Creative Debra
Narrative & Systems Designer
I design narrative systems where player choice has lasting impact, built to scale across live, long-running experiences.
Portfolio
This page contains a narrative design sample demonstrating my approach to branching narrative, player agency, and long-term systemic consequence within a live Strategy/MMO context. This is a speculative exercise created for illustrative purposes and is not affiliated with Smile Break or any specific IP.
Narrative Design Sample
Branching Narrative with Long-Term Systemic Consequence
Live Strategy/MMO Context
Narrative Premise
A fragile alliance exists between two factions whose cooperation is necessary to maintain regional stability. Intelligence suggests that each faction is sheltering a covert operative whose actions, if exposed, could destabilize the alliance entirely.The player is asked to intervene before the situation escalates. The truth cannot be fully revealed without consequence, and any resolution risks violence, mistrust, or long-term instability. The player’s role is not to “solve” the conflict, but to decide how power, information, and responsibility are handled.
Core Player Choice
The player must choose how to resolve the espionage threat, knowing that:• Acting decisively requires direct violence and moral ownership.
• Avoiding direct action may preserve leverage but destabilize conditions.
• The alliance must survive, but trust may not.This choice determines not only immediate outcomes, but how the world remembers and responds to the player over time.
Branching Outcomes
Option A - Side with Faction A (Direct Intervention)The player authorizes the elimination of the opposing faction’s spy.Immediate Outcome
• The spy aligned with Faction B is killed.
• The player receives a mount as a reward.
• Faction A expresses gratitude and increased trust.Mid-Term Consequence
• Faction B’s leadership becomes guarded and distrustful.
• Dialogue and ambient NPC behavior reflect suspicion.Long-Term Acknowledgment
• The quest-giver survives and later unlocks a convenient vendor location, improving player travel and access.
• The world recognizes the player as decisive and aligned.Narrative Signal:
The player accepts direct responsibility in exchange for stability and convenience.
Option B – Side with Faction B (Direct Intervention)The player authorizes the elimination of the opposing faction’s spy.Immediate Outcome
• The spy aligned with Faction A is killed.
• The player receives a weapon as a reward.
• Faction B expresses gratitude and increased trust.Mid-Term Consequence
• Faction A responds with reduced cooperation and guarded dialogue.Long-Term Acknowledgment
• The quest-giver survives and later unlocks a convenient vendor location.
• The player is recognized as a reliable enforcer.Narrative Signal:
The same moral structure as Option A, expressed through a different allegiance.
Option C – Indirect Manipulation (Avoid Direct Culpability)The player refuses to choose a side and instead attempts to extract information through a third-party intermediary. The spies are tipped off to unusual activity and disappear.Immediate Outcome
• Both spies are later found murdered off-screen.
• The player avoids direct involvement in the killings.
• The player receives both reward items.Social Response
• NPC reactions become contextual:
• In a faction hub associated with a displayed item, the player is praised as a hero.
• In the opposing hub, the player is viewed as unsavory or untrustworthy.
• Reputation is situational rather than binary.Long-Term Systemic Consequence
• The original quest-giver NPCs are dead.
• Future convenience vendors do not unlock, creating ongoing travel friction.
• The player is never directly punished, but the world becomes less accommodating.Narrative Signal:
The player gains leverage while forfeiting trust and long-term ease.
Sample Dialogue (Excerpt)Context:
Following the espionage incident, the player returns to a neutral outpost. A faction envoy confronts them.Faction A Envoy:
“So. The dust settles, and somehow you’re still standing. That alone tells me enough.”Player Choice A (Direct Allegiance):
“I made the call that kept your banners flying.”Envoy Response:
“Then we’ll remember you when memory becomes currency.”Player Choice B (Opposing Allegiance):
“I did what was necessary. Your survival wasn’t part of the calculation.”Envoy Response:
“A dangerous way to think. But an honest one.”Player Choice C (Indirect Manipulation):
“I didn’t choose a side. I chose leverage.”Envoy Response:
“…Then don’t act surprised when no one rushes to stand beside you.”
Delayed World Acknowledgment
In later regions, players who chose indirect manipulation may encounter a small investigative quest revealing that a missing merchant never arrived due to the earlier destabilization. This reinforces narrative memory and player accountability without introducing new rewards or blocking progression.
System Design Intent
• Rewards are balanced against social cost and convenience, not failure states.
• Player choice affects world behavior, not just dialogue.
• Consequences persist through:
• NPC reactions
• Vendor availability
• Ambient narrative feedback
• No branch represents a perfect outcome.This structure supports replayability, long-term narrative memory, and scalable live content without branch explosion.
Design Philosophy (Brief)
• Narrative is treated as a system, not a sequence of scenes.
• Player agency is expressed through consequence, not exposition.
• Long-term friction is used instead of binary punishment.
• Choices are remembered quietly and reinforced through world behavior.
Design Considerations
• branching narrative design
• systemic consequence
• restraint under constraint
• live-service thinking
• respect for production scope
Keep's Depths
Branding & Graphic Systems
From the start of development on Keep’s Depths, we created a set of visual anchors designed to keep the project within scope internally, while also serving as the foundation for the game’s external identity.
Chapter Logos
The logo system for Keep’s Depths was designed as a stable, recognizable silhouette that could persist across chapters without fragmenting the game’s identity.Consistency in overall shape was intentional, providing a visual anchor for players and a reliable frame for internal decision-making. Within that constraint, elemental treatments and surface detail were allowed to change to reflect each chapter’s theme.In the final chapter, the silhouette is deliberately broken to signal narrative escalation and thematic rupture, reinforcing that the rules of the world have changed.
Splash Screens
These splash screens extend the logo system into full environmental compositions. While each chapter introduces new visual language, lighting, and tone, shared compositional structure and logo placement reinforce continuity across updates.
Across key surfaces, the logo was consistently positioned in the top-left corner. This placement established predictable visual hierarchy, allowed primary imagery to guide the eye rightward, and influenced internal alignment decisions within the logo itself, including text flow and structural balance.
Rodger
UX and Systems Design
A systems-first exploration of real-time coordination, designed before gig platforms existed and built around clarity, accountability, and human judgment.
Project Summary
Rather than starting with screens, I mapped the underlying service logic first: how requests move through the system, how roles interact, and how breakdowns are handled when real-world conditions inevitably disrupt ideal flows.Rodger was a concept exploration in real-time coordination, designed years before gig work became app-based. The goal was to imagine a dispatch and task-tracking system that could scale without losing clarity, accountability, or human judgment.The result was a role-aware dispatch model built around communication, clear handoffs, and decision support rather than blind automation.
My Role
• Mapped the complete task lifecycle from request → assignment → reroute → resolution
• Designed system logic to handle real-world edge cases, including access failures, time overruns, and driver no-shows
• Defined and separated user-facing, driver-facing, and operations-facing responsibilities
• Sketched administrative tools for tracking service status, notifications, and expenses
• Intentionally prioritized human judgment and clarity over full automation in service handoffs
What This Demonstrates
• A systems-first approach to solving real-world coordination problems
• Early fluency in role-based UX and service design
• Comfort designing for failure states, not just happy paths
• Evidence of product and systems thinking well before it was formalized in my career
Outcome & Impact
Rodger anticipated core patterns of modern gig-economy platforms years before they became mainstream. The work demonstrates early strength in scalable coordination design, role separation, and operational clarity under uncertainty.
Artifacts
These hand-drawn logic maps and system notes predate modern design tools. They document how I reasoned through coordination frameworks, role logic, and task routing using paper sketches and flow diagrams.
• Role definitions and feature notes for the Rodger platform
• Task assignment logic balancing user needs with driver proximity
• Early flowcharts for driver notifications and task resolution routing
Pantrii
Human-Centered Inventory & Planning System
A calm, emotionally intelligent system for managing everyday complexity, designed to reduce cognitive load and support sustainable habits over time.
Project Summary
Pantrii began as an exploration of how everyday systems can feel supportive rather than demanding. The problem wasn’t inventory tracking itself, but the friction, guilt, and cognitive overload that often accompany food planning and waste reduction.Rather than optimizing for speed or feature density, I focused on designing a pantry system that paired functional clarity with emotional tone. The goal was to create a tool that helps people make better decisions without requiring constant attention, discipline, or stress.
My Role
• Designed the brand identity, UI mockups, and core interaction flows
• Built a component system centered on calm visuals, legible hierarchy, and predictable patterns
• Mapped user flows for scanning, inventory management, and recipe-triggered planning
• Balanced functional requirements with emotional impact, ensuring every design decision served both utility and mood
What This Demonstrates
• Ability to design emotionally intelligent UX for real-world, recurring tasks
• Sensitivity to cognitive load, decision fatigue, and behavioral friction
• Comfort integrating brand, system logic, and accessibility into a cohesive whole
• A design approach that prioritizes sustainable use over novelty or engagement metrics
Outcome & Impact
• Established a scalable foundation for a pantry and meal-planning system designed around habit formation rather than pressure
• Demonstrated early product design instincts that harmonize brand, flow, and emotional tone
• Served as a conceptual base for future explorations in emotionally aware systems and AI-assisted planning tools
Artifacts
• Early flow diagrams outlining scanning and inventory logic
• UI explorations testing hierarchy, calm color systems, and interaction affordances
• Mobile mockups demonstrating end-to-end flows from pantry state to meal decision