Game Designer — 30 Years
Norrath started as a world I dreamed up as a teenager, just for me and my friends. I never imagined it would reach millions of people, or still be alive in someone's heart decades later. I've spent thirty years trying to understand why that happens — and building worlds where it can happen again. From leading hundreds of people on genre-defining MMOs to working alone on a quiet app that let strangers leave messages for each other on a lonely beach. The scale changes. The reason doesn't.
MMORPG — PC
Co-created the world of Norrath. Designed the faction system, progression, risk and reward, and the social interdependence that defined a genre. Hall of Fame, Game Developers Choice Online Awards, 2011. Game of the Year, Gamespot, 1999.
MMO — PC / Console / TV
Originated the concept, world, factions, and creative pillars for the first cross-media game franchise — simultaneously a game on three platforms and a Syfy television series. Best of Show, MMORPG.com, 2011.
Action RPG — PSP
Co-created a million-selling action RPG launch title for the PlayStation Portable, and its sequel. Greatest Hits status, SCEA. One of the first major titles to ship on the platform.
MMO — PC
As a founding member of Amazon Games San Diego, helped shape the studio's creative standards and org structure from day one. Contributed to New World's transition from survival game to mainstream MMO through narrative direction, content, systems, and team building.
Mobile — iOS
A minimalist, ambient mobile experience. Reached #1 paid app on the Apple App Store in its first year. Named Top Selling iPhone App of 2008 by Apple. The Blimp Pilots named to Entrepreneur's Top 100 Companies to Watch.
Mobile — iOS
An experimental anonymous social experience built around a message-in-a-bottle metaphor. Players left messages for strangers and discovered ones left for them. Quiet, restrained, and built entirely around unexpected human connection.
Social App — Mobile / Web
A media-sharing social app built around street art culture — using spray paint and stencil tools to mark up live web content. Debuted at SXSW Startup Spotlight 2015. Developed in partnership with Writerz Blok, a San Diego graffiti arts non-profit.
Roguelike RPG — PC · Early Access
Founding member of Pixelmage Games. An open world roguelike fantasy RPG developed with New York Times bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss. Launched on Steam Early Access in 2016. Didn't finish — but Pixelmage became the foundation of Amazon Games San Diego.
MMORPG — PC · Early Access
Contributor at Sony Online Entertainment on an ambitious voxel-based reimagining of Norrath. Designed several critical systems, UI/UX, and lore as part of a larger team.
MMORPG — PC · Early Access
Director of Design at Intrepid Studios. Led a multidisciplinary team across systems, narrative, UX, and combat. Authored onboarding and progression scaffolding. Worked hands-on in Unreal Engine 5.
Folk Horror Social — UEFN — Indie
A folk horror social experience built in Unreal Editor for Fortnite. No combat. No timer. No hand-holding. Just the very dark woods, a campfire that appears to burn forever, and the feeling that something is watching. Full GDD through shipped product, solo. Under the pseudonym grimbrim.
Roguelike — Pico-8 — Indie
A complete roguelike built and shipped in Pico-8. Available at grimbrim.itch.io/pupper. Under the pseudonym grimbrim.
Led design across systems, narrative, UX, and combat for Ashes of Creation. Established design tenets and review practices. Worked hands-on in UE5 on world construction and authored onboarding systems for a complex, community-developed MMO.
Founding member of Amazon Games San Diego — helped establish the studio's design culture, org structure, discipline boundaries, and creative standards from scratch. Reviewed pitches, prototypes, and builds across multiple projects. On New World, contributed to the survival-to-MMO transition through narrative direction, systems, and team building. Separately led R&D into AI-generated voiceover for an unreleased MMO.
Founding member of Pixelmage Games, the small studio behind Hero's Song — an open world roguelike fantasy RPG developed with New York Times bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss. The game launched on Steam Early Access in 2016 but wasn't completed. Pixelmage became the seed of Amazon Games San Diego.
Led design and creative vision for Graphiti, a media-sharing social app that used street art tools — spray paint, stencils — to mark up live web content. Launched at SXSW Startup Spotlight 2015 with graffiti artist Chor Boogie. Partnered with Writerz Blok, a San Diego graffiti arts non-profit.
Contributor on EverQuest Next and Landmark — an ambitious voxel-based reimagining of Norrath combining procedural world systems with deep player-driven creation tools. Designed several critical systems, UI/UX, and lore as part of a larger team.
Originated the Defiance transmedia universe — world, factions, tone, and franchise identity — and led it through a simultaneous launch on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and a Syfy television series. The first cross-media game franchise of its kind.
Designed and shipped multiple iOS titles with a five-person team: Koi Pond (#1 paid app, App Store first year), Distant Shore (experimental anonymous social experience), and Elephant Odyssey (developed with the San Diego Zoo).
Co-created EverQuest. Built Norrath from scratch: its lore, pantheon, faction system, starting cities, and the design principles for persistent online worlds the genre still runs on. Led design through Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, EverQuest II, Untold Legends on PSP, and Ca$h, Guns, Chao$ DLX on PSN.
EverQuest
Hall of Fame
EverQuest
Game of the Year
EverQuest & Ruins of Kunark
Online Game of the Year
EverQuest
Greatest Games of All Time
Defiance
Best of Show
Untold Legends
Greatest Hits
Individual — Bill Trost
Hot 100 Developer
Koi Pond
Top Selling iPhone App of the Year
The Blimp Pilots
Top 100 Companies to Watch — Mobile
It's not about the stories we tell.
It's about the stories players tell each other.
Meaningful worlds are defined by the space they leave for players to create their own stories, not by designer-authored ones. World integrity means respecting the world and the characters who live in it deeply enough that players believe in it as a real place they want to call home. That's been the north star for thirty years.
Game designer, creative director, world builder. Based in San Diego. Thirty years in the industry and still making things.