I started my career amidst the Global Financial Crisis in HR tech, before being acquired into a major research and advisory firm, where I became interested in strategy, operations, and the structures that allow organisations to scale. From there I moved into tech startup operations and product development. For the last decade I’ve been operating at the edge of digital culture: producing games, advising on AI, researching autonomous worlds, crypto and DAO tooling, teaching, writing, and speaking internationally.

Most recently I served as Senior Producer / Operations Lead in video game development shipping narrative and systems-driven indie games. I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. I have taught at The New Centre for Research & Practice, have guest lectured on several undergrad and post grad courses. I contributed research to the CMF 2023 Annual Trends Report and the BBC Future of Social Report as an expert.

I speak regularly at major international conferences around the world: DevConnect, Sonar+D, Unsound Festival, Ars Electronica, Transmediale; on technology, narrative strategy, and the future(s) of digital culture. Landing complex ideas to a room is something I do well.

All of my work is grounded in a single animating thesis: that the defining medium of the 21st century is worlds. Persistent, participatory environments where techno-social systems, narrative, and community interact. I’ve spent years developing this thinking; nearly 40,000 words of the resulting essays live at worldrunning.guide. I’m finishing my first non-fiction book, The Web Was a Side Quest, which traces the history of worlds from Modernity’s origins, though Dungeons & Dragons and it’s influence on computer, up to the so-called Metaverse of today.

Recent Work & Projects:

• Shipping: My most recent production work was Off Grid: Red Team, a vertical slice cybersecurity game where players learn to think like an attacker. A project that required holding together narrative design, systems thinking, and the operational complexity of a multi-discipline indie team. Concurrently I also shipped The O’Ruggin Trail, a satirical on-chain parser text adventure that combines and interactive fiction fiction engine and the affordances of blockchain infrastructure.
• Consulting & Strategy: In 2024 I made a serious attempt at building a long-horizon AI agent evaluation startup, we were too early. But I understand the shape of the problem and still think current eval frameworks fall short. I’ve done research and advisory work on AI companions and interface design: the cultural lineages, design constraints, and friction that comes from putting agents into vessels. I’ve also recently advised on continuous curation for an immersive art museum, VTuber ecosystem, and contributed design research on Autonomous Worlds.
• Teaching: Instructor at The New Centre (Theory Fiction, DAO Design Fiction). Guest Tutor in Computational Arts at Camberwell College of Arts (2022), with various other contributions to MA and BA courses worldwide.
• Writing: My essay “Movement Between Models“ (Incredible Machines Conference, published by Triple Ampersand). Contributor to Lost Zone: Hiking the Dawn of Metaverse (Viaindustriae Press), and “What is Solarpunk?” in Issue #1 of Solarpunk Magazine.

My long involvement in Solarpunk as a cultural movement has led to work on fandom dynamics and the nature of attention online — how communities form, sustain themselves, and shape cultural narratives across digital and physical spaces.

For more, check out my talks page or browse the miscellany, which includes essays, podcast appearances, and public events.

Unlockable Character

I’ve been described as an “Unlockable Character“. A player character you didn’t realise could join your party until we interact.

My career has moved across industries, disciplines, and creative fields in ways that don’t fit neatly on a timeline — but that range is the point. I bring institutional rigour from a decade in research and advisory work, operational depth from shipping products and leading teams, and a decade of original thinking developed independently at the frontier of digital culture.

I work best in ambitious organisations: studios, research institutes, media companies, emerging tech, that have something genuinely worth building and need someone who can operate across the full width of a problem.

I’m actively seeking a permanent role. If that sounds like it could be you, reach out.

For more about my personal life, keep going.