Bio
I am Bruno Dias, a game developer and writer working in games since 2015. As a narrative designer, my work focuses on procedural text generation and systems design for narrative-heavy games. As a writer, I have worked in fantasy, science fiction, horror, and comedy. I have also written about video games as a columnist; past bylines include VICE and Giant Bomb. I have also written a substantial ammount of noncommercial interactive fiction.
After years of freelancing, in 2020 I joined Failbetter Games as a senior narrative designer/writer, working primarily on Fallen London and an as-yet unannounced project.
Credits
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Fallen London
Failbetter Games, 2010
Writer/Narrative Designer – 2020-Present
Equal parts horrific, fantastic, and comical, Fallen London is a layered, story-driven textual RPG that continues to expand and thrive over ten years after its original release.
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Epic Night
Eko, 2019
Narrative Designer – 2019
An interactive TV series about a graduation party gone terribly wrong/right. Eko brought me on as a narrative designer for this project, and a couple of others that are under NDA.
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Pathologic 2
Ice-Pick Lodge, 2019
Localization Writer – 2018-2019
A return to the strange, grim world of a 2005 cult classic. Helping give the English localization the same level of poetic depth as the original Russian has been one of my favorite projects.
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Neo Cab
Chance Agency, 2019
Writer, narrative designer – 2017-2019
A neon-drenched vision of labor and human relations in a future taken over by the gig economy; an emotional survival game.
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Where the Water Tastes like Wine
Dim Bulb Games, 2018
Writer – 2017
I wrote about 30 folk tales for this anthological story-game, alongside over 20 other writers exploring the thematic (and physical) vastness of America. Nominated for Excellence in Narrative at the IGF awards.
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Voyageur
Bruno Dias in partnership with Failbetter Games, 2017
Designer, developer, writer – 2016-2018
Voyageur is my take on the space exploration sim game, a narrative-driven story generator about following the trail of humanity's diaspora across the galaxy and meeting the societies that emerged from it.
Clippings
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A Garden of Bodies
Giant Bomb, April 2016
The tangled relationship of architecture to death in video games.
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The Depleted World
ZAM, May 2016
How Dark Souls III copes with being a sequel.
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Is Casual Overwatch Better in Silence?
ZAM, August 2016
The pitfalls of communicating to strangers in an action game.
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IFComp 2016: Five Authors and Six Games
Giant Bomb, November 2016
A feature on the 2016 edition of the Interactive Fiction Competition.
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'Quadrilateral Cowboy' Points to a Different Kind of Intimacy in Games
Waypoint, March 2017
Characterization and player-NPC relationships in Blendo Games' Quadrilateral Cowboy.
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'Battlegrounds' Finds Streaming Success With Tense Human Drama
Waypoint, June 2017
The fascination and thrill of watching Battlegrounds streamers.
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Interactive Fiction's Favorite Setting Is the Dungeon of the Mind
Waypoint, July 2017
A history of interactive fiction told from the viewpoint of the dungeon as a narrative device.