I'm a game narrative designer and creative leader, dedicated to making games that explore new ideas and storytelling techniques while remaining unfalteringly entertaining. Currently working on an unannounced project. You can find my full portfolio at https://laikafawkes.com/career/Recently, I've led the design and narrative of two critically acclaimed indie games. Astronaut: The Best used a complex "roguelike narrative" system to challenge players with an ever-shifting series of moral decisions, earning it press mentions as one of 2023's best and funniest games. Wintermoor Tactics Club, RPGFan's Strategy RPG of the Year for 2020, celebrated the empathy-building power of tabletop roleplaying by using its mechanics in a real-world setting.While making those titles, I also worked as Creative Director at coding education company TechSmart, where I led an interdisciplinary team to make learning as engaging as possible using interactive entertainment. Before that, I shipped several mobile and PC games as one half of studio Rad Dragon, featured by the Independent Games Festival and IndieCade. I've worked professionally in games as a designer, writer, composer, engineer, and quality assurance lead. I've presented work on dynamic game narrative at GDC, TEDx, the USC Annenberg Symposium, and the Cooney Center Leadership Forum. Outside of my career, I help raise a cool toddler and occasionally front a rock band.