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Millennium Bugs logo by Hazel Dixon and Erin Marsh
Millennium Bugs was an online urban fantasy larp by Bobbit Worm Games about characters with low-level superpowers ('glitches') building community, resisting capitalism, and making art together.
I was part of a 20-person team who worked remotely over Zoom and Discord. Millennium Bugs ran for two events in 2021, with 20-30 players each. I worked on both, as well as a planned third event that was sadly cancelled.
In my role as a Narrative Designer, I:
led the narrative design for three major quest lines
communicated desired plot beats, character motivations, and logistical considerations to the rest of the team
wrote in-game content, such as this email dialogue between two researchers who spilled classified information while talking about their affair
independently wrote out-of-game reference documents, such as this NPC brief for a disgruntled AI who wanted the players’ help to free itself from its creators
collaborated with other designers and writers to design plot and non-player characters (NPCs) such as:
Dragon – a sentient AI antagonist that infiltrated the in-game Discord server to steal players' comments and art for its own use
Murphy Ray – an experimental test subject seeking to escape a facility that imprisoned them against their will
wrote and reviewed marketing content – such as social media posts and taster documents
worked closely with the whole team, via Zoom meetings and a Discord server, to review and improve on game content and internal reference documents
ran meetings for small teams of 2–4 people, created agendas, and helped team members stay on schedule
advised on sensitivity and accessibility improvements where needed
helped to run online events by playing NPCs, and directing crew, via text and video chat
edited work for consistency, narrative voice, spelling, and grammar.
The team leads gave us a lot of freedom to create the game's setting based on their pitch. We worked on worldbuilding, mechanical design, and narrative ideation in parallel.
No generative AI was used in this work; all 'AIs' in this game were played by humans.
Hazel Dixon and Erin Marsh, the Creative Leads for Millennium Bugs, said:
“Rowan was... an incredibly valuable member of the team.
Their content was complex, interesting, and extremely well-received by players."
I directed Cara Packwood, who played Dragon, to speak in tone-deaf marketing copy that took players' own wording out of context and was full of errors. One player's comment about 'getting a smashing' was maybe not the positive endorsement Dragon thought it was... (Profile pictures censored for privacy reasons).
Above: An extract from an NPC brief for Dragon. Writing concise and flavourful summaries our crew could use on the fly was essential for this game.
Below: I wrote this superpower ('glitch'); one of many options for our players. We wanted players to focus on the social and identity implications of their glitches, so we designed them to be interesting but limited in power.
"They were consistently prompt and vocal in team meetings, reliably delivering great content to deadlines whilst working remotely, and an excellent team player at all times.
Their writing is very engaging and is able to pull on different facets of the medium to create brilliant content."
I wrote these testimonials, which were faked by a healthcare facility with sinister secrets. I aimed to convey false positivity with self-centred undertones. An NPC who had been kept there had hijacked their website, leaving cries for help wherever they could. The players had to explore the site to solve puzzles, uncover clues, and help them escape. (Web design by Laurence Owen; puzzle design by Laurence Owen and Jon Fry).
"We would highly recommend [Rowan] for writing, designing, and sensitivity consultation work.”
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