Behind the Scenes - Our Team
Levi Waterhouse
Hello! My name is Levi Waterhouse, and I am the lead developer in Worldbuilding and Game Narrative Design for my studio’s upcoming project, Fiach. Fiach is a neo-medieval fantasy rpg board game that emulates student debt’s negative effects on personal economic support. As lead developer, I create immersive stories for players to experience, while using cultural research to enliven locations with Umayyad, Axum and Aztec mythology.
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My passion for worldbuilding started at a very young age. My father, a freelance journalist (and creative writer on the side), showed me Willow for the first time. As a person with Dwarfism, a genetic physical disability resulting in short stature, I was enraptured by this film. Not only were the settings and landscapes so fantastical, but the people appearing in this movie looked just like me. From that moment onwards, I found a strong interest in creating fictional environments with potential for complex narratives. This would help me to also create places full of diversity and acceptance. From here, I found myself exploring many different methods of immersion and world development. First came sound design in audio narratives. Then I explored high-level creative writing in academic settings. I even acted in award-winning fantastical short films. I now find myself armed with a multimodal methodology that allows me to look at my craft in many different ways.
This game holds such a strong personal connection to me. It has allowed my group to create a sounding board of young voices struggling under educational and economic manipulation. These voices include my own, as a person currently in debt from college tuition. Being able to unearth issues on debt and the systems that establish it in our fantasy environment, while creating systems that evoke multiple elements of visibility, has been an absolute dream come true.
My passion for worldbuilding started at a very young age. My father, a freelance journalist (and creative writer on the side), showed me Willow for the first time. As a person with Dwarfism, a genetic physical disability resulting in short stature, I was enraptured by this film. Not only were the settings and landscapes so fantastical, but the people appearing in this movie looked just like me. From that moment onwards, I found a strong interest in creating fictional environments with potential for complex narratives. This would help me to also create places full of diversity and acceptance. From here, I found myself exploring many different methods of immersion and world development. First came sound design in audio narratives. Then I explored high-level creative writing in academic settings. I even acted in award-winning fantastical short films. I now find myself armed with a multimodal methodology that allows me to look at my craft in many different ways.
This game holds such a strong personal connection to me. It has allowed my group to create a sounding board of young voices struggling under educational and economic manipulation. These voices include my own, as a person currently in debt from college tuition. Being able to unearth issues on debt and the systems that establish it in our fantasy environment, while creating systems that evoke multiple elements of visibility, has been an absolute dream come true.