Game Writing
A Game to Kill For (Unreleased)
Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Role: Writer
A Game to Kill For is a science fiction 2D adventure game that takes place in the fraught, parallel worlds of Nul and Sol. As detective Morgan Ford, you must use her ability to Shift between these worlds in order to find clues and solve crimes. This small slice of the game allows you to talk to witnesses, search for objects, and navigate these two worlds in order to find the next clue to a murder case.
Written for IGDA Global Game Jam 2022. The theme was Duality.
I helped write this game in 48 hours. I worked with a passionate group, which consisted of one programmer, one artist, and one musician. This taught me how to create content quickly, and I was able to try out YarnSpinner for the first time.
Writing sample available upon request.
A Haunting: Witching Hour (Unreleased)
Genre: Horror, Adventure
Role: Narrative Designer, Lead Writer (2016-2017)
Studio: Enyx Studios
A Haunting: Witching Hour is an episodic adventure game of dark horror and desperate survival.
During its development process, I contributed to A Haunting’s story, characters, dialogue, lore, and overall pacing of the game. Player choice could influence the story, so I wrote several branching narratives per episode.
Writing sample available upon request.
It’s In the Vents!
Genre: TTRPG, Sci-Fi, Horror
Role: Solo project, everything
It’s In the Vents! is space horror, letter writing tabletop roleplaying game for a solitary player, and is a hack of All We Love We Leave Behind by Adam X. Voss, created with permission from the author.
I developed It’s In the Vents! as part of the Ad Astra Game Jam. I enjoy games that give players the tools they need to tell their own stories, so I created this hack that allows them to roleplay and craft journal entries using cards that represent randomized events with a focus on survival horror with a sci-fi twist.
Final Round
Genre: TTRPG, Fighter
Role: Solo project, everything
Final Round is a one-page, micro tabletop RPG where you can create interesting, rounded, and over-the-top warriors and pit them against other players in one-on-one fights. Use dice to determine hits and dodges, break deadlocks, and use signature moves, ultimately telling collaborative stories between two fighters.
This was my first attempt at solo game development. I’ve always been interested in the characterization of characters in fighting games, but have never been good at actually playing the games myself. So I wanted to bridge the gap between the two worlds and allow for easy mechanics while give players depth when creating characters. For this project in particular, I found that less was always more, so I designed the rules in a way that gets the players actually playing within a few minutes.
Short Fiction
“Steep is the Price, Far is the Fall” – Out of Tartarus: A Hades Game Inspired Fanzine, 2022.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Contributed fiction for a zine inspired by the videogame Hades by Supergiant Games. All proceeds go to UNICEF’s mission to aid in the Yemen Crisis.
The zine is no longer available for purchase, so text is available on request.
“Bad Beat” – Jenny Magazine, 2017.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Crime
Third Place Winner in the 2017 Jenny Magazine Flash Fiction contest.
Interviews
Between 2016-2021, I worked as the Editorial Assistant for Adamant Press, contributing to Lightspeed Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, and Fantasy Magazine. I also occasionally interviewed authors as part of their Author Spotlight series. To see the full list of interviews, click here.
Alex Puncekar 