Game Writing Portfolio
Patrick Laffoon
Quest Design • Branching Dialogue • Audio Logs • Worldbuilding • Cinematics • Items • Barks • Game Design • Tabletop • Education
Branching Dialogue
Cinematics
Game Design
TinyPunk • TTRPG • Fantasy
A role-playing extraction adventure about the tiny people who live the walls (WIP). Explore the rooms of your own home from the perspective of someone only two-inches tall, search for scrounged items your can use to build up a town that draws in more tiny folk who are looking for a new home, and fight for your teeny-tiny life. I've been solo developing this game in my free time.
Tabletop Background
For over 20 years, I’ve played a multitude of tabletop RPGs and been a Game Master for many games as well, including Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, The End of the World, Monster of the Week, Fate, and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Below is a selection of my notable experience.
Player’s Sketchbook
I was the Game Master for a Dungeons & Dragons Twitch livestream show called Player’s Sketchbook, which featured professional visual artists sketching characters and exciting moments on a shared canvas while they played.​
Threshold
Head Producer and Player for a Dungeons & Dragons real-play YouTube series called Threshold, which ran from 2014 to 2018 (and was briefly revived as a Twitch livestream show during the pandemic). While I was not the Game Master for this show, I was a lead creative on the series involved in world-building, developing story arcs, and crafting sessions that would be exciting and memorable to our viewers.​
I Dream of Dragons
A custom Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran for my friends using Roll20. Mornessa, a blue dragon in disguise, uses powerful magic to revive a group of ill-equipped adventurers repeatedly until they can successfully track down the terrifying necromancer, Venthari.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Software Engineering (In Progress) • Western Governor's University
Studying scripting, programming (C#, Python, etc.), algorithms, data management, version control, web development, user experience design, and software QA. Online program. Expected to graduate summer 2027.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Theatre • University of Nevada, Reno
Studied theatre performance, direction, and playwriting. Member of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theatre honor society.
Game Writing Masterclass Two, Winter 2025 • The Narrative Department
The "grad school" of game narrative writing. Learned directly from Susan O'Connor (Gears of War, Bioshock, Dishonored 2), Christie Golden (WoW, Overwatch 2, Diablo IV), Nessa Cannon (Star Trucker, Endoparasitic), Will Shen (Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 76), Anna Megill (Control, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Project Orion), and Ben Books Schwartz (Lifeline, Ubisoft, Santa Monica Studio).
Game Writing Masterclass, Fall 2024 • The Narrative Department
The essentials of game narrative writing and design. Learned directly from Susan O'Connor who has shipped over 25 projects, including groundbreaking, award-winning titles in the BioShock, Far Cry and Tomb Raider franchises, with titles in her portfolio selling over 30 million copies and generating over $500 million in sales. O'Connor also founded the Game Narrative Summit at GDC and has been an adjunct professor at UT Austin, where she taught writing for games.
Introduction to Game Design • California Institute of the Arts
Learned the fundamentals of game design, how to prototype game concepts and mechanics, and how to approach storytelling with visual design.
Introduction to C# Programming and Unity • University of Colorado
Learned the basics of developing video games using the C# programming language and the Unity game engine on Windows / Mac.
Full CV available upon request.