William Darbishire

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT WILLIAM DARBISHIRE

I’m an experienced game writer, editor and narrative designer, currently working for Plarium. Previously I spent almost 17 years working for Jagex, where I wrote and edited character dialogue, barks, prose fiction and instructional text for RuneScape - the studio\'s flagship MMO. I was also involved with VO casting and direction, coaching new developers in game-writing best practices, and ensuring that the tone, themes and feel of the RuneScape IP were maintained across multiple RuneScape-branded products.I also produced narrative and mechanical design documentation and levels - from paper prototype to implementation in UE4 - for an unannounced game. Additionally, I worked on story outlines, dialogue scripts, and integration of narrative with game systems on other unannounced products.Prior to becoming a narrative designer, I worked on commercial copywriting and asset creation, during more than a year in Jagex’s marketing team, performed editorial work, and customer support.I am a passionate, lifelong gamer with a particular love of emergent narrative and immersive world building. Outside of work, I love to play CRPGs, roguelikes and strategy games - anything where deep narrative and complex mechanics align to create unique experiences with each play session. I also enjoy music (guitar, bass, voice) and amateur dramatics.