Giant Sword Games hired me on as their narrative designer & writer.

I worked on the joyful, cozy platformer, Squish.

You play as Squish, the familiar of a witch named Jenny, on a quest to make witch-punk BFFs and cause absolute chaos in the most wholesome ways possible!

I developed the worldbuilding, designed quest structures, wrote the dialogue, drew the pixel art characters, and named items.

Giant Sword was founded by Richard Pieterse, formerly a senior engineer at Netflix Games Studio, a programmer at Free Lives (Broforce), and co-founder of Team Lazerbeam (Shroom & Gloom).

Crafting the Town of Joyful, Part I: The Laws of our World

When I joined Squish’s development, Giant Sword had a character named Squish, a rough map of a nameless town, early mechanics without context, and a strong desire for “witchy” theming.

I was tasked with establishing a collaborative system for narrative ideation. We used a series of Figma boards to build a story bank, which I later refined into a cohesive backdrop for humorous, whimsical characters and converted loose mechanics into fun, purposeful quests.

As Jenny & Prof. Ethel explain to Squish in the surrounding screenshots (click the arrows):

The witch-folk use cauldrons to harness the town’s supernatural properties.

Cauldrons are powered by community care and collective accomplishment. Everyone helping each other, keeps the magic flowing. Being a selfish twat, leaves you juiceless.

While community charges magic, planting wards off any magic depressors. Nature and homies and magic are all one.

I wanted every character I crafted to have “bestie potential.”

Crafting the Town of Joyful, Part 2: The Witch-folk (Your New Homies)

We loved the idea of a witch-town where everyone used magic to accomplish their day-to-day hustles of running small businesses, or trying to “make it” in their very “Earthly” passions.

My dialogue style for this project is meant embody a spirit of radical optimism and determination through silliness and vulnerability. It is wholesome and quirked-up but not overtly attempting to appeal to trendy internet slang. There is for sure some early 2000s nostalgia, but it was important for the references to remain relevant and the feelings timeless.

Crafting the Town of Joyful, Part 3: The Bigger Mystery

Despite their supportive community, the witches of Joyful notice that their cauldrons are malfunctioning and their magical powers are rapidly diminishing.

More curiously, everyone in town is experiencing “Funky Dreams,” which in extreme cases influence them toward reckless magical use or deep despondence. Throughout the game, you’ll encounter characters speculating on these experiences.

Characters like our Old Wise Man here in the cave hint that Squish may play a greater prophesied role in protecting the Town of Joyful’s magic. Along the way, he uncovers his own lore and true nature.

Our early open-dev build needed a button. A world-expander. Squish discovers that something at the lighthouse is siphoning magic from the town. Upon his ascent, he encounters the first-ever other of his kind… an Evil Squish!?

Maalika is the first character I created for the Squish world. She’s an aspiring pro skater making a name for herself by shredding areas with unstable, chaotic magical properties. Here, Maalika shares my personal greatest fear.

She mentions her older sister, Carol, who taught her all her sweet moves. It was important that characters reference each other so the world feels alive, and so Joyful feels like a real community with shared experiences.

One thing about narrative design, that many overlook, is that part of the gig is identifying how existing mechanics can be re-contextualized with character and story to add variety in the play without adding new features.

Aspiring Wildlife Photographer Dude here was an experiment in timed event. Squish helps him snap a pic of a rare Not Sonic, who only appears during a window of time.

Prom Witches Alyx and Lacy will always have a warm, fuzzy home in my heart. They had to pick up extra shifts at work and could not attend their prom, so they decide to throw one of their own by the Town of Joyful’s iconic lighthouse. Again, a perfect embodiment of “nothing is gonna get us down.”

They are unique as the only canon couple in the game. They also provide gossip and insight into the dynamics of other characters. We get hints that Squish was gone for a while, some contention between Jenny and Sabrina, and more about Jenny potentially dealing with a stressful situation.

Yes, their outfits were inspired by the Three Cheers MCR era.

Maalika is the first character I created, but Croc Witch was the first we implemented using my dialogue. He was the first of my characters that playtesters got to interact with, which was a major moment. It was the reaction to his encounter where the tone of the writing clicked, and we knew the direction we would take our characters. That radical, comedic optimism. “Shit, I’m a crocodile now. Well, I’ll make this work. Just gimme time to process and hook a croc up with some ‘Za.”

Croc Witch hints that it was the Funky Dreams that persuaded him into permanently shapeshifting himself.

Petri is our barista character. They spill enchanted ingredients into an uncle’s order, accidentally creating a new drink craze.

After lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs, Meat Zach vows to go natty. This is one of the more unhinged quests. Squish must get Meat Zach some real protein. It is up to the player to decide where to get it from.

Hazel and her twin sister? These were originally two different outfit options I created for the same character, but I guess the team liked them both! Hazel is unique. Out of everyone, she gives the only nonchalant response. Possibly because her cauldron has been depleted for several years now.

Fiwoop is an immortal fire and influencer. He does “food reviews” for all the different kinds of wood he devours to keep his flame burning extra warm. He is constantly debunking nepo accusations that he started out as the ember of a much larger fire, Cam-Sizzle the Campfire.

Al-Nasr is opening a record store. I see this place turning into Joyful’s open mic, where Squish can pop in from time to time and see different friends they’ve made sharing poems, songs, and ideas. I also envision it becoming a space to showcase art and soundtracks from other indie games.

Opal is an artist saving up to throw their next art show, possibly at Al-Nasr’s spot. Opal’s dialogue here was really just a vent about AI. Opal sees the Funky Dreams as a tool for their creativity if they can harness it correctly, but also resents the way their art is being devalued by “normies” overly relying on the Funky Dreams to generate their art.