Chris Hepler Email & Phone Number

California, United States

California, United States

Freelancing video game work. Recently worked for ThrivePal, currently working with Eram Games.Additionally, whenever I have spare time, I stay active doing personal writing. My projects include novels and short fiction. The latest to be in print is the short story "High Water Mark" in the "Paladins of Valor" anthology, released April 19, 2024.

Austin, Tx, Us

I freelanced for Airship Syndicate on the game "Wayfinder" for about six months, and joined the staff full-time for another six. Then the Great Layoffs of 2024 hit Airship along with everyone else, and now I am open to work.I wrote quests, item descriptions, bestiary entries, Landmarks and Findings, a few songs, a ton of barks, and other player-facing lore. I spearheaded the Eventide holiday event, writing all the dialogue for the seasonal quests and ambient chatter in the players' main hub, Skylight. Considering how much Wayfinder needed good content after a rocky Early Access launch, I like to say that our team saved Christmas.

Hong Kong, Hk

Writer of a narrative-heavy resource-management mobile game. Responsible for writing everything with text: story, dialogue, tutorials, GUI, research documentation. Managed 1 direct report in Denmark with a team in Shanghai.

Greenwich, Ct, Us

I have been writing story, characters, and dialogue for as-yet-unannounced projects for Otherside Entertainment, Amazon Game Studios, Airship Syndicate, and I Got Games. * Amazon was a longer-term contract for My Loft, a contemporary comedy game for the Amazon Echo. I led a team of three writers who were great at comedy but didn't have game writing experience, so it fell to me to bring order to chaos. I created some of the characters, spearheaded the quest creation, edited the other writers, and kept them to a schedule. The game shipped February 26th, 2021.* Otherside required dialogue for an E3 demo of an unannounced project.* I wrote an interactive romance novel for I Got Games, due Q1 2021.* Airship Syndicate required worldbuilding on an unannounced project.

Redwood City, California, Us

My most recent mission was to write the narrative and dialogue of Seasun's upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean game Sea of Glory. This included the narrative shift in direction from a mobile MMO to the Battle Royale format. I was also the lead writer on "Mythkillers," Seasun Comics' urban fantasy debut. We successfully Kickstarted "Mythkillers" in the summer of 2019 and completed the first 6-issue arc, which is now available as a graphic novel via Amazon and ComiXology.Before that, I expanded the story and lore of Relics of Gods, an upcoming turn-based MOBA (massive online battle arena). This led to the creation of a 400+-page Relics of Gods lore encyclopedia which is available for sale in Mandarin.

I worked on approximately five projects in the free-to-play space: one roguelike, one RPG, and three hidden object titles. I made the words happen, in many diverse formats. My duties included writing story and character bibles, episode scripts, narrative design spreadsheets, hints for hidden objects (I've done over 3,500 so far), approving 2D and 3D art, reviewing other writers' work on parallel projects, creating a testing plan for QA, contributing to our social media strategy, and bug hunting to make sure my gameplay and dialogue integrated smoothly. In the process, I learned the ins and outs of two proprietary scripting languages.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Story Writing ResponsibilitiesStar Wars: The Old Republic• Designed, pitched and wrote numerous multiplayer quests for planets including Taris, Balmorra, Tattooine, Belsavis, Alderran and Hoth.Mass Effect 2 (Including DLC: Zaeed, Kasumi, Firewalker, Equalizer, Overlord, Aegis, Firepower, Lair of the Shadow Broker, Arrival.)• Headed up non-voiced text writing: codex, item descriptions, galaxy map and datapads.• Became the “IP expert” in charge of scientific accuracy and in-world rationalizations for gameplay decisions for Mass Effect 2 DLC and full Mass Effect 3 project.Mass Effect 3 (Including DLC: From Ashes, Firefight, Leviathan, Citadel, and multiplayer Resurgence, Rebellion, Earth, Retaliation, and Reckoning.) • Pitched, designed, and wrote story and dialogue for critical path mission and key characters.• Ownership of levels for Cerberus Coup & Silver Coast Casino, produced initial story plan for Lesuss.• Oversaw team of five writers to create codex, item descriptions and galaxy map.• Primary writer for multiplayer mission text, weapon packs, and weekly challenges.Technical Responsibilities• Conversant with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Visio, Sharepoint, Hansoft, Perforce, Extraview. • Responsible for scripting dialogue and story conditionals in Kismet.• Worked with art, programming, and design to implement galaxy map in Unreal Editor, including limited gameplay balancingMarketing Responsibilities• Led team of 4 writers to create 365 days of “Cerberus Daily News” updates to maintain fan interest between Mass Effect 2 and 3.• Wrote marketing sell text for ME 2 and ME 3 downloadable content.• Wrote Alliance News Network web updates for ME 3 launch.• Created Mass Effect 3 launch day Twitter event, “ANN Reports Live From UCLA,” which inspired fan turnout, making “#solcomms” the top trending topic worldwide for that day. • Wrote “The Art of the Mass Effect Universe,” for Dark Horse.References: Mac Walters or John Dombrow, 780-430-0164

Electronic Games• Sora, Tomo Software: Wrote for Sora, a teen-oriented massively-multiplayer mobile phone game. Designed decision-tree structure of in-game events, determined required game statistics, and wrote dialogue/text-output.• Sanctum, Digital Addiction: Editor for Sanctum on-line strategy game. Helped define clarity of game-play and rules, assisted with world-development, worked on proposed novel spin-off.Tabletop Roleplaying Games• Shadowrun, FASA Corporation (Cyberpirates, Beyond the Shadows: The Shadowrun Companion, Missions, others)• Paranoia, West End Games (Creatures of the Nightcycle, others) • Legend of the Five Rings, Alderac Entertainment Group (Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands, Winter Court)• Earthdawn, FASA Corporation (The Ork Nation of Cara Fahd, Arcane Mysteries of Barsaive)• Orkworld, Wicked Press (editor, creative consultant, and additional writing) Comics• M.I.T.H., Top Cow Comics: Wrote and developed M.I.T.H., tongue-in-cheek original graphic novel about a U.S. which owes its military superiority to ancient magic found by the CIA.

The Agency (Saturdays, 10pm. One-hour drama about the CIA.)• Story and teleplay for "The Great Game," first aired October 2002.• Story and teleplay for "First Born," first aired November Sweeps 2002.• Story for "An Isolated Incident," first aired January 2003. As staff writer, contributed to plans for season arc, wrote first filmed episode to introduce new main character A.B. Stiles, assisted other writers with CIA knowledge and research, assisted in martial arts and firearm choreography.