Andrea Saravia Perez
Hi! Nice to meet you, my name's Andrea and I'm a bilingual narrative designer and writer based on the East Coast. I love collaborating with other disciplines to craft immersive, interactive experiences in Firaxis Games and WAI Studios.
Dialogue is what I excel at, in both Spanish and English, but more often than not you'll find me creating multi-layered characters and bringing their journeys into the hands of players.
GAMES I HAVE WORKED ON:
narrative designer + writer | Civilization VII (4x)
designer | (MULTIPLAYER SURVIVAL)
narrative designer | (cozy/casual)
senior narrative designer - take us north (2023-2024)
anima interactive - Kickstarter Live
Studio Size: 2-10 | Team Size: 2-10 | Indie
Genres: Narrative-driven, Adventure, Survival
"Anima Interactive's clearly leveraging immense talent to build a project that aims to directly change hearts and minds." - NPR
Nominated for the A MAZE Award
Featured on NPR's favorite indie games list
Skills and Technology: Scriptwriting, Barks, Research, Narrative Design, Writing, Editing, ClickUp, JSON, Yarn Spinner
I contributed as a senior narrative designer and writer for Take Us North by Anima Interactive. While working at the indie studio, I was tasked with writing character sheets, barks, scripts, and designing the story in collaboration with the development team.Featured in The Latin American Games Showcase during The Game Awards, the project aims to humanize the experience many go through by including a narrative that was informed by migrants with lived experience, anthropologists, humanitarians, and subject matter experts in migration.
narrative & game designer - Santa's Secret and The Ouroboros Express (2023-2024)
Small Loan Studio - December 31 , 2023, December 14, 2024
Studio Size: 100+ | Team Size: 30 | Indie
Genres: Narrative-driven, Horror, Romance, Fantasy
I was a narrative designer and organizer that started Small Loan Studio. In collaboration with over 30+ developers, we have been able to release two games (and their updates) in less than a year, resulting in being featured across various conferences and used as case studies by non-profits. My responsibilities included the ideation of mechanics, leading the writers' room, editing and designing narrative experiences.
Skills and Technology: Unreal Engine 5, Blueprints, Implementation, Quest Design, Narrative Design, Editing, Implementation, Ren’Py, Python Visual Studio Code, Miro, Notion, Discord, Narrative Quality Assurance
game designer and writer - Limbo, Unidos por el picnic, the good host (2019-Present)
INDEPENDENT - Dark Fantasy, Historical, Cozy - October 2019 - Present
Studio Size: Independent | Team Size: 1-5 | Freelance
Skills and Technology: TTRPG Design, Documentation, Research, Quest Design, Narrative Design, Editing, Implementation, Ren’Py, Unity, Unreal, Visual Studio Code, Yarn Spinner, Ink, Twine, Fade In
narrative designer and WRITER - Civilization VII (2022-2023)
Studio Size: 200+ | Team Size: 5-10 | AAA
Genres: Turn-based strategy, 4X, Historical
fIRAXIS gAMES - Shipped February 11, 2025
Skills and Technology: Historical Research, Quest Design, Narrative Design, Scriptwriting, Writing, Editing, Custom in-house game engine, Lua, Jira, C#, Confluence, Office 365, Final Draft
I was tasked with writing and implementing narrative content, using a proprietary in-house game engine for , Sid Meier's Civilization VII. While I was at Firaxis, I worked on the Inca, Aztec, Spain, Meiji, Mexico and American civilizations of the game. Through thorough research and cross-disciplinary collaboration, we were able to bring to life the stories of Revolucionarios thanks to the emergent narrative system.In the narrative department, I completed the creation of hundreds of stories, dialogue lines, backstories, lore, and expository text pieces that were also crafted during this time for the narrative events of the project. Within less than a week, I learned how to use Firaxis's proprietary game engine to take ownership of the implementation of the narrative content I developed at a steady pace.I made sure to test the content I created, and balance the different yields and systems from the stories by addressing feedback swiftly.
Civilization 7's improved warfare and added bits of narrative flair give me reasons to keep clicking one more turn late into the night - IGN
Renaissance Hat Productions
Under a freelance agency I founded, I have been able to secure short-term and long-term contracts with various individuals, game studios, and stakeholders.I have lent my narrative and quest design services to over a dozen projects, using tools such as Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Engine 5, Ren'Py, Godot and Twine.
Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story
Single-Player | narrative-driven adventure
Directed voiceover talent remotely under a limited scope.
Wrote and edited dialogue, barks, quests, lore and overall story for over twelve different projects.
Improved upon tutorials and player experience by flowcharting before prototyping.
Provided updates to several clients across tabletop and PC projects.
Above is a video featuring dialogue lines and voiceover direction work I did for Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story.
Research-driven Narrative and Quest Design
Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story is a narrative-driven platform game developed in Unity. I was inspired by the poem--Pangur Ban--where an Irish priest wrote about his white cat. Using JSTOR databases, academic articles, journals and other resources. Thanks to these resources, I was able to design quests where the player could interact in a way that was similar to a cat walking around an Irish abbey in the 900s.I was able to provide the art team a description of what an abbey at the time was like, and the day in the life of a church member. Though we took some creative liberties, we made sure that the environment, sound design, music, architecture and art was as accurate as possible.
Feline Quest Design: Above is the level and quest design map, and the inspiration.
Along with the artist, I designed the levels in the abbey and the quests in each of them.The room of the priest focused on exploration and backstory. Using historical resources, we made sure that the room had obstacles that the player had to overcome to complete different parts of the main quest.By having a cat as a protagonist and player character, this informed the traversal, mechanics and player experience.
Barks and Dialogue
Bark spreadsheet featuring item descriptions and voice lines. Click on this text to see the complete spreadsheet! Below is the script for a speculative animatic.
Barks were triggered upon interacting with items in the game, and completing quest goals. The Narrator character was based off of the "monk" character in the original Pangur Ban poem, but we took the creative liberty to adapt the story into that of an Irish nun instead.Voice over direction was provided to the talent, who recited the lines provided in the script.
Solar Vault Studio
Untamed: Survival
Multiplayer | LiveOps | Creature Survival
Agile Methodology and Production
Soon after the success of the Kickstarter campaign, I was brought onboard to Untamed as a producer. I owned the production processes needed to ship demo updates and patches, as well as early access for the viral multiplayer creature-survival game.I implemented Agile methodologies into the engineering, design, art, animation and QA pipelines.
To promote transparency, as a team we agreed to have our roadmap and Trello board public. Upon being hired, I made sure to categorize tickets, establish bug naming conventions, bug report processes, managed tasks and connected our Trello to our Discord for an improvement in communications.
Testing Requirements and Bug Reports
During the weeks leading up to the updates, I organized a group of over thirty playtesters and ensured that all bug reports followed a template to assist the developers. Each bug report had a detailed description of what happened, what the expected outcome was, and recordings/GIFs of the bug happening.
Cross-Department Collaboration
In addition to my responsibilities as a project manager, I was part of the development team as a sound designer and consultant to assist artists and animators with feedback. I developed sound effects that were implemented temporarily into the project, and provided feedback to the developers when prompted in regards to design, art and animation.
Small Loan Studio
Santa's Secret: A Chrome Steele Story
Single-Player | Mystery| Visual Novel
I sourced talent from a narrative design course to complete a project of a large-scope. Bringing production processes from my time at AAA companies, I created an organizational structure with a hierarchy to accomodate to the team of over twenty developers.
The story of Chrome Steele was inspired by detective mysteries: while talking to the narrative lead, we decided to offer the player three different game modes in this visual novel.
Design Iteration and Concept Phase
The core game loop started off as the player having to listen to the claims of Maria, whose father had gone missing, and responding to it in three different ways.Depending on the method that the player chose, this would branch into a storyline where their choices had consequences. We intentionally crafted a simple, narrative-driven design to ensure that the team (composed mainly of game writers) could play to their strengths.The three options were:
Logician. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, this is a mode where the player has dialogue options centered around objectivity, zeal and obsession to the case.
Conversationalist. A style that was inspired by Columbo, it has more charm and charisma than the Logician style. We developed a dialogue style and guidelines that focused on hypotheticals, anecdotes--and a "know it all" attitude.
Cynic/Hard-boiled. The team saw footage of Philip Marlowe from The Big Sleep
As a creative director, I oversaw the writers' room, brainstorming sessions and delegated tasks to the corresponding departments while under a strict deadline. Above is a sample of our flowcharting of the game's introduction.
Work Breakdown Structure and Production Processes
In order to have a complete, playable project by the end of the deadline, I planned extensively the a cross-department timeline and pipeline, then shared it with the team. This was completed in tandem with the game design document featuring the systems, mechanics, features, characters, plot and story of the game.
Game Design Document (Full GDD Here)
To establish the art direction of Santa's Secret, the art team and I decided on a black, white and red palette with hues of navy blue. The lack of saturation offered a noir feeling to the game, which was enhanced by the use of a font similar to that of a typewriter. Mockups and tests were shared in the Game Design Document, which can be seen here.Below is the table of contents, and part of the art asset list in the GDD.
Narrative Implementation and Mentorship
Members of Small Loan Studio received mentorship from myself during my tenure as creative director upon request. We have a strong focus in upskilling, which is why for our first project I advocated for the use of Ren'Py.Ren'Py is a Python-based program for visual novel development that is incredibly user friendly, meaning that we were able to host workshops that taught writers and narrative designers how to implement their own content.Thanks to my initiatives in mentorship and upskilling, we streamlined the development signifcantly and lightened the load of our engineering team. As a result of the streamlining, we managed to ship the completed version of the game in time for the deadline.As part of our Agile methodology, retro was conducted after the completion of the project. Feedback was implemented, and we proceeded to patch the game and add new content to display in several showcases in Berlin, Baltimore, United Kingdom and other places.
The Ouroboros Express
Single-Player | Romance | Horror | Psychological | Visual Novel
Character Creation
During the brainstorming stages of our second intellectual property, I established the groundwork and created the original concept of Susur'rha: a nonbinary dragonborn druid, who is one of the three romanceable characters of the Lovecraftian dating sim: The Ouroboros Express.
Inspiration Board for the Dragonborn Druid.
Design and Core Game Loop Constraints
Our creative director ideated the core game loop, which represented the different stages of grief that the characters navigate throughout the game.As designers, we had to ask ourselves--how would this homesick dragonborn navigate the different stages of grief? The narrative designers managed to answer that question, by developing the narrative arc, while I assisted with high-level story consulting and ideation for the characters.
Storytelling Through Sound Design
My responsibilities shifted to a leadership position in the sound department, where I established the direction of the soundtrack for The Ouroboros Express.In the span of a few weeks, I coordinated the composition of the following tracks:
By bringing to the forefront my twenty years of experience in music, and my knowledge of narrative direction in past workplaces, I was able to communicate clearly to the team what I needed each song to be like.All of the tracks have an underlying melody alluding to "Lavender's Blue," a folk song that served as an inspiration.The compositions for lighter and romantic moments have an emphasis in strings, whereas the more Lovecraftian compositions carry a lot of synths and technical instruments.
Quests
Mockup of the level design, map and sequential order of quest segments.
For the Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story project, I was inspired by how cats (like our protagonist) navigate the world.Cats like to remain in "medium" altitude--not necessarily on the floor, or on the ceiling, but more so on shelves when they are acclimated to the indoors.So we placed several clues that the player could interact with to piece together the story of what happened to Pangur Ban in this story.
Writing Samples
(Reload pages to ensure media works.)
"Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story" (2021) - Historical Adventure
Duration: 5-10 minutes.
Directed voiceover talent, while providing cues in a remote modality.
Conducted research in order to develop an original interactive poem.
Drafted and provided barks, environmental storytelling cues, and interdisciplinary narrative to a global team.
Assisted with level design, while leading quest design efforts that married narrative and gameplay.
"A Wizard's Plea (Fan Game)" (2024) - Fantasy Adventure
Duration: 5 minutes.
Drafted a project inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, working within the constraints of the intellectual property.
Characterized each party member while programming variables, permutations that lock or enable unique choices to the player.
Coded a functioning D20, animations and made sure that the narration followed the tone pillars of The Narrator upon studying the voice of the game.
Iterated the project several times by attending feedback sessions--communicated updates, improvements and polishes to the player base in devlogs.
Visualization of the different branches the Twine project has.
"The Seats at the Wedding" (2024) - Romance Drama
Duration: 5 minutes.
Excerpt in Ink of the Project (Game Available Upon Request)
Created the game in Unity, using Ink for its dialogue system.
Adapted the original script of The Seats at the Wedding from 2022 into an interactive video game format. (Characters and scenes have since changed in the game.)
Fleshed out characters and a setting inspired by the Coronavirus pandemic, and how couples navigated wedding planning while having anti-vaxx relatives.
Developed a flow chart detailing the player experience in Twine first.
"The Players" (2022) - Drama
Duration: 30-40 minutes
Developed a script for a speculative pilot episode for a television series.
Conducted thorough research on documented reports to create a compelling story centered around the use of substances and schedules of eSports player.
"The Witches Down Sixth Street" (2020) - Romance Comedy
Duration: 10 minutes
Created an original IP under the constraints of the medium.
Developed a portrayal of a sapphic couple that won awards.
"Unidos por el picnic" (2022)
Duration: ~3-4 minutes.
Indie project, done entirely in Unity, under time constraints.
Designed core game loop, enemy and NPC encounters.
Developed character backstories, dialogue, and lore for the game.
Collaborated with multiple departments to establish a clear vision on the player experience.
Media Kit
Podcast & Panel Appearances
"Emergent Narrative in Digital Games with Andrea Saravia Peréz" - The Corner of Story and Game (2024)
Covered how to efficiently tie emergent narrative events to quest lines.
Highlighted titles that efficiently use emergent narrative systems in their gameplay.
"Writing/Narrative Design Panel" Student Game Developers Alliance Summit (2023 & 2024)
Appeared as a guest to the SGDA's 2023 panel, talking about narrative and writing.
Returned to participate in a fireside chat about narrative.
"Indie Diary #35: Andrea Saravia Pérez – Of Leadership, Representation and Role Models" - The Indie Diarist
Invited to talk about narrative leadership and representation.
Part of a campaign to uplift women in games, by The Indie Diarist.
"Game Dev Interview w/ Andrea Saravia Pérez" - TheChosenGiraffe
Interviewed by a fellow narrative designer about the discipline, craft and how to advance.
Provided resources, advice and anecdotes to assist junior-level listeners.
designer & producer - Untamed: Survival (2024)
Studio Size: 10 | Team Size: 5 | Indie
Genres: Fantasy, survival, multiplayer liveops
SOLAR VAULT STUDIO - EARLY ACCESS
Steam Link HereUntamed: Survival is a game made using the Unreal Engine 5 to provide players a high-fidelity experience as original creatures emerging from new civilizations. With meters tracking the thirst, hunger and energy of the animals the game stays loyal to its survival roots while adding immersive mechanics to simulate being a carnivore (or herbivore) in this world.While at Solar Vault Studio I assisted with sound design and production. During early access, our team was able to release multiple new creatures, biomes, updated levels, rewards for Kickstarter backers, and mechanics. Through a transparent approach, live streams and other events encouraging participation we were able to foster a positive relationship with our community.In return, we were able to detect, track and fix bugs with haste in thanks to the reporting from the thousands of members and a system I implemented to help programmers with bug tracking.
Credits
Senior Narrative Designer and Writer - Unreleased Indie Project (Anima Interactive)
Narrative Designer and Writer - Unannounced Project (WAI Studios)
Narrative Designer and Writer - Deo the Last Dragon (Independent)
Narrative Designer - Project Artemis (GameDevSG)
Lead Designer - The Ouroboros Express (Small Loan Studio)
Creative Director - Santa's Secret: A Chrome Steele Story (Small Loan Studio)
Narrative Lead - Reborn: A Pangur Ban Story (Freelance)
Narrative Designer - ANAMNESIS
Narrative Designer and Writer - Alas University (Freelance)
Narrative Designer and Writer - Amiilat: ¿Qué se siente ser tú?" (Freelance)
Writer - Civilization VII (Firaxis Games)
Narrative Systems Designer - Mushroom Story (Freelance)
Content Designer - Brujulas
Narrative Designer, Writer and Historian - "El buen anfitrión" (The Good Host)
narrative designer - Unidos por el picnic (2022)
Team Size: 5 | Indie
Genres: Casual, Cozy
TRASNOCHE - ITCH.IO
Skills and Technology: Encounter Design, Narrative Design, Scriptwriting, Writing, Editing, Unity, Voice Over Direction, Tutorial
Unidos por el picnic is a game in Spanish made by a small team of developers in Latin America. In addition to designing encounters, I was in charge of the copy for the tutorial.We wanted to make a game where players could escape and enjoy a nice picnic with a colorful cast to bring them company. This influenced the overall art style and design of the characters.Additionally, I composed, wrote and recorded the soundtrack and sound effects for the game to assist the team in both audio and narrative.