Summary
よぅ ! Nice to meet you! I'm Idris Grey, a narrative-focused game designer that's fueled by indie-pop anthems and addicted to bittersweet endings. I believe very deeply that stories are an essential salve, and I strive to be a voice to the voiceless, advocating for diversity in cast and perspective and defining worlds and characters from the intersection between gameplay and narrative.
Working at studios large and small, my career has been an ongoing shounen training montage where I combine my creative ambitions with technical hunger in pursuit of my final form. That journey has most recently led me to Tokyo at UNSEEN, where I'm excited to apply my skillset to Kemuri.
Work Experience
UNSEEN, Inc. | Senior Game Designer
August 2023 - Present
Since August 2023, I've been working at UNSEEN as a game designer on Kemuri. More details forthcoming.
Guerrilla Games | Senior Quest Designer
October 2017 - July 2023
Working on the Horizon franchise, with duties such as research; pitching and brainstorming; level and encounter design; implementation of complex branching conversations; visual scripting; reviewing colleagues' check-ins; interviewing potential hires; and much more. Editor work was done in Guerrilla's proprietary engine, Decima.
Horizon Forbidden West
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Content design and implementation for The Base (market research, presentation and brainstorming, layout iteration, content coordination)
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Pitching and workshopping quest concepts in collaboration with writers and other quest designers
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Design and implementation of one main quest and several side quests (level design, encounter/quest scripting, branching dialogue implementation)
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Interlude: The Eye of the Earth
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Errand: The Oldgrowth
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Side Quests: The Twilight Path, Thirst for the Hunt, Need to Know
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (DLC)
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Support tasks for the Quest team
Monolith Productions | Associate Designer
April 2016 - August 2017
I was a part of the sandbox team for Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Using a proprietary engine, I populated environments with an emphasis on environmental storytelling. I owned the majority of the sandbox implementation for 3 zones (Núrn, Cirith Ungol, Minas Morgul), and helped out with minor tasks for the remaining zones. I also scripted AI vignettes in a Lua-based language, and added background AI to some missions.
Snail Games | Narrative Designer
February 2017 - April 2017
I assisted with worldbuilding and quest writing for Dappervolk, a virtual pet and avatar site with RPG elements that launched in June 2020. I worked primarily on the Three's Forest area, building out branching questlines and writing dialogue for Magdalene, Irin, and the three witches, based on specifications given by the director, Quisling. I also contributed writing for NPCs in Louise Hill, and helped brainstorm ideas for world lore and upcoming content.
Motiga, Inc. | Narrative Designer
October 2016 - December 2016
I was contracted by Motiga to complete some writing tasks for Gigantic, including hero VO and flavor text. Although most of this work hasn't been published yet, I did have a hand in writing VO for Lord Knossos and Imani.
Motiga, Inc. | QA Game Specialist
June 2015 - February 2016
As a consulting QA Game Specialist at Motiga, I worked with another Specialist to own the testing for Gigantic's Progression system. This included writing and running test cases in TestRail, cataloging and verifying bugs in JIRA, participating in daily studio-wide playtests, and giving feedback on the game. I also received the opportunity to write character dialogue for the game and participate in lore brainstorming sessions.
iAntiVirus | Moderator
July 2013 - October 2015
iAnti was an international online art and literature community that I helped moderate in my free time. I helped make several quality of life improvements to the site, including: the redesign of several of its classes; helping to improve mod to member transparency by running AMA sessions; the planning and execution of boardwide events; as well as everyday moderator activities, such as fulfilling user requests, and analyzing feedback.
Motiga, Inc. | QA Intern
February 2015 - May 2015
As an intern at Motiga, I assisted the QA team with their work on Gigantic. This included regressing specific issues, testing new features of the game, and participating in daily focus playtests. Using Jira, I helped catalog bugs and ensure that they had been fixed.
VMC | Compliance Tester
August 2014 - February 2015
As a member of VMC/Volt's Xbox 360 Compliance team, I helped ensure that titles released on the 360 were up to Microsoft's standards for the platform.
Languages & Software
Python
ActionScript 3.0
Visual Scripting
Lua*
Unreal
Various proprietary engines
JIRA
TestRail
Twine
Perforce
Adobe Photoshop
Microsoft Office Suite
*I haven't explicitly scripted in Lua, but I have experience with a proprietary Lua-based scripting language
Skills
Narrative Design
Open World Design
Level Design
Scripting
Writing
Documentation
Game Analysis
Student Projects
Wardmore Studios [Narrative Lead]
Project MOBA: A 2v2 MOBA-lite revolving around warring gods' struggle to forge a new world.
April 2014 - February 2015
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Pitched lore themes relevant to the genre.
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Built the lore from the ground up, working on a comprehensive pantheon of gods and concepts for their champions.
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Helped refine teammates' ideas and ensure the narrative quality of the game.
Spooky Vault [Narrative Designer]
Flicker: A 2D co-op puzzle adventure in the dark.
August 2012 - November 2013
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Scripted core functionalities in Python, including the darkness mechanic and camera pan.
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Designed the characters and the game's aesthetic.
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Designed and implemented levels focused on cooperation and emotional resonance.
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Helped oversee playtesting sessions; catalogued and addressed bugs.
Solo Projects
Saviour (2013): A top-down RPG that plays on the concept of death in games. [RPG Maker]
Left 4 Ever (2013): A Left 4 Dead level that examines the repetitive nature of L4D. [Hammer SDK]
Remember (2012): A single player narrative experience with visual and aural puzzles. [Zero]
Give 'Em Hell (2012): A pen and paper RPG based on the Old West.
Go to Hell! (2012): A strategy game themed around the seven deadly sins. [Zero]
Do You Love? (2011): A 2D platformer about a robot and his companion. [Zero]
Achievements
Legacies Anthology [2019]
I wrote a short story for a charity anthology about Asian-American experiences. The Tiger's Teeth is about otherness, sense of belonging, and learning not to need external validation, inspired by my perspective as a biracial Indonesian-American. You can read more about the project here, and more about my story here.
Telltale Creative Workshop [2017]
I was selected for the first Telltale Creative Workshop. The application process involved writing a personal statement and submitting a text-based, interactive story built in Twine. The prompt: write about a visit to a bank. I chose to write about a character's visit to a memory bank. You may play the story here, in your browser!
GDC Narrative Review Competition [2014]
I received the Gold award in the 2014 GDC Narrative Review Competition for an essay that I wrote about the narrative in League of Legends. Both the essay and poster I created to communicate the essay's salient points are available for viewing on the GDC Vault.
Education
DigiPen Institute of Technology [2010 - 2014]
Bachelor of Arts in Game Design; English Minor
As a student at DigiPen, I received a very hands-on education experience. I completed over 17 student projects while attending, giving me a direct opportunity to apply the skills I learned in my classes. Select projects are visible in the portfolio segment of my website.