Wynne McLaughlin, formerly the lead writer and narrative designer for Elder Scrolls Online and its expansions, has announced that he's joining Intrepid Studios as Senior Narrative Designer on Ashes of Creation.
“I'm very excited to announce that I've accepted a full-time, remote position with Intrepid Studios in San Diego as a Senior Narrative Designer for their groundbreaking new MMO Ashes of Creation!” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
This marks a significant move and a notable talent acquisition with McLaughlin, who has also contributed to other games like Star Wars: The Old Republic, Tabula Rasa, and more.
Ashes of Creation is between Alpha sessions, with the next play dates unconfirmed yet, so there's still much potential in the works. With the project's transparency in development, adding someone with these credits to his name is definitely major, especially with prior credits on MMORPGs where story is treated with such importance and at the root of development. Considering Ashes of Creation's emphasis on player-driven action, stories, and decisions that affect everything in the world, it's an exciting update. While those other games did have an overarching linear story to tell through the leveling process, the openness of this project even bring some questions to mind about just what McLaughlin will be bringing to the table in such a dynamic project.
Intrepid's recent updates have focused on overall development progress, and given that Alpha One concluded in mid-August, implementing the feedback they got through that event. With Alpha Two promised to not be a time-limited event, taking on someone with this pedigree makes things quite intriguing. With such an engaged community and a designer who is excited for this new project, we look forward to future community development updates to get a hint of where things are headed with Ashes of Creation (and when the next beta phase will open its doors to testers). Keep up with more over at Ashes of Creation.
