Igor Zuenko
Narrative Designer
Say one thing about Igor Zuenko, say that he’s a man of the World. Born in Russia, repatriated to Israel, studied in the Netherlands… I speak fluent English, translate to it from Russian and develop games.
Inspired by such masters as Argo Tuulik and Robert Kurvitz, I create deep, detailed worlds for narrative driven games. But there's no point in stopping just there — every project could use a narrative designer.
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WELCOME
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SOME NUMBERS
FACTS
3
200k
5
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
WORDS OF CREATIVE WRITING
GAMES I WORKED ON
I've started as mathematician, but I decided to go another way and create worlds and stories
Novels, short stories, game scripts - I did it all
From board games to text games, from collecting MMOs to puzzle games
MORTALS AND UNLIVING
THE CROSSROAD'S EVENTS
DUTCH GAMEDEV DIGEST
BLIND NATURE
INVASIA
THE LAW OF CONGREGATION
MECH COLLECTOR
GNOME SWEET GNOME
TOWER OF BABEL
PROJECTS
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TAKE A LOOK
Content Oriented Web
Make great presentations, longreads, and landing pages, as well as photo stories, blogs, lookbooks, and all other kinds of content oriented projects.
Content Oriented Web
Make great presentations, longreads, and landing pages, as well as photo stories, blogs, lookbooks, and all other kinds of content oriented projects.
Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel is a card board game which I did the narrative design for. It features several cultures, clashing over the creation of the Tower of Babel. My work as a narrative designer was to create cultures, concepts for cards and story descriptions for them. You can see the examples below.
Gnome Sweet Gnome
Gnome Sweet Gnome is a 3d adventure-platformer, where you play as gnome covert operative who is fixing energy waste in human households. Game narrative is presented through the commands of the 'Dispatch' gnome who's talking on the radio. There are also news broadcasts telling about current state of problems.
As a narrative designer I did the concept, lines, character design (which was performed by our 3D artist later) and even some voice over. My goal was to show current sustainability problems via funny, cartoon style. The game was strongly inspired by It Takes Two and Deep Rock Galactic.
As a narrative designer I did the concept, lines, character design (which was performed by our 3D artist later) and even some voice over. My goal was to show current sustainability problems via funny, cartoon style. The game was strongly inspired by It Takes Two and Deep Rock Galactic.
Mech
Collector
Collector
Mech Collector is a free to play Telegram server with an attached bot that allows to collect, upgrade and fight with mechs from Battletech universe. It started as pet project of my employer, but then grew into something bigger, gathering quite a good audience around itself.
As a narrative designer I have developed a very fun aspect of the game - the Cult of Aboba. It started as a meme, but then we decided to make a plot and game mechanic out of it. At some point, I was a secret priest of this cult, basically a game master, and involved players into the cult. I have also dealt with the opposition to the cult, launching a massive propaganda campaign inside the player community.
It was a great experience and it did broaden my knowledge in narrative design in an MMO game.
As a narrative designer I have developed a very fun aspect of the game - the Cult of Aboba. It started as a meme, but then we decided to make a plot and game mechanic out of it. At some point, I was a secret priest of this cult, basically a game master, and involved players into the cult. I have also dealt with the opposition to the cult, launching a massive propaganda campaign inside the player community.
It was a great experience and it did broaden my knowledge in narrative design in an MMO game.
Blind Nature
Blind Nature is a game of an unusual genre - it is a game about blind girl Liora who tries to save an Ancient Forest from the Rot - a horrible plague that fell upon its inhabitants - and to uncover its secrets.
I was a main narrative designer on this project and I worked in a close contact with my project lead. As a part of this project, I helped to create documentation, lore, screenplays and scene/dialogue trees. The game is available for wishlisting in Steam already.
Blind Nature is a very unusual game especially from the narrative perspective, since one of the main methods of storytelling is unavailable for you as a designer.
I was a main narrative designer on this project and I worked in a close contact with my project lead. As a part of this project, I helped to create documentation, lore, screenplays and scene/dialogue trees. The game is available for wishlisting in Steam already.
Blind Nature is a very unusual game especially from the narrative perspective, since one of the main methods of storytelling is unavailable for you as a designer.
Invasia
A survival horror where I worked as a narrative designer.
Aside from typical responsibilities I've been also doing some management work, wrote a lot of documentation, collaborated closely with the DevLead and ArtLead to ensure that the required results would be provided on-time.
Another important part of my job was correspondence with voice actors, including finding them, casting them, choosing the best out of all options, writing screenplays and control of the voice acting process.
Aside from typical responsibilities I've been also doing some management work, wrote a lot of documentation, collaborated closely with the DevLead and ArtLead to ensure that the required results would be provided on-time.
Another important part of my job was correspondence with voice actors, including finding them, casting them, choosing the best out of all options, writing screenplays and control of the voice acting process.
The Law of Congregation
The Law of Congregation is my first book. It's a historical fantasy set in a fictional world. This is a story of how Langobert Galbaio was appointed a governor in a recently annexed province. It tells about how Langobert Galbaio, who was certain in his leaders and ideals, faces the world different from his views, and how this breaks his idealism. After a turn of events he becomes unstable, however, Galbaio then realizes how deep is his fall, and changes to be more serene and humble, trying to fix his mistakes.
It's a first person book, specifically written in a arrogant and sometimes foolish words, but the style of writing changes over time. If it starts in a manner of an insulted teenager, the thoughts and words at some point become more conscious, as the character starts to reflect on his life, his ideals and his deeds. The book, translated to English myself, is available on my Patreon and DriveThruFiction.
Mortals and Unliving
Mortals and Unliving is a series of short stories, five of them at the moment, which I'm planning to organize into an anthology, once there will be enough of them. It's a dark urban fantasy in noir style set in a fictional world similar to our 50s, being a mix USA and Europe of that period. The story tells about an 'Aware' police detective William Kisner that has to investigate occult and mysterious crimes while hiding their true identity from his partner and comrades.
This world has two sides - the commonly known 'normal' one and a real, mysterious, dark and unmerciful. Creatures from other planes are striving to consume human souls and enter our dimension. Some of them, like Angels, are being worshipped by people, but none of the know their true identity. Others, like demons, are summoned by deranged cultists, who seek only power, often destroying themselves and everything around them.
The Crossroad's
events
events
The Crossroad is a networking project from the Dutch city of Groningen, which positions itself as an event organizer for all game developers of the Northern Provincies. Working from March 2025, we've organized multiple events, consisting of talks, showcases and networking.
I myself moderate talks' sessions of these events and usually give a short presentation to warm up the audience before the other speakers start. Our events are usually hosting around 40 people, and they give mostly positive reviews to our work.
I myself moderate talks' sessions of these events and usually give a short presentation to warm up the audience before the other speakers start. Our events are usually hosting around 40 people, and they give mostly positive reviews to our work.
Dutch GameDev Digest
Dutch GameDev Digest (DGDD) is a project I'm making for The Crossroad as writer and editor. In our episodes, we showcase two Dutch games, released or in development.
This project is dedicated to promoting unrepresented Dutch games and sharing them with other game developers as well as gamers. We publish our episodes on weekly basis, and I'm in constant contact with different studios and teams.
This project is dedicated to promoting unrepresented Dutch games and sharing them with other game developers as well as gamers. We publish our episodes on weekly basis, and I'm in constant contact with different studios and teams.
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I can write any kind of characters. Hated and hateful, mad and virtuous - it's okay for me, if you'll get me a well described task. Or just a well-put wish.
Worldbuilding
Character design
A game can have casual mechanics, can have very complex ones. But what does it give you without a proper stage?
Grimness as a speciality
Translations without AI
It's possible for me to create a cozy atmosphere. But what I master at is grim, dark fiction about the inevitable doom.
I love writing in my native language. If I do, I have to translate it. And since AI does not understand the context of creative writing properly, I translated my writing manually.
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Narrative as the core
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STEP BY STEP
Martin, the artist
Federico, the programmer
Pieter, the artist
Ivan, the producer
I’ve known Igor for a while now, so it was pretty fun to work with him again, additionally I was surprised to see his improvements since the first block. I am quite glad to have seen him succeed in specializing within the game industry and setting a clear goal, so too did he take it on himself to expedite the narrative of our game which turned out to be one of the most successful parts of our game, each line both fitting the style and theme of our game as well as adding onto our case perfectly.
I met Igor through The Crossroad in Groningen, and it quickly became clear how much of the project’s energy comes from him. His writing is sharp, clear and genuinely engaging, and he communicates ideas with a confidence that already feels industry-ready. His work on the Dutch GameDev Digest, selecting games, shows both strong editorial skill and real understanding of the industry. What impresses me most is how he helps shape The Crossroad itself. Igor has a natural ability to bring people together, create meaningful networking moments and give structure to events that would not be the same without his input. He understands what a growing game-dev community needs and actively contributes to making it happen.He is driven, reliable and passionate, and I’m happy to recommend him.
Your calm, patient attitude made it easy and enjoyable to work with you. You never dismissed anyone’s opinions or got into unnecessary conflicts - instead, you listened and always asked the right questions that made sure the team was heading the right direction. I really appreciated your mature and respectful approach to teamwork, and it definitely helped with a positive and productive group. Overall, it was genuinely fun working with you.
I’ve had the chance to work with Igor and it was always a pleasure to collaborate with him. He consistently showed strong teamwork skills and a professional approach, while also taking initiative and ensuring everything was delivered on time. I was impressed by his enthusiasm and dedication toward achieving his goals, as well as his ability to contribute his own perspective. Igor is never afraid to voice his opinion to spark meaningful discussions, which often helped us refine our ideas and move forward more effectively.
REVIEWS
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PEOPLE TALK
