David Welsh
Game and Narrative Designer
Hello! My name is David, and I'm a game and narrative designer. After a few years in educational media at Fablevision Studios in Boston, MA, I now focus on my family as a stay-at-home dad and occasional freelancer.
I enjoy making games that inspire players to become heroes and make a difference in the world.
Below are some of the projects I've worked on.
Wanderlight
I was a game and narrative designer for a roleplaying game by a faith-based educational book publisher. Players embark on a pilgrimage, helping the people of each community they visit. The game features a lively cast of recurring characters and dozens of quests.
I maintained the creative vision, designed a visual dialogue system for players at younger reading levels, and designed several minigames. I designed every quest and wrote the scripts for several levels. I was also responsible for editing and maintaining the game scripts, as well as directing and editing VO.
Additionally, I wrote and edited the game trailers.
Play a demo here.
Make That Paper
I was the game and narrative designer for a game that teaches high school students about careers in forestry. The game uses humor and anthropomorphic forest animals to engage players in the workplace simulation. I wrote the majority of the game script.
Players manage three different forestry companies by replying to emails, interviewing/hiring job candidates, and talking with their employees using a dialogue system.
I also wrote and edited the game trailers.
Play the game here.
Civics! An American Musical
I was the game designer for a musical theater management sim to teach middle school students about civics.
I designed each of the activities to teach the concepts of using primary source documents while also capturing the feel of being a musical theater producer. Each activity represented a different aspect of the musical's development, and the levels can be played in any order.
I designed a reward system that generates a unique musical sequence at the end of the game based on the costumes, props, music genres, and song lyrics players select as their rewards throughout the game.
I also wrote and edited the game trailers.
Play here.
You Are The Historian
I designed the activities, narrative systems, and story outline for a history game that teaches elementary students about the first Thanksgiving at the Plimoth Pawtuxet Museum.
Throughout their investigation, students decode riddles, visit locations around Plymouth, Massachusetts in any order using a map, and explore primary source documents and artifacts using piece of magical sea glass.
Play the game here.
The Mahabharata
I wrote the script for an animated adaptation of the epic tale of The Mahabharata for the South Asian Art Galleries at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Watch the animation here.
Other Professional Work
Go Wild! With Ranger Rick: Designed an app featuring several minigames and activities for the Ranger Rick magazineGalaxia: As a production assistant, I designed the achievement system, wrote a few of the game's cutscenes, and maintained the game scriptKnowonder Magazine: Nerissa's Celebration: Wrote the story "Bot-In-A-Box"
Personal Projects
I’ve made a few games on my own that I’ve shared on my itch.io page. These are tiny experiences developed using Pico-8 and Twine to learn new skills and experiment with various game ideas.
Play them here.