EarReality

Narrative Designer 

Screenwriter

Paralect

Full writing support for the needs of the company:
- Writing articles and guest posts
- Creating case studies and video scripts
- Writing ads for various online channels
- Interviewing
- Supporting sales, product and marketing activities

Left the company to study full-time for MA Serial Storytelling in Germany

Copywriter

StockBattle

Worked on several web and mobile games aimed at crypto and stock market education. 
- UX writing
- Social media writing
- Blogging

Media Manager

FBS Inc.

- Managing a creative team (6 people) of the traffic department, later - of the FBS Global product, team lead.
- Copywriting for websites, landing pages, offline and online materials of the company in English.
- Creation of creative concepts, UX copywriting
- Editing and proofreading of materials for novice copywriters, training for copywriters

Creative Team Lead / Copywriter 

Heads and Hands

Content marketing and PR for Russian and International markets:
- Strategy planning
- Content marketing (blogging, SMM, ratings, etc.)
- PR
- Online Marketing

Marketing and PR specialist

Reksoft

Marketing Manager

Marketing Assistant

All my life I’ve been a fierce force of imagination, persistence, and hard work: like a dragon hunting for gold. But instead of treasure, I’ve been searching for stories to tell and ways to make an impact.

Born in Belarus, I studied journalism in Bulgaria and worked in marketing in Russia, but storytelling has always been my true passion. I create narratives that allow people to explore fresh perspectives in a safe, immersive way.

As a queer, neurodivergent woman from a patriarchal country, I’m passionate about shedding light on complex topics through my work. Over the years, I’ve designed more than 100 LARP games, written 10+ original tabletop campaigns, and worked as a script supervisor on the short film Mein Name Akim (2024), which tells the story of transgender refugees in Germany.

During my MA in Serial Storytelling at IFS Cologne, I honed my skills across genres, working on solo projects as well as collaborating in Writers' Rooms.

Currently, I’m co-developing a visual novel game with a co-author as a passion project.

Now that I've completed my degree, I’m eager to bring my creativity to TV and gaming, crafting stories in both English and German.

Dragons never stop breathing fire. And neither do I, with an endless flow of ideas and stories I can’t wait to share.

Alena Lysiakova 🐉 🔜 GAMESCOM

Your script is not a novel.


And the sooner a writer accepts that, the faster their work starts to breathe.
A screenplay or game script isn’t meant to be read for beauty: it’s meant to be performed, built, acted, and played.

That means:
- Less inner monologue, more behavior.
- Less description, more playable action.
- Less “she feels broken inside,” more “she laughs at the wrong moment.”
Scripts are blueprints for collaboration: not literary exhibitions.

Once you start writing for performance instead of for pages, everything changes. Characters move. Scenes breathe. And suddenly, people can actually make the thing you wrote.

#Screenwriting #NarrativeDesign #GameDev #StoryForScreen

Alena Lysiakova 🐉

Narrative designer and screenwriter ▶️ Let's create stories that make an impact

Here’s a reminder: your antagonist thinks they’re the protagonist. ✍️


The best villains don’t twirl mustaches and cackle. They wake up convinced they’re right. Maybe even more right than your hero. And that makes them dangerous.

👉 When I write antagonists, I don’t start with “how do I make them evil?” I start with: “What do they want, and why does it make perfect sense to them?”

That’s when the lines blur: and suddenly, you’ve got an antagonist the audience can’t dismiss, because a part of them (almost)… makes sense. 

#Screenwriting #Storytelling

After six truly amazing months, my internship at EarReality has come to an end: and what a journey it’s been. 🎧✨


During this time, I grew both as a writer and a writing coach, learned the ins and outs of storytelling for audio games, and wrote six different games (with one more on the way!): three of them based on original IPs.

🖤 My story Heart for a Hunter was even featured as part of Gamescom Cologne Epixx, and several more of my projects are now in production.

I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with incredibly talented people across Europe and the US: special thanks to Christian Mahnke 🔜 Bookfair Frankfurt, Jörg Benne, and Felix Kowalzik for their support and guidance, and to all the amazing coaches and interns who made every brainstorming session worth it. 💜 

🐲 Now it’s time for a new chapter. I’m opening up for freelance gigs as a narrative designer or game writer for the upcoming months: ready to bring more worlds, characters, and choices to life.

Let’s make something unforgettable. 💥

#NarrativeDesign #GameWriting #Storytelling #InteractiveFiction

Your narrator isn’t your babysitter. 🎙️


One of the biggest mistakes I see in interactive audio stories is over-explaining everything.

“Now you walk into the room.”
 “You see a strange light.”
 “You pick up the key.”

Cool. I got it. Let me imagine it.

💡 Audio storytelling works best when it trusts the listener’s brain to fill in the blanks. The human imagination is way better at worldbuilding than any descriptive monologue could ever be.

Your narrator should guide, not babysit. If they’re describing things the player already knows, you’re wasting both time and tension.

🐲 Leave space. Let silence and sound design do the talking. Give the player room to breathe and believe.

#NarrativeDesign #AudioGames #Storytelling

🐲  Last week, I took part in the Keep an Eye Narrative Jam.


And had an unreasonably good amount of fun turning caffeine and chaos into a short interactive story (around 10 minutes of playthrough).

👁️“Keep an Eye” is a cozy witch comedy about ambition, bad instructions, and one very judgmental eyeball in a jar.

If you’re up for some Halloween vibes with humor and pastry magic, check it out on itch: 
 👉 https://lnkd.in/eQZW9Wu8

Sometimes all you need to make a story work is a jar, a curse, and too much cinnamon.

#twine #interactivewriting #gamejam

Open article: Keep an Eye by shuhiyo.itch.io

Player attention span in audio games is ruthless. 💀 


You don’t get flashy visuals or dramatic camera cuts. You get a voice, a moment, and a few seconds to make them care.  If the opening lines don’t grab attention, the player doesn’t “come back later”: they just gone.

🐲 That’s why pacing in audio storytelling is brutal but beautiful.

👉 Short sentences. Hooks loaded with tension. Emotional stakes introduced early; not in Scene 5. No one will wait three scenes to “get to the point.” In audio, every second of silence or filler is a gamble against the player’s attention span.

🎧 Tip I live by: write like someone could leave at any moment. Because in audio: they will.

#NarrativeDesign #AudioGames #InteractiveFiction #GameWriting

Players don’t need perfect information. They need trust.


In interactive audio games, we can’t display stats, highlight paths, or show glowing icons saying “this is the correct choice.”

So yes, players often make decisions without all the context. And that’s fine.

The real issue isn’t not knowing everything. 👉 The real issue is when players stop believing the story will react fairly to what they choose.

If they feel like the game is listening, truly reacting, they relax into the narrative, even if they’re unsure. But if every choice feels random or disconnected, trust breaks. And once trust is gone, immersion follows.

So the goal isn't to explain more.

🐲 It’s to design with respect: give players just enough to feel in control, and they’ll happily fill in the rest with imagination.

#NarrativeDesign #AudioGames #PlayerExperience #GameWriting

Super excited to be writing a story set in the Titan Effect universe. Expect intricate plot twists, action, packed with moral dilemmas, and a few choices that might haunt you later. 💥✍️ 🐲 

Thank you, EarReality, for this amazing opportunity!

Helping Media Companies, Game Studios & Brands Expand Their IP Through Interactive Storytelling | CEO @ EarReality | TWIST Game Engine | Transmedia Strategy | In-Car, Mobile & Web Experiences

View Christian Mahnke 🔜 Bookfair Frankfurt’s profile

Happy to announce another collaboration project. Our superb writer and story coach Alena Lysiakova 🐉 is going to write an interactive audio stories related Christian Nommay's tabletop RPG Titan Effect.

Titan Effect is a tabletop role-playing game and a storyworld project set in a near-future where spies gifted with psychic powers clash with genetically enhanced soldiers, in a secret war in which the fate of human evolution is at stake.

Amazing setting. Amazing writer. I'm truly excited for this one!!

#EarReality #TWIST #marketing #storytelling #games #gaming #stories #audiobooks #audio #RPGs #writing #books #narrativedesign #automotive #innovation #InCarEntertainment

Exposition isn’t the enemy: boring exposition is. 💀 

“Show, don’t tell” gets thrown around like a sacred rule. But let’s be honest: sometimes, you need to tell stuff. Lore exists. Rules exist. Worlds have context. The problem isn’t exposition.

😑 The problem is when it feels like a lore lecture instead of a story.

If exposition happens through:
Conflict → two characters arguing about what’s true
Emotion → a reveal that hurts instead of informs
Humor or sarcasm → information delivered with personality
 …then it stops sounding like homework. 🐲 

"Show, don’t tell" is overrated. Better rule: “Tell it well or don’t tell it yet.”

#Screenwriting #NarrativeDesign #Storytelling

I occasionally write about TV and games, when I’m not busy writing for them. 🎮📺


It’s my way of poking at stories I love (and some I don’t) to see why they work, break, or haunt us for weeks afterward.

One of my latest pieces just came out:
 👉 The New Flesh: Modern Body Horror Beyond Gore
https://lnkd.in/eZdtaAkM

It looks at how modern body horror moved past cheap jump scares and buckets of blood: straight into the messier territory of identity, transformation, and being trapped in a body that won’t stop changing. 

🐲 If you like your storytelling dark, smart, and a little uncomfortable, give it a read.

#Writing #Storytelling #BodyHorror

Open article: The new flesh: modern body horror beyond gore by meer.com

The new flesh: modern body horror beyond gore

Vaughan Broderick

Wiley

Co-Author, Innovation in Action

Helping organisations become future-ready & thrive in constant disruption through field-tested human-centred innovation methods

- Customer insights
- Customer experience design
- Growth strategy
- Service design
- Lean innovation methods
- Workshop design and facilitation
– Human-centred design capability programmes

🔥 Highlighted Testimonials:

"The experience was so positive and impactful for us that we have asked Vaughan back on numerous occasions to assist us with designing services.  His expertise in design thinking coupled with an engaging personal style makes him a valued member of the team that is transforming our organisation." 
- Nick Scott, General Manager, Service Delivery, Brackenridge

"Vaughan facilitated our value proposition workshop as we were at a loss as to how to get started. Vaughan skilfully challenged our thinking through a range of activities and questioning, and we left the workshops feeling a sense of clarity, newfound enthusiasm and collective understanding. We would not hesitate to use Vaughan again in the future.” 
- Sara Luckman, Strategy Manager, NZ Young Farmers

"The group greatly appreciated the interactive nature of the program combined with the opportunity to think and reflect on how the practices and skills developed would benefit the public sector and challenges with which they are grappling. Thanks Vaughan, hopefully we can repeat this next year." 
- Dr. Chris Vas, General Manager Food Innovation Precinct, Western Australia

Founder - Innovation Lab

University of Canterbury

Lecturer - Innovation by Design - July 2023 - Present

- Teaching human-centred design to business masters students.

Guest Coach - Executive MBA March 2023 - Present

- Coaching MBA innovation students

Mentor - Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Mar 2021- Present

- Mentoring student founders to utilise design thinking and lean innovation methods

Impact Lead - Centre for Entrepreneurship - July 2023 - Present

Innovation Lecturer - Executive MBA Coach - Startup Coach

Festival for the Future

Guest innovation workshop facilitator at Aotearoa’s biggest leadership and innovation summit.

Guest Workshop Facilitator

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

Authoring training content on Business Models, Value Propositions, Pitching & Storytelling, Strategy and Creative Problem-solving using a design thinking approach

Author - Strategy and Creative Problem-solving

Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury

Helping public sector organisations use design thinking to collaborate, innovate and create more insight driven, human-centric organisations.

+ Design thinking projects
+ Workshop facilitation
+ Design research
+ Prototyping and testing

Design Thinking Coach

Brackenridge Services Ltd

Helping to reimagine, redesign and implement service and system change to meet regulatory requirements, exceed client and stakeholder experiences and outcomes. So far, we have redesigned the assessment and transition process for individual service offerings that have resulted in reduced lead time, improved quality, reduced risk and increased customer experience and outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:
Co-designing service and innovation
Stakeholder engagement and communication
Amplifying the voice of the customer
Change leadership and embedding new ways of working

Change and Innovation Project Manager

Consulting in the social services sector as part of my MBA (and post-graduation), I am leading the digital transformation of Life Storybooks for young people in care. This project requires multi-stakeholder management, the development and maintenance of key relationships across all levels, meeting and surpassing key project deliverables and the development of effective change leadership implementation strategies.

The project necessitated the effective use of design thinking, lean and change leadership methodologies to manage various stages of the project and included the establishment of the additional project supporting elements such as foundation and design principles, organisational structures and development specifications.

Innovation Project Manager

Sabbatical

Taking a year off to travel with my family provided a great opportunity for many amazing experiences together. The most valuable part was how we developed personally and as a family when confronted with challenges and obstacles that required adaptability, problem-solving, teamwork and coping skills.

World Traveler

Broderick Consulting Ltd

Broderick Consulting was in the business of helping clients achieve their financial goals. I founded and grew a successful business serving hundreds of clients throughout New Zealand until a successful sale was executed.

Founder and Adviser 

Innovation coach helping you & your organisation thrive in disruption | Teaching proven practical methods to help people innovate | UC MBA | Follow for posts about startups, innovation & leadership

Innovation shouldn’t feel like pressure without progress.

Yet many leaders I work with are stuck in exactly that space.

They’re expected to move fast—but don’t have time to think.
They’re leading innovation—but unclear whether they’re solving the right problem.
They’ve run strategy sessions and pilots—but can’t make the change stick.

I help leaders and teams slow down where it matters—so they can move faster where it counts.

My work focuses on four key challenges:

Understanding the real problem behind the problem (no more jumping to solutions)
Designing smarter decisions in complexity (move forward with clarity, not chaos)
Aligning teams and stakeholders (so change feels shared, not forced)
Implementing innovation that sticks (not stalls)

I blend psychology, human-centred design, and practical strategy to help people turn insight into action - especially when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious.

As an innovation coach, advisor and educator, I’ve supported 225+ teams across business, government, and education to design smarter decisions and lead real change.

I’m known as The Slow Strategist - not because I move slowly, but because I help leaders pause where it matters most. Before assumptions harden. Before decisions get baked in. Before “solution mode” derails the real work.

I’m the co-author of Innovation in Action: Unlock Curiosity, Creativity and Clarity with the DUCTRI Method, and I write a weekly newsletter read by 10,000+ professionals who want to lead with confidence - not chaos.

Earlier in my career, I founded and scaled a financial services business to 2,000+ clients and $500M in assets. Burnout led to a complete reinvention: I sold the company, travelled through 23 countries with my family, completed an Exec MBA, and retrained in human-centred innovation.

That reset equipped me with the real skills leaders need to thrive in a VUCA world: slowing down to think clearly, making human-centred decisions in ambiguity, and turning insight into action.

If you’re:
	•	Leading innovation on a complex challenge
	•	Building something new from scratch
	•	Or stuck trying to make change stick

…here’s how I can help:

1. Read by 10,000+ smart professionals each week
-> https://vaughanbroderick.com/newsletter/

2. Join 275+ smart innovators on the Innovation in Action book waitlist:
-> https://vaughanbroderick.com/the-ductri-playbook/

3. Workshops | Consulting | Speaking | Innovation Training
-> Let’s have a conversation: DM me

Research Associate

Co-authoring academic research papers on innovation and design thinking.

Vaughan Broderick 🦆🌳

One of the best aspects of co-writing a book is the opportunity to engage in conversations with innovators from around the globe.

I recently sat down with Andy Blackburn to learn about his experience as an innovator for some of NZ's largest organisations and what it was like being at the forefront of NZ's ecosystem.

Andy's one of the most purpose-led leaders I've met and it was a joy to talk with him and learn about enabling creativity in large orgs.

Cheers Andy 🙏 and thanks for helping build the book.

FYI - The Innovation in Action waitlist is open and growing. Join 280+ others here: https://lnkd.in/g55_9G9J

Christian Walsh

Want to get better at strategy? 

Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is holding her excellent intro to agile strategy workshop

Chief Reinvention Officer | I help corporations thrive in perpetual turbulence and capitalize on disruption | Teaching my science-based methods to help 1B people reinvent continuously

Deliberate vs. emergent: which one still works outside the boardroom?

Most teams still treat strategy as a one-and-done plan — agreed at an offsite, handed to “implementation,” and defended all year. That’s deliberate.

But in 2025, plans age in weeks. The teams that win use emergent strategy: try → learn → adjust while reality is changing. Decisions get better because feedback is built into the process.

If your calendar is full of approvals, handoffs, and re-prioritizations, you don’t have a strategy problem — you have an outdated strategy tool problem.

Ready to upgrade your strategy toolbox — and get massive relief for yourself, your team, or your client?

Join my Agile Strategy Workshop — live, free, on Zoom — Wednesday, November 12th at 12:00 PM ET (replay included). 

We’ll lay a clear foundation and then give you TONS of practice.
No theory dump. 
No boring 60-slide deck.

✅ Field-tested across tons of industries, countries, and situations
✅ Works for team, project, enterprise, or personal strategic planning
✅ Hands-on training with immediate feedback and mistake correction

212 professionals have already registered for this 2025 Agile Strategy workshop - the only one we are having this year, so don’t miss out! 

Register now — link in the first comment 👇

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The Battle

Alena Lysiakova 🐉 🔜 GAMESCOM

Vaughan Broderick 🦆🌳

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

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