Brent Knowles
Writer and Game Designer
(Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins)
Looking for practical advice on surviving the game industry? I was a game designer & lead at BioWare and worked there for ten years. Since leaving BioWare I have done contract work for various companies. I think I have learned a few things...
The Lazy Designer book series is a collection of howtos... from personal task management to world building to large scale project management. The books are available at a variety of retailers.
I blog occasionally about game design -- both my experiences in the industry, theoretical design, and recent events. Occasionally I also discuss my writing. I placed first in the Writers of the Future contest a few years back and have had a few stories published over the years. I have also started woodworking, so I occasionally post my latest builds.
I have been writing stories and novels since before high school and I have been fortunate to have a number of them published. More recently I have been exploring the world of digital publishing.
Many of my previously published stories are available online to read for free while others can be purchased through Amazon and other retailers.
After leaving BioWare in 2009 I spent time improving my skills and trying my hand at making my own games. Nothing progressed past the prototype stage but I documented what I learned with the Unity engine.
I enjoy cooking and prior to my divorce I had been the stay-at-home parent. During that time I cobbled together my own recipe/meal-tracking/shopping-list website. More recently, as a skill improvement exercise, I have started to revisit it using more modern web development techniques.
When writing I like to do a revision pass where I examine the words I am using. Often a particular character should speak in a particular way or the entire story needs to use words from a particular 'theme'. I created Englex as a way to do this. At its basic level it is a thesaurus but when used more fully it can help with a "writer's voice".
There is a bit of a gamification layer to the site, with points being earned for adding new words, but I never did much with it....
I'm currently employed with Beamdog, working both as a designer and a producer. Most recently I helped out with the Enhanced Edition of Planescape Torment.
If you would like to learn more about game design, writing, or myself, feel free to ask me a question. The following link takes you to my contact form.