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Kelly Weng
Game Designer & Writer
About
Hello! I'm Kelly Weng, a game designer and writer from Los Angeles, CA who enjoys creating interactive narrative experiences.Throughout my life, I've been passionate about telling stories, both nonfiction and fiction, because I could never find stories and characters that represented me. I'm always seeking opportunities to help tell unique and diverse stories.
Games
Content Designer
May 2020 - December 2023
An MMORPG set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth during the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Quality Assurance Tester
June 2016 - August 2016
A point-and-click cyberpunk thriller where a journalist-turned-detective teams up with Turing, the world’s first sapient machine, to unmask a conspiracy that will shake the foundations of Neo-San Francisco.
Personal Work
An interactive narrative about the struggle between cultures on the basis of language.
A short, cyclic game about losing and toxicity in gaming. Inspired by my time playing Blizzard's Overwatch.
Student Work
Narrative Designer
July 2019
A visual novel about balancing your friendship, morality, supernatural contracts, and college life.
Narrative Designer/ Programmer
April 2018
A visual novel created for Smith College's Nolen Art Lounge exhibit Significant Play: Exploring the Possibilities of Human Connection and Gameplay. Before your grandfather's funeral, you return to your grandparents' house one more time.
Game Designer
September 2017 - December 2017
A 2D, local multiplayer medieval dueling arena that features fast paced combat with a shield and sword.
The Lord of the Rings Online
As a Content Designer, I wrote, designed, and implemented landscape quests and group encounters. Listed are just some of the things I worked on for each update. For quest arcs, I've linked to wiki pages of the starting quests.
Update 27: The Great Wedding
- Repeatable daily event quests
Update 28: War of Three Peaks
- Trev Duvárdain quest arc
- Elderslade region questsUpdate 29: The Wildwood
- Woe of the Willow three-player instance
- Woe of the Willow story questsUpdate 30: Blood of Azog
- Temámir couple quest arc
- Azanulbizar region quests
Update 31: Fate of Gundabad
- Orc deserters quest arc
- Bounty hunter quest arc
- Deepscrave region quests
- Assault on DhĂşrstrok three-player instance (MozrĂşk the Wind-Rider)Update 32: Rangers and Ruins
- Dunlending refugees quest arc
Update 33: Yondershire
- Unlucky hobbit quest arc
- Hide-and-seek quest arc
- Yondershire region questsUpdate 33.1
- The Further Adventures of Elladan & Elrohir
Update 34: Before the Shadow
- Bandit quest arc
- Cardolan region quests
- The Black Grave six-player instance (Fladach and Luilloth)Update 35: Return to Carn Dûm
- Sagroth, Lair of Vermin six-player instance (RádarrĂg)
- Sagroth repeatable daily questsUpdate 36: Gondor Renewed
- Lost Corsairs quest arc
- Upper Lebennin region quests
Update 38: Corsairs of Umbar
- Corsair hostage quest arc
- Orc village quest arc
- Umbari history quest arc
- Region quests in Belfalas, Eastern Anfalas, Jeb Khâtel, and Tor-gardens
In Memoriam
By the time I'd joined the team, they'd already solidified most of the game's design with its tone, gameplay, and artwork. I wrote the story while preserving the idea of exploring a house and "unlocking" memories through certain items. This was a very personal project for me, as the memories I wrote were inspired in part by my own grandfather, who passed away in 2015 after a long battle with Alzheimer's.Thanks to the linearity of the rooms the player visits, I was able to associate each room with a specific emotional beat. The first room contains happy memories while the second illustrates the grandfather's downwards spiral. The player is then allowed to ruminate on these memories and choose whether to mourn what was lost or continue moving forward, so to speak. I wanted both endings to be seen as valid, but moving forward would allow the player to see the title screen in color.Originally, our programmer had been planning to code the game in Python, but I suggested switching to something more sophisticated, like Ren'Py. Since this was my first time working with Ren'Py, I taught myself how to use the program.
Mastery
The gameplay loop and characters had already been designed by the time I started working on the story. I wanted to flesh out the characters and give them actual backstories, personalities, and motivations to spark an emotional reaction from the players. Given that the game's objective is for the players to defeat each other through (what we originally envisioned to be) multiple levels, I wanted the emotional reactions towards the player's opponent, both in-game and in reality, to be intertwined.With the time we had, I was able to write a script for the game's tutorial that introduced the world, characters, and mechanics to players. Unfortunately, we were unable implement the game's story for the final build.In addition to my writing duties, I was tasked with gathering feedback on the gameplay during development, resulting in the fine-tuning of the mechanics to ensure players would enjoy playing the game.
The Death Contract
This was created as a submission for My First Game Jam.Taking the overall storyline established by the game's director, I designed and wrote two narrative routes with branching choices that impacted both the story outcome and character relationships. As the characters evolved during development, I proposed and implemented changes to the story's pacing and endings to better inform character motivations and give players a more satisfying payoff.
1 Year Out
This was initially created for the LowRezJam.Working with a fellow writer who was responsible for the characters, I populated the areas outside of the main gameplay levels with objects pertaining to each character. Given that the game's setting is a surreal dreamscape, I wanted to let players learn more about the characters via object interactions, as well as further connect the characters to their respective levels.