Career Milestones
Kristala
(Astral Clocktower Studios)
✧ Lead Narrative Designer | Voice Actor
Description:
Lead Narrative Designer & Voice Actor on our shipped Early Access title, Kristala, responsible for:
• Contributing to the development of the game's core story arcs, geographic names, and historic lore.
• Scripting all in-game narrative materials, including: interactions with NPCs, character dialogues, journals, and (100+) item descriptions / flavor texts.
• Concepting art briefs for characters, enemies, items, and additional assets.
• Collaborating with the level design department in the development of current and future questlines.
• Providing narrative materials to our casting partner (No Studio In Particular) during open auditions.
• Directing (15+) voice actors during remote recording sessions, editing recorded materials, and collaborating with our SFX team on sound design.
• Working with our studio's leads to maintain narrative continuity across the board.
• Providing our localization department with a running glossary of terms.
• Play testing latest builds and reporting feedback for bug fixes.
• Voicing the following characters: Zazagrul, Grinning Grimaldi, & Mysterious Voice
Kristala on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1206410/Kristala/
Studio Site: https://www.astralclocktowerstudios.com/kristala
Od1n: Ascension (Be Wild Games)
✧ Narrative Director | Narrative Supervising Lead | Writer
Description:
As the Narrative Director on Be Wild Games’ upcoming title, Od1n: Ascension, I am tasked with the direct supervision of the writing team, maintaining narrative cohesion across departments, and leading the narrative development of the game’s demo.
Studio Site: https://www.bewildgames.net/
Gallowgrove
(Indie Video Game - Global Game Jam 2022)
✧ Lead Narrative Designer | Level Designer | Artist & Animator
Genre: 2D Action-Adventure Platformer
Description:
During the recent Global Game Jam 2022, I spearheaded the development of a 2D action-adventure platformer, called Gallowgrove, for which I worked as the Lead Narrative Designer, Level Designer, and Artist.
Synopsis:
Mischievous thieves have disturbed Yorick’s Tomb. Now, the fell spirits of the damned rise from their coffins to haunt the unhallowed grounds of Gallowgrove. You play as a humble gravedigger, bent on returning his undead flock to their peaceful rest. Use your Dark Sight to navigate a world between life and death, reach Yorick’s Tomb, and bury all who cross your path!
Willow Jay Bryar - Narrative Design / Art & Animation / Level Design
Alex Chheng - Programming / Sound Design / Level Design
Edwin Ayala - Level Design
Mekhi Vaughn - Level Design
Play Now: https://edwinayala04.itch.io/gallowgrove
Game Jam Site: https://lnkd.in/dk33QR62
Montclair State University
✧ Bachelor of Arts Degree - Humanities & Social Sciences | College of the Arts
Cumulative GPA: 3.883
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
Majors:
English
Communications & Media Arts
Minors:
Creative Writing
Mythology Studies
Description:
With extensive knowledge in the fields of fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, mythology, transmedia storytelling, and game design, I have structured my educational experience to cover a wide variety of disciplines. Throughout my schooling, I developed a strong comprehension of narrative structure and genre, and their relationship with plot and character, having, at length, studied the works and models of Gustav Freytag, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Dan Harmon, and William Shakespeare.
The Carter Ross Flash Fiction Award
✧ Author | Award Recipient
For “The Goat” (Flash Fiction)
The Carter Ross Award in Flash Fiction is for the best piece of fiction 1,000 words or under. The award is underwritten by the journalist-turned thriller-writer Brad Parks, and named after one of his main characters, Carter Ross, a reporter turned amateur detective in Parks’ Newark-based crime series. Brad Parks and his namesake embody one of the prime directives in journalism: get to the point, and fast. This directive is particularly important in flash fiction, where a suspenseful plot may be reduced to one crucial event, or a character represented by a single salient trait.
Award Listing URL: https://www.montclair.edu/english/2020/05/19/creative-writing-awards
The Hitman's Paradox
(Short Student Film)
✧ Screenwriter | Director | Cinematographer | Editor
Description:
When a hitman pursues his target, he finds himself trapped in a never-ending cycle of death.
A Willow Jay Bryar Production
Starring Cesar Rodriguez Jr. & David Evans
Directed, Produced, Edited, & Shot by Willow Jay Bryar
Gaffers & Grips: David Evans & Willow Jay Bryar
Music: Tower of Terror Soundtrack - Queque Music (Courtesy of YouTube)
Video Link: https://youtu.be/zXmUpDObweU
The Opening of the Box (Short Student Film)
✧ Screenwriter | Director | Cinematographer | Editor
Description:
Being my first short film, "The Opening of The Box" is a silent, black & white, avant-garde portrayal of the classic Greek myth, Pandora's Box.
"THE OPENING OF THE BOX" A film by Willow Jay Bryar
Starring Alex Campbell
Directed, Produced, Edited, Shot by Willow Jay Bryar
Gaffers & Grips: David Evans, Sofia Giannascoli, Vick Gonzalez, & Dillon Hoffman
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven "Moonlight Sonata No. 14" (Public Domain)
Video Link: https://youtu.be/RFS_rWEdKug
#FOCUS: Climate Change (Internship)
✧ Content Researcher | Production Assistant
Description:
A one-hour primetime program where we gather experts on the climate change issues particular to New Jersey. The experts will answer questions that have been pre-recorded and sent in via social media, and frequently asked questions by the general public.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/efSTv4mR2GE
Tales of the Orange City (Indie Video Game)
✧ Director | Lead Narrative Designer
Description:
Tales of the Orange City was to be an epic visual novel, made with Unity. I was the project’s Director and Lead Narrative Designer in a crew of around 20 talented writers, artists, programmers, and sound designers. Unfortunately, due to incessant scheduling conflicts and a lack of commitment by some key developers, the project was decisively shelved. Although I might regret having never seen this project through to the end, I feel it was an important stepping stone and a crucial lesson, which I will never forget.
Synopsis:
Set within a post-apocalyptic Arizona, twenty years from modern day, you play as an ex-member of The Horsemen, a raider group, marauding across the Orange Wastes, murdering and plundering along AZ’s Route 93, all the way from Paradise, Las Vegas. After a mission gone savagely awry, you, along with an orphaned little girl, risk life and limb in an epic tale of hope and redemption, as you flee from a now-vengeful gang, in search of a mythical ORANGE CITY.
Status: Shelved