Hello, I’m Holly Karlsson.

Content Design Intern @ Wayfinder Studios

Narrative Design | Game Writing | RPG Enthusiast

I enjoy creating dynamic storylines and blending vivid worldbuilding with memorable characters.

Here are some of my group and solo projects in Unity, Unreal Engine, and Fabella.

Team Projects

Murder on the Rocks (2024) — Writing & Narrative Design

A bartending murder mystery game created for my third large group project at Futuregames.

  • Group project, team of 13

  • Timeframe 7 weeks

  • Skills: Narrative Design, Dialogue, Writing, Audio

  • Software: UE5, ElevenLabs, Audacity, Perforce, Inklewriter

This was my first group project focused primarily on narrative design, which was a fun challenge. I created the character personalities and histories, the murder mystery story, dialogue branches, clues, and character drink preferences. I also wrote the main character's intro and ending monologue, generated all VO for the five characters, and implemented the music.

One major challenge was a delay in adding dialogue and VO into the engine due to difficulties with the dialogue system. I initially used inklewriter to add and test the script, which proved beneficial for early external testing.

Murder On The Rocks is available for download on itch.io.

Ghost (2024) — Narrative, Level, & Audio Design

A game concept loosely inspired by the combined aesthetic of Stranger Things and Cyberpunk, designed for a level design course in Unreal Engine. Me and my teammates each created separate levels we connected together for a cohesive narrative experience.

  • Group project, team of 3

  • Timeframe 3 weeks

  • Skills: Narrative & Level Design, Dialogue, Audio, UI elements: Objective Tracking, Player Health/Mental Stability & a Visual Effect/Material to convey mental damage

  • Software: UE5, ElevenLabs, Audacity, Azure, Github

I loved working on this project, as I got the chance to explore combining narrative with gameplay. An interesting challenge was figuring out how to allow the player freedom of movement, while also ensuring they received pieces of the story in a natural and engaging way.

In one section of my level, the player must walk from the club to the chip broker’s, so to make that time more interesting and give key story information, I scripted a phone call including both audio and text on the screen.

Wizard in the Wild (2024) — Narrative, Quests, & Audio

A fantasy adventure game created for a visual scripting course in Unreal Engine.

  • Group project, team of 3

  • Timeframe 4 weeks

  • Skills: Narrative & Quest Design, Dialogue, Audio, UI, Player Health & Mana

  • Software: UE5, ElevenLabs, Audacity, Azure, Github

An interesting challenge we had was how to prevent the player from spellcasting at the start of the game, so I suggested limiting the mana and restoring it to full upon pickup of the final quest item — the wizard’s staff. It solved our problem and fit into the narrative, so it was a win-win!

I learned a lot about blueprints and UE5 during our project, and also how adaptable a game writer needs to be to ensure the dialogue always supports the gameplay.

One of our assignment requirements, for example, was to include interactions in the game. After I wrote the initial dialogue, our level designer hid the second quest item, the wizard’s spellbook, in a box with a key. It was a fun challenge to figure out how to explain this to the player, as the NPC has told them that animals stole their belongings. Pigs aren’t known for their finger dexterity, but I was able to work in an explanation that involved the other wizards who dumped the player in the forest.

Solo Projects

Enodia (2024) — In-Progress

My final degree project. A slice of a fantasy adventure game.

Currently in-progress.

  • Timeframe: 8 weeks

  • Skills: Quest & Narrative Design, Environmental Storytelling & Audio

  • Software: UE5

Starbound (2023) — Interactive Story

A narrative design project I created using Fabella. I designed the story and dialogue, planned the branching paths, and added SFX and background music, including audio advertisements for Theran Corporation, a fictional company in my story.

  • Timeframe: 3 weeks

  • Skills: Narrative Design, Story & Dialogue, Audio

  • Software: Fabella, ElevenLabs, Audacity

An interesting challenge was finding the right voice for the characters as the intonation was not always accurate, and not overscoping while balancing player choices and the overarching story.

Daemons & Dealings (2023) — Interactive Story

A narrative design project using Fabella during the same three week period where I created Starbound.

  • Timeframe 3 days

  • Skills: Narrative Design, Story & Dialogue, Audio

  • Software: Fabella, ElevenLabs, Audacity

It was a challenge finding SFX that fit the narrative, and fully utilizing the conditions and modifiers in Fabella to change the descriptions based on the player’s choices for the daemons, but I enjoyed learning about the program.

Amtharus (2023) — Game Concept

A sci-fi game concept with audio narration that I created in Unity. Currently in-progress as I continue to test new features and skills.

  • Solo project

  • Initial level concept designed & implemented in Unity in 1 week

  • Scripted the dialogue and created audio voices with ElevenLabs for the main character and ship’s computer

  • Skills: Game & Level Design, Narrative, C#, Audio

  • Software: Unity, Github, Audacity, ElevenLabs

One challenge I encountered was writing all the code (quest system, character movement, etc), as I had limited C# experience at the start. I also had to figure out a good way to handle all the audio dialogue with the ship’s computer, who isn’t physically present in the scene. I solved this by using box colliders and triggers as the player moves through the cave.