TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
The narrative designer of Void Bastards and Ghost Town walks us through what's on her PC.
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Welcome to Disk Cleanup, our regular weekend column delving into the PCs of PC gaming luminaries. Come back every weekend to read a new interview, digging into the important questions, like "how tidy is your desktop?" and "what game will you never uninstall?"
Narrative designer Cara Ellison got into gaming via the BBC Micro her father had stolen from work. "He was like 'I'm borrowing it so I can work from home.' He wasn't. He stole it and he never gave it back", she says. The first game to grab her attention was the 1987 narrative adventure Acheton. "I couldn't read or write at the time, and I was determined to be able to talk to the computer."
After growing up on games like Grand Theft Auto and SimCity 2000, Ellison spent several years working as a games journalist, including for PC Gamer, before transitioning to game design, writing for titles like Dishonored 2 and the comedy immersive sim Void Bastards, with more recent projects including God of War: Ragnarok and the VR mystery game Ghost Town developed by the creators of The Room series of 3D puzzlers. Ellison was also senior narrative designer on Bloodlines 2 before Hardsuit Labs and Paradox parted ways.
Currently, Ellison works as senior narrative designer at independent studio Gravity Well Games, as well as on Sleight of Hand, a deckbuilding stealth game inspired by Metal Gear Solid and Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines. "I feel like it is the successor to Bloodlines, in a way," she says. "I guess it depends how much of an RPG we can really make out of it."
I asked Ellison to guide me along the word-strewn superhighway of her PC, a journey that took us from the shadowy waterfront of Santa Monica out into the sunless blue beyond.
Cara Ellison is a former games journalist turned narrative designer, with credits that include Dishonored 2, Hardsuit Labs' Bloodlines 2 and Void Bastards. For a year she travelled the world meeting and writing about game developers, and her blog posts were collected in the book Embed with Games.
There's a game called Titanium Court. I've been playing the demo like crazy because it's so wonderful.
It's Douglas Adams-quality writing that's so silly and a little bit satirical. It references things in the real world but it's a fantasy world. I guess the shape of it is sup...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Welcome to Disk Cleanup, our regular weekend column delving into the PCs of PC gaming luminaries. Come back every weekend to read a new interview, digging into the important questions, like "how tidy is your desktop?" and "what game will you never uninstall?"
Narrative designer Cara Ellison got into gaming via the BBC Micro her father had stolen from work. "He was like 'I'm borrowing it so I can work from home.' He wasn't. He stole it and he never gave it back", she says. The first game to grab her attention was the 1987 narrative adventure Acheton. "I couldn't read or write at the time, and I was determined to be able to talk to the computer."
After growing up on games like Grand Theft Auto and SimCity 2000, Ellison spent several years working as a games journalist, including for PC Gamer, before transitioning to game design, writing for titles like Dishonored 2 and the comedy immersive sim Void Bastards, with more recent projects including God of War: Ragnarok and the VR mystery game Ghost Town developed by the creators of The Room series of 3D puzzlers. Ellison was also senior narrative designer on Bloodlines 2 before Hardsuit Labs and Paradox parted ways.
Currently, Ellison works as senior narrative designer at independent studio Gravity Well Games, as well as on Sleight of Hand, a deckbuilding stealth game inspired by Metal Gear Solid and Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines. "I feel like it is the successor to Bloodlines, in a way," she says. "I guess it depends how much of an RPG we can really make out of it."
I asked Ellison to guide me along the word-strewn superhighway of her PC, a journey that took us from the shadowy waterfront of Santa Monica out into the sunless blue beyond.
Cara Ellison is a former games journalist turned narrative designer, with credits that include Dishonored 2, Hardsuit Labs' Bloodlines 2 and Void Bastards. For a year she travelled the world meeting and writing about game developers, and her blog posts were collected in the book Embed with Games.
There's a game called Titanium Court. I've been playing the demo like crazy because it's so wonderful.
It's Douglas Adams-quality writing that's so silly and a little bit satirical. It references things in the real world but it's a fantasy world. I guess the shape of it is sup...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?