KARRIE SHAO
(shirou)
I'm a Writer, Narrative Designer, Producer, and Marketing Director in the video game industry.I'm the Lead Narrative Designer and Lead Writer for Pacific Drive, a Top 10 Best Selling Steam game, and a BAFTA Breakthrough 2024. I'm also writing a Young Adult Fantasy novel for publication.Open to new projects specifically for freelance writing / narrative design and giving talks.
Get in touch!
BIO
Karrie Shirou Shao is a Taiwanese-American writer and designer in the video game industry. Her most recent project is Pacific Drive, the 2024 best-selling supernatural survival game on PC and PlayStation 5 described as "Stephen King's X-Files in a Station Wagon". The game sold over 600,000 copies in the first five months of its release, earning it a Best Debut Indie Game nomination (The Game Awards) and a spot on 2024's Nebula Award Reading List, one of the most prestigious science fiction and fantasy awards. Shao is the game's Lead Writer and Lead Narrative Designer, creating its story and writing its script dissecting the legacy of what we leave behind, the human costs of living with public and private failure, and the price of pursuing science and technology at all costs. Her writing has garnered praise as "funny and compelling" by GamesRadar, "exquisite" by ScreenRant, and "heartfelt" by DreadCentral.Shao was selected as a BAFTA Breakthrough 2025 talent and was one of the first women to write and produce on League of Legends, the most played PC game of all time. During her time at Riot Games, she contributed to champions including Lux, Sona, Ahri, and Talon. She went on to launch over 50 titles in a collection of roles, including production on the multi-million seller Hello Neighbor franchise and North American marketing leadership on Terra Battle 2 (Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's independent studio).Shao is a full member of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association), and the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN).
PRESS
NARRATIVE & WRITING
⭐ League of Legends (Riot Games)
...........Most Played PC Game of All Time
...........2010 Golden Joystick Winner for Online Game of the Year
⭐ Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios)
...........Top 10 Best Selling On Steam
...........2024 The Game Awards Nominee - Best Debut Indie
...........2023 Golden Joysticks Nominee - Most Wanted Game
...........PC Gamer's #6 Most Wanted Game 2023
...........2024 Nebula Award Reading List for Best Game Writing
...........2024 TIGA Awards Nominee - Narrative / Storytelling
⭐ Per Aspera (Tlon Industries / Raw Fury)
...........2020 D.I.C.E. Nominee for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
...........2021 BIG Festival Winner for Best Game: Latin America
⭐ Totemic (Collage Games / Humble Games)
⭐ Not Tonight 2 (Panic Barn / No More Robots)
⭐ The Exit Game - The School of Sorcery, The Lab, Villains Lair
...........Most Reviewed Escape Room in Los Angeles
PRODUCTION
🎈 League of Legends (Riot Games)
Tutorial, Co-op vs AI, Dominion🎈 tinyBuild
Hello Neighbor, Graveyard Keeper,
Party Hard, Streets of Rogue🎈 Arc System Works
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, The MISSING
MARKETING, PR, COMMUNICATIONS
🌠 Annapurna Interactive - Event Production
🌠 Double Fine Productions - Event Production
🌠 Nicalis Inc - The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - PR
🌠 Grounding Inc - Space Channel 5: Kinda Funky News Flash! - PR
🌠 Funimation - Super Saiyan Showdown, Social Media, Event Production
🌠 MUSTERBRAND - Marketing, PR, Social Media
🌠 Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc - Event Production
🌠 Mistwalker - Terra Battle & Terra Battle 2 - Marketing, PR, Launch
TALKS
📣 Say Less: How I Learned to Write Less to Do More
Featured Keynote
Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2024
Melbourne, Australia📣 Crafting the Narrative:
The Art and Impact of Narrative Design in Games
Joint talk with JoJo Zhou, Cult of the Lamb
SXSW Sydney 2024 - Sydney, Australia📣 How To Go From "Aspiring" to "Narrative Designer"
LudoNarraCon 2021 - Online
LudoNarraCon's Most Viewed Solo Talk
and 2nd Most Viewed Talk📣 Drive Like Hell: Navigating the Narrative of Pacific Drive
BIG Festival - São Paulo, Brazil
