I define the following 5 topics as my domains of expertise. Over the years, I discovered that these themes and principles were frequently and naturally featured in my work. Moreover, I find it relatively easy to continue my development in these fields and am especially looking forward to working on projects that include one or more of these topics.
Mythology & Folklore
I started reading myths, legends and folk tales at an early age, and internalised many stories and their overarching themes and patterns. I am able to apply these in my own work, ensuring that a body of texts/stories have a sense of cultural coherence or gravity. Moreover, I have a personal library filled with the seminal tales from cultures from all over the world, including some more obscure ones, that I may use as inspiration or templates.
Cultures & Languages
Somewhat linked to the aforementioned Mythology and other tales, a large part of my library is devoted to cultural and/or linguistic encyclopaediae. My academic education consisted for a large part of studying culture and languages, and this has provided me with a deep understanding how cultural phenomenon and linguistics work.
Duality & Symmetry
This is especially true for my designs of thematic structure in the narrative and/or plot. My stories feature cohesion in theme, style and moral by applying extensive knowledge of story structure and thematic distinctions. This approach yields mirrored characters and situations, and makes it possible to show character growth.
Objective vs Represented Truth
My stories feature a tension between different levels of knowledge, meaning that there may be mysteries or facts that some characters are not aware of. Not only does this guarantee a more lifelike depiction of character progress, it also allows for some plot twists or surprises when the player finally catches up to the truth. Including these kinds of struggles enables me to play with the players’ morality as well; they may think that their actions are justified, until they are finally able to oversee all the facts.
Playing with the player’s expectations
Games are filled with conventions and clichés. I add an extra layer to the player’s experience by playing with their expectations and customs. By doing this, I am able to achieve that the player drops his guard… and subsequently be all the more surprised by the direction in which the story develops.