Hi, I’m David Liss. I’m a New York Times bestselling novelist with more than twenty years of experience across novels, comics, and games. I specialize in crafting rich worlds, complex characters, and immersive stories spanning historical fiction, crime, fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. I’ve written for books, comics, and collaborative media projects, and I’ve built narrative systems for a variety of games and entertainment properties. In recent years I’ve focused on freelance narrative design for space strategy titles, post-apocalyptic RPGs, and NFT-driven experiences. I enjoy collaborating across disciplines—art, design, and engineering—to shape game worlds, lore, and player progression, while maintaining narrative continuity and a compelling core mythology.

David Liss

Hi, I’m David Liss. I’m a New York Times bestselling novelist with more than twenty years of experience across novels, comics, and games. I specialize in crafting rich worlds, complex characters, and immersive stories spanning historical fiction, crime, fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. I’ve written for books, comics, and collaborative media projects, and I’ve built narrative systems for a variety of games and entertainment properties. In recent years I’ve focused on freelance narrative design for space strategy titles, post-apocalyptic RPGs, and NFT-driven experiences. I enjoy collaborating across disciplines—art, design, and engineering—to shape game worlds, lore, and player progression, while maintaining narrative continuity and a compelling core mythology.

Available to hire

Hi, I’m David Liss. I’m a New York Times bestselling novelist with more than twenty years of experience across novels, comics, and games. I specialize in crafting rich worlds, complex characters, and immersive stories spanning historical fiction, crime, fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. I’ve written for books, comics, and collaborative media projects, and I’ve built narrative systems for a variety of games and entertainment properties.

In recent years I’ve focused on freelance narrative design for space strategy titles, post-apocalyptic RPGs, and NFT-driven experiences. I enjoy collaborating across disciplines—art, design, and engineering—to shape game worlds, lore, and player progression, while maintaining narrative continuity and a compelling core mythology.

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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Narrative Designer at Ephemeris
October 1, 2025 - Present
Narrative designer for a space-based strategy game. I collaborate with the creator and lead developer to develop the game world, lore, and factions, and contribute to events, in-game artifacts, tech-tree enhancements, and tutorial writing.
Fiction Writer / AI Model Consultant at Mercor Intelligence
October 1, 2025 - Present
Providing expertise in fiction writing to improve models for an AI lab.
Narrative Designer at Lost Gate Studios
December 1, 2022 - Present
Freelance narrative designer for a post-apocalyptic RPG: Mindflux: Dead Man Walking. Responsibilities include designing the overall narrative, quests, and game-flow for a limited demo to demonstrate principles of character progression and quest systems. Collaborative environment promotes regular collaboration with artists, designers, and developers. All game narrative implemented using Articy:draft.
Narrative Designer (Freelance) at Distant Worlds 2
December 1, 2021 - Present
Narrative designer for post-release content. Duties include faction conceptualization and design as the game shifts toward more asymmetrical gameplay, and writing branching, interactive events for these factions. Regular collaboration with game developers and ability to rethink existing franchise lore. Initial involvement as a late entrant responsible for creating events and storylines for established factions and testing their implementation, as well as reworking pre-join narrative content.
Narrative Designer at Fortune!
May 1, 2022 - September 1, 2022
Narrative designer for a play-to-earn NFT-based game. Responsibilities included developing all game lore and narrative, establishing core characters and NPCs, and working with marketing, software development, and cryptography to ensure narrative continuity and integrity. Also developed and participated in the design of a deck-building game based on the project mythology. Role concluded when funding ended.
Dedicated Writer at Alliance of the Sacred Suns
August 1, 2021 - May 1, 2022
Dedicated writer for this grand strategy/4X title. Duties included developing the game world, character interactions, branching events, character development, tooltips, tutorial design, and dialogue.
Principal Writer at Marvel End Time Arena
January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2017
Principal writer for this MOBA. Developed the core narrative based on gameplay concepts, adapted narrative to evolving development, created narrative game missions, and scripted dialogue.
Plotter and Writer at Marvel's Spider-Man
January 1, 2017 - January 1, 2018
Plotter and writer of an original prequel novel to tie in with the PS4 Spider-Man title. Required close coordination with game developers and Marvel.

Education

Master of Philosophy at Columbia University
January 11, 2030 - February 21, 2026
Master of Arts at Georgia State University
January 11, 2030 - February 21, 2026
Bachelor of Science at Syracuse University
January 11, 2030 - February 21, 2026

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Gaming, Software & Internet