Portfolio Breakdown

Video game writing

HeroCraft PC

Working with HeroCraft PC has been an amazing opportunity! Not only have I been a core part of the company’s English marketing and translation plans, but I wrote the key lore and narrative aspects of several of their titles. To date, I’ve had the opportunity to write about a game about cats trying to save their kingdom, humanity’s last desperate plan to harvest organs and escape Earth, and a wacky sci-fi story with robots and power-hungry middle management.

OrangePixel

OrangePixel is a one-man developer who gave me a chance to polish character dialogue and item descriptions for a massive sci-fi title. In Residual, I worked to give one of the characters more personality and re-write many pieces of text. It was a fantastic experience that turned into one of the best rogue-like games.

EpiXR Games UG

EpiXR is a developer and publisher that focuses on creating video games with relaxing mechanics while telling thought-provoking and interesting stories. I wrote 13 short stories for Life of Fly 2, which allowed me to practice my story-telling skills. Afterwards, I moulded several ideas from EpiXR into One Last Memory, a tale about a man reliving the most important memories from his life.

Augmentors

One of the largest and most interesting projects I have undertaken was for a blockchain-based video game called Augmentors, which was funded by Newtown Partners. I had not set out to write for a video game, but I was asked to assist with the title. The company required me to create a style guide, social message, whitepapers, and the game’s backstory. The story was already partially written, but I was asked to have it conform to the style guide and make it more dramatic.

It has been one of the best copywriting experiences I have undertaken. After many nights of sweat and hammering away at my keyboard, it was complete and I was happy with the results. The company, too, was happy with the final outcome.

Thanks to Augmentors, I decided to pursue a career in video game writing.

Projects I have worked on:

Copywriting

Vizlib

Vizlib is a B2B software development company that creates various extensions for Qlik Sense. It is based in the UK and was my first venture into the world of remote working.

I was hired as a content writer to create product-centric and SEO blogs, devise a social media content calendar, handle the monthly release article, edit for various departments, and a range of other duties. Some of the Vizlib pieces that I’m proudest of include Vizlib Flow Chart: Highlight bottlenecks & Drop-offs in Qlik Sense, 3 ways to avoid ‘sneaky data’ with Vizlib for Qlik Sense, and Post Black Friday: A treasure trove of data with interactive dashboards.

I also assisted with some of the copy and creative elements for Astrato, a spin-off of Vizlib’s product line.

Rogerwilco

Rogerwilco is an award-winning digital agency that specialises in content, SEO, and Drupal for a range on national and international brands. This is where I began to really cut my teeth in copywriting.

As one of the senior copywriters, I was responsible for writing both offsite and onsite articles. The offsite consisted of generating content around keywords in order to add to client search rankings. The onsite content including website copy, blog posts, and specific articles for clients.

I also penned a few blog posts for the Rogerwilco websites, which were about moving from journalism to copywriting and why journalists make the best (content) marketers.

Freelance clients

I have worked with a number of agencies as a freelance copywriter and worked on extensive projects and campaigns. I have written white papers, fiction, press releases, and social media blurbs. While I cannot specify which agencies and exact projects I worked on (due to NDAs), these are some of the companies I have written content for:

Example work

Blogging & journalism

Memeburn

The face of Burn Media’s family of websites, Memeburn is an online news publication that covers topics from social media faux pas to big enterprise technology and even some pop culture.

My role at Memeburn is a jack-of-all-trades. I’ve written reviews for movies, such as The Conjuring 2, interviewed an expert on AI?(Professor Toby Walsh), and written?news articles as well.

Shortly after joining Burn Media, I began handling their Facebook pages, as well as helping out with editorial.

Gearburn

Easily my favourite of the Burn Media websites, Gearburn is centred around technology and video games. The site covers E3 and Apple conferences, cell phones, and mobile apps, to name a few things.

Some of the articles I’ve written for Gearburn include a review of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a roundup of Nintendo 2DS and 3DS pricing in South Africa, and why I prefer the PlayStation 3 to the PlayStation 4.

Ventureburn

Easily the most niche out of the Burn Media family of websites – and where I cut my teeth – Ventureburn focuses on startups in emerging markets.

Some of the startup articles I’ve written for Ventureburn include an interview with parcel delivery startup, Sendr, covering Philip and Malan Joubert’s Silicon Valley talk, and putting together a list of fintech companies for Digital All-Stars.

One of my most interesting assignments had me chronicling my journey with the Ampion Venture Bus tour.

Fortress of Solitude

While freelancing for Fortress of Solitude, I reviewed a range of video games, comics, a new Burger King offering, and even stepped in as Editor-in-Chief on a few occasions. I consider my time at Fortress of Solitude to be the first real blogging and journalistic writing I penned.

Strafer Online Magazine

I have contributed several opinion pieces to the bi-weekly digital magazine Strafer. I wrote pieces asking if old games still hold up and the problem with retro gaming.

Other writing experience

  • ITWeb – freelance writer
  • Authors Mag (defunct) – freelance writer
  • MyDigitalLife (defunct) – freelance writer
  • Mac Gaming (defunct) – founder and editor
  • Blue Geek (defunct) – founder and editor
  • LO Magazine (defunct) – freelance writer
  • The Sunday Times – freelance business writer
  • Next Window Plz (defunct) – founder and editor

Licenses & certifications

All of the certificates and credentials can be viewed on my LinkedIn profile.

  • Narrative Design Master Class: Game writing essentials from Udemy
  • Game Writing: Storytelling through Video Game Design from Udemy
  • Comic Book and Graphic Novel Scriptwriting from Udemy
  • SEO driven editorial calendar from CXL
  • The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing from Google
  • Google Analytics for Beginners from Google
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from eLearning at Work
  • Welcome To Vizlib – Vizlib Essentials from Vizlib