Havilah McGinnis is a writer and narrative designer, with a background in directing and writing for theater. Even before she officially started pursuing her interest in games, she enjoyed experimenting with narratives that rewarded audience input. This was most evident while attending school at UCSB, when she was selected to write and direct her undergraduate senior honor’s project, everything/anything, a successful experiment in discovering if it was possible to create a play that would entice the audience to break from convention and interact within the play’s world, without ever being explicitly informed that they were allowed to do so.

After graduating, Havilah spent over a decade working as a theater director in NYC, specializing in helping playwrights develop new work containing magical or unconventional elements. She also continued to write her own plays, demonstrating a penchant for dark comedy. A strong believer in learning and borrowing from other mediums, she started attending public lectures on game design at NYU, and taking classes on game writing offered through Playcrafting. This all culminated in early 2017, when Telltale held their first ever Creative Workshop during GDC. As one of 30 selected participants out of over 300 applicants, she spent the day being coached the basics of writing and narrative design for games. By the end of a week that included winning first place in Write Club, Havilah was fully committed to pursuing a career in games. Since then, she has continued to expand her knowledge and experience, from experimental proc gen design to the art of crafting barks and descriptions that can hold their luster over a 100+ hour experience.

Due to the pandemic, she relocated from NYC to a small village in the Midwest that could fit in one of the theaters she used to bartend in. She is currently available for remote work in a variety of time zones. When not working on games, she spends her time hiking, knitting, and spying on the squirrels in her backyard.