Mario Mergola
Game Designer -- Quest, Narrative, Systems, Data
Its'a me, Mario!
- 8+ Years of experience as Game, Narrative, and Quest Designer on shipped and large-scale and live-service projects
- Lead Game Designer managing teams of up to 11 designers
- 15+ years of leadership experience delivering $50M+ projects across multiple industries
- Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5, Unity, Godot, and Python
- Professional freelance writer with 1,000+ published articles
- Engineering degree with a strong technical and systems-oriented mindset
Game Design Portfolio -- Quest, Narrative, Systems, Data
Scars of Honor (In Development) -- Quest Designer
Problem: Designing quests for an MMORPG meant everything had to scale. Quests needed to handle branching outcomes, shared world states, and faction differences without becoming fragile or hard to maintain as the project grew.
Solution: I treated quests as systems, not one-off content. I built multi-step quests with clear states, branches, and conditions, and supported them with shared quest data that other departments could reference through our shared server setup. I worked closely with narrative, systems, and level design to make sure quests fit naturally with combat, exploration, and world progression.
Result: The quests were flexible, replayable, and easier to extend without rework. Shared data reduced back-and-forth between teams and made iteration faster, helping establish a cleaner, more maintainable quest pipeline for the project.
Ascend (Shipped) -- Narrative Director, Game Designer, Content Designer
Problem: Ascend needed its puzzles, story, and progression to feel like one cohesive experience. Without alignment, there was a risk that narrative and gameplay would pull in different directions and slow production.
Solution: I designed story beats, puzzles, and progression together instead of treating narrative as a separate layer. I worked closely with the Creative Director to prototype puzzles that supported the themes of the world, and I kept documentation focused and practical so other teams always knew what was needed and why.
Result: The final game delivered puzzles that supported immersion instead of interrupting it. Clear documentation and early alignment reduced iteration time and helped the team ship on schedule with a consistent narrative and gameplay experience.
Mass Effect 2: Mission Logic Recreation (Portfolio Piece) -- Game Designer, Narrative Designer, Programmer
Problem: The final mission in Mass Effect 2 is a complex mix of player choice, decision tracking, and consequences. Recreating it meant dealing with tool limitations while preserving clarity and emotional impact.
Solution: I mapped the mission’s logic in Articy Draft 3, then used Unreal Engine 5 to extend it where Articy fell short. I scripted custom logic to handle branching conditions, randomization, and outcome resolution, keeping the structure readable and easy to reason about.
Result: The result was a playable simulation that clearly showed how player decisions affected outcomes and character survival. It demonstrated my ability to combine narrative design, systems thinking, and technical implementation across tools.
Pandora: Chains of Chaos (Shipped) -- Narrative Designer, Game Designer, Content Designer
Problem: As an open-world action-adventure game, Pandora risked losing narrative momentum when players explored freely or engaged heavily in combat. Story pacing could easily fall apart without structure.
Solution: I designed mission structures that allowed player freedom while protecting narrative pacing. By working closely with Programming and Level Design, I aligned narrative triggers, quest flow, and gameplay systems in Unreal Engine so story beats fired reliably and supported player flow.
Result: The game delivered a clear narrative arc within an open world. Story and gameplay supported each other, helping maintain player engagement and emotional continuity throughout the experience.
The Tūn-Gāst of Oakshaw (Not Released) -- Lead Game Designer
Problem: The project required building a large, connected game while also growing a relatively inexperienced design team. Without structure, there was a risk of uneven systems, unclear ownership, and slow iteration.
Solution: As Lead Game Designer, I focused on setting clear design direction and feedback loops. I ran live design sessions, mentored designers through hands-on reviews, and shared prototypes through GitHub to keep work visible and collaborative. Design decisions focused on long-term engagement rather than short-term, episodic content.
Result: The team delivered cohesive systems while improving collaboration and individual skill growth. Designers gained confidence and ownership, and the project benefited from clearer workflows and more consistent, player-focused design decisions.
Writing Sample -- Narrative Designer and Game Writer
This cutscene sample would play at the start of a mission in a Mafia/Payday-style open-world crime simulation game. The playable character is Rafael and the player has been briefed about the particulars of the mission, including the presence of glass-break sensors.This scene underwent three iterations based on feedback from professional narrative designers.