Jeffrey Campbell
Narrative Designer| Game Writer | Freelance Space Mercenary
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I've been writing and designing video game stories for 18 years.
While most of my experience is in genre-heavy action-RPGs, it’s the intersection of fantasy, design and process that actually gets me going.
That’s why video games have always been my focus – no other medium is as challenging or rewarding to write.
Viridia: Queen of the Psychodrome is a story-driven RPG where you—a robotic space-heroine—explore the stars, evolve into a living being with a human soul, and save the galaxy from your overbearing and villainous mother. It's loaded with strong themes of pulp sci-fi, investigation, esoteric magic, ray guns, disco, weird aliens, and bizarre, overt, super-sexy sexuality.
The game is written in Articy with several fancy modifications created for direct integration with Unity, where the game world is developed.
Viridia is currently in development at my very own game company, Threnody Bay Games. I am the Narrative Director and Eva Toker is the Creative Director. More people will be added to the project soon.
"(At Capcom) Jeff spearheaded a major narrative pivot under difficult conditions, to great success. Jeff is not precious about cinematics and other traditional narrative. His priority is integrating the story into the game."
Phillip Boule | Head of Design @ Relic Entertainment
"His powerpoint presentations are the stuff of legend. He can tell you the story he's written, and I promise you'll come out of the meeting with a crystal clear picture of what the game can be."
Geoff Coates | Creative Director @ Timbre Games
On this Electronic Arts mobile project, I designed new story features, developed seasonal narratives, and wrote dialogue for in-game experiences. I also collaborated with map designers, product managers, and artists to fill out our seasonal content offerings.
I was very excited about this opportunity because, even though the game was chiefly a PVP shooter, the studio was really interested in narrative innovation on mobile. I got to design some very interactive meta-narrative features.
"Jeffrey is a standout writer and narrative designer of games. He truly loves the medium. I’ve worked with writers in the past who were somewhat distant from the underpinnings of game development…. not Jeffrey. He is a true gamer and that passion exemplifies his understandng of the core motivations of a player. "
Mataio Gardi | Producer @ Ubisoft
"If I were looking to hire a writer, he would be at the top of my list."
Rudy Mankovits | Director of Production @ Skybox Labs
"I can honestly say Jeff is the best writer I’ve worked with in my 25 years in games. He is rare in the industry because he truly loves games and game development. He understands that to make a great story he needs to work with art, design and production to achieve this goal. He was a valued and respected member of the team. "
Bryce Cochrane | CD @ Hothead Games
OmenLands
In August of 2025, I started writing and designing a new idea for a large Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign setting, called Omenlands. The project will be published in an upcoming Kickstarter campaign.
For now, the work is funded through Patreon and is mostly focused around monster designs illustrated by various colleagues. Other content will trickle in as the project grows.
For this Kickstarter mega-success, I wrote thousands of lines of on-screen character dialogue to support the stress/affliction feature. I also aided the studio with developing the heroes' personalities and characteristics.
Years after release, I still see fan art and memes referencing the heroes' crazed shouting and unique catchphrases. Even the board game came with a print depicting the Bounty Hunter uttering his fan-favourite line, "Snort."
"When the Vestal, an acolyte of a Roman goddess of purifying fire, became racked with fear, she would cry out for her god’s protection in the darkness. I love that Darkest Dungeon takes inspiration from so many sources, yet uses all of those pieces to create character classes that serve a clever, foreboding fiction."
"It's morbid, but not without a sense of dark glee, balancing a world that makes Diablo's look like Center Parcs with a presentation that makes it fun to explore. The snarling character portraits. The deliciously hammy narration. The increasingly insane hollerings from your team as they go from variably heroic hopefuls to broken husks."
When I joined Dead Rising 4, Capcom Vancouver wasn't confident with the state of their story. I rewrote the plot in four weeks and then stuck it out for all the mission rewrites, voice acting, and mocap.
This is my favourite project I've ever worked on. Capcom let me really own the narrative, and I got to make the wild, funny, diverse, heartfelt story that I thought Dead Rising needed.
And the press loved it too. So, bonus.
"For a game that's all about mindless zombie murder, the storytelling [in Dead Rising 4] is remarkably adept. Frank and Vick's relationship feels nuanced and believable. The central mystery consistently metes out new clues that keep the plot intriguing and the action meaningful. And though Frank isn't always likable, he's frequently relatable and entertaining, spouting goofy, smart-assed quips at every opportunity.
There's also a coherent personality that binds every aspect of the experience together. From the dark, satirical humor of the collectible journals to the jaunty holiday music that plays over the pause screen, Dead Rising's juxtaposition of slaughter and silliness makes for a memorable world."
Project 77 | Art & Storybook
Project 77 | Art & Storybook
In 2013, I met dechambo, a game concept artist with a sprawling personal art project called Project 77.
I fell in love with the pieces right away. On contacting him, I was stunned that the project wasn't already a movie or a game. I started writing little stories inspired by each piece.
What resulted was a wild collaboration -- his art, my stories -- all published in Artstation's very first art/storybook.
You can buy it here, read the Verge's review here, or read my short stories here.
🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊 on GoodReads
🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊 on Amazon
The navy offered nothing. Just a roof, four walls, a nurse, and an ignominious end. Not that he cared for glory – far from it – but he preferred a farm or a coastline palapa over some institutional old folks home. Something quiet and exotic where he could explore the wilderness or work with his hands. And the Cardalium had that.
The price was the murder of his wing. They must not come within four thousand light years of the Aegean Cloud, she'd said. Stop them and you'll be rewarded.
He blew smoke into the oily depths below the craft and gazed there, at the swirl of chemical spills, cracked concrete, and dust.
A boot scraped on the filthy floor. It was the agent. The Cardalium woman.
His escort into the underworld.
"Between art depicting giant spaceships, alien worlds, and fantastic robots, author Jeffrey Campbell wrote short, connected interludes that flesh out the world and characters, detailing adventures of people stranded in alien deserts, assassination attempts, burned-out pilots, and more. The book isn’t so much a long-form story but a glimpse into an entire fantastic universe."
"It's a sci-fi space opera...interlinked by nine interesting [very] short stories from Jeffrey Campbell. Each of the 300 - 400 word short stories...depict a certain story facet, whether it be a place, an event or one of the characters. I'm left quite impressed by the experience of being immersed in so many awesome pictures. The potential of the story framework is enormous."
On this Activision/Radical project, I swooped in as the lead story designer and helped them identify weak spots in the overall narrative and mission blueprint. In the end, I rewrote many cinematics and missions myself and managed two other full-time writers.
It was a big, dramatic, weird story, and I still love it.
As a senior writer on this fifth entry in the DX Universe, I contributed material for all aspects of the narrative: story development, cinematics, AI narrative designs, faction concepts, character profiles, loads of location names, and I managed a team of six that wrote over 80,000 lines of dialogue.
My favourite work was researching and writing all the content for Adam's complex weapons and cybertech. I did this in collaboration with a legit implant engineer who acted as consultant.
This was really exciting to me because, at my core, I'm a sci-fi nerd.
While working at Eidos Montreal, I also wrote a short story set in the Deus Ex universe. It wasn't "official" and it wasn't "for anything." I just had an idea and decided to throw it together.
The result was Deus Ex: Otherness.
If you know the story of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, you'll recognize some of the concepts, characters, and locations. But you may also notice some differences from the shipped game. This story was written before the game shipped, so some elements are slightly different.
Is this fan fiction? I was technically a senior writer in the DX Universe at the time. Is it canon? Definitely not. But still... if you like Deus Ex as much as I do, you should like this too.
I cross my fingers we'll get another game some day.
Other Stuff
The Captain is Dead
The Captain is Dead
I wrote dialogue for the heroes in this brutal adaptation of the equally merciless hit board game, The Captain is Dead. You can get the game on Steam and various app stores. Developed by my friend Dan Taylor.
Anthem NEXT
Anthem NEXT
For a while, I was involved with the Anthem Next reboot project. I contributed lore, quest content, narrative feature development, and two short stories for marketing. You can read one here and the other here.
Out There
Out There
I performed a broad rewrite of this mobile roguelike's translation, which was originally written in French by the legendary FibreTigre. You can play the game here.
"Jeff combines an encyclopedic knowledge of games with a relentless work ethic and high quality writing skills to form a pretty perfect package. He's a unicorn with a blood-dripping horn!"
Paul O'Connor| Studio Game Director @ Supernatural Studios
"Jeffrey owns the process, working closely with designers, artists, animators, actors and project managers to ensure that his vision is being executed to the right balance of quality versus schedule."
Matt Armstrong | Creative Director @ Electronic Arts
He played our game a lot, and in a variety of different ways to see that the dialog was appropriate in each instance. That helped to make a better game and one with some really memorable lines.
Paul Pawlicki | Head of Studio Services @ Shrapnel
Jeff has the conviction to forcefully, but respectfully, voice unpopular opinions. That conviction was always backed up by a desire to work collaboratively to balance gameplay, story and production.
John Howard | Princ. Product Manager @ Amazon
Illustration by Darcy Clelland
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