The Narrative Design team I cofounded at Microsoft Studios with Eric Nylund was tasked with developing storyworlds that would showcase Microsoft's entertainment platforms. We worked with Remedy, the creators of Alan Wake, to develop an experimental property that would blur the lines between games and television, demonstrating the power of Microsoft's Xbox One.

Quantum Break is a hybrid entertainment experience, featuring a transmedia experience path that alternates between playable levels of an action-adventure shooter game with time manipulation mechanics (think Uncharted meets Braid) and episodes of linear video content. The linear video episodes are impacted by the choices the player makes during the playable levels.

According to the marketing department:

From Remedy Entertainment, the masters of cinematic action games such as Max Payne and Alan Wake, comes Quantum Break, a time-amplified suspenseful blockbuster. The Quantum Break experience is part game, part live action show—where decisions in one dramatically affect the other. You are Jack Joyce, fighting the nefarious Monarch corporation to stop the end of time. Epic moments of destruction, frozen in chaotic “time stutters,” become playgrounds for intense combat. With a star-studded cast of actors from X-Men, Game of Thrones, The Wire and more, Quantum Break's time-amplified story is a new and unique entertainment experience.

My team and I worked with Sam Lake and his team at Remedy to shape the story and the world of the game, and to design the dynamics of how the two narrative components worked together. I provided advice on how to design the transmedia experience, and served as the lead narrative producer for the project.