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.
Work History
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Lead Narrative Systems Designer
Failbetter Games
2022—2025
Creative lead on Fallen London, Failbetter's long-running live online game. Led major new storylines and feature additions to the game, maintained its voice and tone, edited and mentored other writers.
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Senior Writer / Narrative Designer
Failbetter Games
2020—2022
Wrote and implemented new content for Fallen London, including new events, storylines, and features. Responsible for a large amount of writing as well as in-depth design work maintaining the game's economy and systems.
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Documentation Writer
Riot Games
2019—2020
Wrote internal support documentation to help internal teams and external licensors navigate the Runeterra (League of Legends) IP.
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Localization Writer
Ice Pick Lodge
2018—2019
Wrote roughly one fifth of the English script for Pathologic 2, working with IPL's writing team to maintain the game's tone and voice while localizing it for an English-speaking audience.
Credits
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Fallen London
Failbetter Games, 2010
Lead Designer – 2020-2025
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. After two years as a senior writer/designer, I was promoted to lead and responsible for the game's ongoing creative direction, while still working on individual designs and stories.
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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.