Contact

Email: shailynrmercado@gmail.com
Email: shailynrmercado@gmail.com

Work / Project Experience

Narrative Designer, Development Director

Stained Glass Studios (2025-Present)

  • Wrote worldbuilding documentation involving setting, organizations, religion, and a magic system to assist artists and designers with concepting.

  • Designed narrative/quest flow with level designers for consistent theme/tone throughout the game’s three levels, communicating narrative through environmental storytelling first.

  • Scripted cutscenes with written out storyboards for concept artists.

  • Wrote all NPC dialogue and optional collectable audio sequences.

  • Incorporated feedback from playtesting and stakeholder presentations to refine story delivery.

Project Lead , Narrative Designer

Escape the Inquisition (2025-Present)

  • Created cross department pipelines across a 12 person team to all integrate into Articy:Draft for a narrative first focus.

  • Wrote all branching dialogue sequences for three short stories, revolving around three unique player characters.

  • Concepted mini-gamesa and integration narratively into branching story paths.

  • Researched historically accurate speech through literature from the time period, then adapted to modern English to write all dialogue.

  • Researched cultural distinctions between characters to maintain authenticity and accuracy in historical context.

  • Maintained project roadmap integrity by mediating stakeholder expectations and development team scope, ensuring alignment with final strategic goals.

Skills / Software

  • Creative Writing

    • Screenplay, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry

  • Narrative Design

    • Quest / Dialogue trees / NPC behavior

  • Google Sheets / Excel

  • Articy:Draft

  • Unreal / Unity

  • Cinematography

  • Adobe CC

    • Premier Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign

  • Presentations / Public Speaking

  • Organization

  • Budget Management / Crisis Management

References

Erik Sand / FIEA

erik.sand@ucf.edu

407-252-4188

Peter Telep / UCF

peter.telep@ucf.edu

407-823-5592

Education

Interactive Entertainment (MS)

Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

2025-2026

Bachelors in Creative Writing

University of Central Florida

2021-2024