

Alice looked over to the Dodo. “Dear Dodo, I understand, really, I do. But at the present time we all have more pressing matters. As sad as it may be.”

The Dodo, after a while of thought, nodded wistfully. “Very well, we shall do it another time then.”

[Choice 3: Failure]

“Dear Dodo.” She started, quite strong in her opinion. “Maybe sometimes it is wise to be lazy, to just enjoy life.” Her smile faded, as he huffed…

“And my games aren’t enjoyable Miss Alice? Is this what you are implying?” He turned and stormed off, without doubt having hurt feelings.

[-10 Sanity]

Godly Games

Godly Games was an exercise to add something of our choice to our Portfolio. My choice fell on a TTRPG Corebook, which places the players in the shoes of gods, giving me experience in writing, layouting and game design. Especially it contains five pieces of creative writing that try to describe the the five different kinds of religion the player can spread around the world.

Furthermore they all try to explain those religions from a mortal frame of view, fitting at most, on half a A4 page, so I had to be both descriptive and concice, while also describing a connected world, showing how the different types of religion could interact.

Proselytizing Religions

These religions gain power by converting as many people as possible to their religion, placing them in eas conflict with others. They cannot accept other ways to salvation as valid because this would limit them in their powergain, something I tried to show in this text from the perspective a streetpreacher.

A giggle escaped Eviar when she looked over the crate to see the street preacher wipe away some of the rot of the cabbage, before continuing to shout out about some goddess. It seemed like everyone was only too eager to give up their religion just for some new gods or goddesses.

The young Macela shook her head, a happy little chirp escaping her before she smiled up to the hulking vendor who had given it to her. "Thank you, Mr Frog!" A ribbiting laugh escaped. "Ah, well, his words were starting to get annoying, and you asked so nicely... but don't call me that, not all of us know you don't mean it bad. And many do. What would you think if I called you a crow?"

Another giggle escaped the child. "Then I'd collect some extra shiny things just for you! But I have to go! My first flight is later! Look, my wings are all grown now! Just shed my last baby feather." She had known from her first thoughts that this day would come and that with this, she would come closer to her creator.

Sometimes she had wondered why the other people, so many and so colourful, were often so eager to abandon their creators. Her parents had told her, not all gods were so friendly like their, took such good care of their people. They had to live such a bad live without their gods protecting them, no wonder there was a new preacher on the corner every week.

Oh... over her thoughts she had completely forgotten to listen to Mr Frogs words... "I really have to go, really sorry, but I'll tell you all about my first flight tomorrow! I'll come to fly over!" With a giggle and a wing wave, she ran off, while the shopkeep chuckled at her enthusiasm.

Cult

Cults are antagonistic religions that specialize on infiltration and subterfuge, hurting other religions by either slowly taking away their followers, or by activly hurting those followers. This places them in competition with nearly all other religions.

In the story I wanted to emphesize the subterfuge aspect, as well as the infiltration aspect, by making clear all other religions can be infiltrated and that cults survive by being careful and not playing their hand to early. Showing the world from the perspective of a cult member, while also engaging in a bit of world building.

Quolr took pride in knowing what was happening around the city. He took pride in a few things, the fact that he could sell even the rotten cabbages, the fact that the children of the market liked him, but most of all in the fact that he knew what was happening around him.

He long knew about the cult moving through the streets, they were careful, but you could keep infiltrations of this magnitude only a secret for so long. He would tell people, but no one would listen. Still, he talked to people, and with every cabbage, he got another piece of information.

Some were trivial, like that fact that a local man had come back from the mountains a woman, some concerning, their neighbour kingdom was once more raising armies and some just a good story.

"And you tell me, the pirate ship was then lifted by a column of pure light?" He shook his head. "I knew that attacking Wavebreaker Castle was suicide for this sea-vermin, but I must admit I never expected anything like this."

His customer, the fur well oiled, and in the quick-drying clothing of a sailor chuckled. "Saw it with me own eyes. Lifted that 'hole ship to the sky like a child's toy. Must've given those rats quite the shock... not as big though as when the ship crashed back down. The wave destroyed the whole rest of the fleet I tell you!"

They both chuckled together, and with the next cabbage sold the story went on, the first awe of those hearing it raising to the sky in invisible power. While the story spread and spread, awe turning into amusement over time, and the power slowly disappearing.

Mortal Challenger

Instead of their own displays of power, these religions gain power from displays of mortals, by giving them challenges to overcome.

By choosing to friends as the focus, I wanted to show how these religions can coexist with follower based religions, as they do not draw power from the same source, and may often share goals. Furthermore it allowed for a little bit more world and characterbuilding.

Ayena knew his work was righteous as his words were nearly drowned out by the bustle of the marketplace. He took another breath and lifted his shepherd's staff, the symbol of the Holy Mother protecting her flock, as he continued to shout the word of his Goddess out onto the street.

It needed to be spread, the masses needed to be enlightened for their own good. Only in this way, they could reach salvation, and forevermore become a part of the Holy Flock. It would be hard work, he could see it in the bemused looks of the passerby's, heard it in the words of the false prophets preaching from other street corners.

But the work still needed to be done. Even when the bemused looks turned into annoyance once Ayena began to condemn the sinfulness. Even when a rotten fruit flew in his direction.

His work was too important, and sooner or later they would lose interest, harass another preacher. The only thing they were good for, really.

Ayena only stopped to wipe away a bit of rot on his face, then he raised his voice again, and again, shouting out until the sun dipped below the roofs, and night slowly fell. His voice was coarse, his throat dry from the long day of preaching.

Yet when he entered the small temple, it was fuller than ever, Ayena recognizing several of their newest members from the street, and a smile spread over his face. It seemed like some people actually had listened to his words.

Ethnic Religion

Ethnic religions on the other hand are bound to a specific group of people, or a geographic area and have no interest in spreading their word, only in defending their followers from Proslythizers. Which creates a conflict point with agressively converting religions.

The story itself tries to show the unique relationship between the followers and their god as a cultural cornerstone there from the birth of someone, and as something that is simply natural, instead of a held believe. The god is your god, no matter what.

Cernor was a careful person, carefully ducking when a cabbage flew over the street, carefullysidestepping the dung some heavy draft lizards had left behind. He was also careful when he looked up and memorized the face of the new preacher. Just a glance and he would recognize him wherever he saw him.

His memory was careful too, careful to note every last detail, as he let the bodies sweep him further. So that he, once he reached the central park, could easily take the hidden parchment out of the hollow tree, and sketch down every detail of the preachers face. A few runes would tell the next person to pass by the hollow tree with sacred knowledge everything they needed to know.

Cernor sometimes wondered whether what they were doing was right. Whether there was any higher purpose to their careful infiltration or whether it was only the mindless work of a cult where no one knew each other. He was careful to not speak such thoughts, or even not to think them while close to any other possible cult member.

He was a careful person, and he intended to be an old bird, somewhen in the future. But for now, his feathers still had the healthy glow of youth, and he had his nieces' first flight to attend to. The smile on her face would make it more than worth it, to sit through a ritual for a god he had long forsaken.

The rest of his cult too, was careful, when new people entered the small temple, listened to sermons they didn't believe in, prayed to a god they didn't believe in. They were careful and biding their time, working unseen for their master.

Miracle Religion

These religions are based on gaining faith via spectacular displays(winning challenges by huge margins) to generate new faith. This places them a bit to the side of other religions as they do not directly compete for followers.

This story was set from the perspective of an informal information broker, as these people would do the most to spread such stories, as well as allowing me to make the world feel more lived in and real.

"Your new body really does fit you!" The Macela shot the woman next to him a beaked smile. "Glad you managed to do it."

A laugh pearled from the walls. "As if there ever was any doubt, I could do it. But yeah, I finally get to be who I always wanted to be. You should consider switching gods, think about what they could do for you!"

Now the two laughs were a duet. "Can't, we do not choose our god, though I don't mind helping you in your challenges... But regarding that, my Ev had her first flight today, and now she is sleeping happily... and absolutely exhausted. She tried flying up the great tower."

"And how high did she make it?" A keg of mead was emptied and hit the table "Right to the statue of the grumpy old cat." "Higher than her old man then." The two shared another laugh.

"So what brought you here? I assume it's not just the company and showing off your new body, no matter how worthy of that it is."

The Vlkodla shook her furred hat. "I planned on it, but challenges have a way of appearing wherever I go. There is a cult infiltrating the town, and they don't have the best plans, from what I know. I think my challenge is to stop their plans... or root out the cult."

"Alone against a cult." The bird was tapping the table rhythmically, thinking. "That's quite the challenge, are you sure you are up to it?" "Until now, I was always up to it. They don't give me challenges I cannot do. Even if they are hard sometimes." "I could help you, you know?" "Ha! That'll only make the challenge harder to compensate for the help, but I'll gladly accept!"