An attractive young person of European descent with light brown hair, a black t-shirt, and large square glasses the same blue-green color as their eyes. They're facing the camera with a friendly and calm smile that says, "I'm a laid-back person who's great

Shelby Barwood

Game Designer | Freelance Writer

Hi there, I'm Shelby (they/them). I'm a freelance writer and game designer who's currently learning Unreal Blueprints. I've also created my own Twine game called The Silent Oracle and am working on releasing an updated version of it.I'm drawn to atmospheric games that foster emotional engagement, and I love crafting narrative systems where choice is supported by player agency. I also believe games offer uniquely transformative experiences to marginalized and underrepresented players, so teams who appreciate diverse characters with complex personas are my jam. As for the games I like to play, I'm open to almost any genre or format that brings these elements to the table, but I have a particular love of RPGs.You can use the buttons above to see my games, writing samples, and resume. Feel free to reach out if you want to make some awesome games together!

Games

The Soldiers Have Fallen (micro-RPG)

Tell the world the truth.Submission to the 36-word RPG Jam. A subdued game about a cell of spies documenting a war that is not going in their favor.

A photo of a cavalry unit in World War One that is marching across a field. They are wearing uniforms and holding sabres upright. Many of them stare directly at the camera. None of them are smiling. In front of the photo are the words THE SOLDIERS HAVE FAL
A green image depicting a lush rainforest. Several cartoon primates and monkeys hang from vines or sit contemplating their furry existences. Each primate is different bright shades of blue, purple, and yellow, with pink or brown faces. They're all extremel

Zoo Rush! (TTRPG)

Work together. Evade the zookeepers. Fling your own poop! Freedom awaits beyond the gift shop!A child-friendly introduction to tabletop roleplaying with simplified d6 rules. Made for One-Page RPG Jam.

The Silent Oracle (Twine)

"What's left, beyond all hope? What do you hold to, goblin, in the fading dark?"Currently in-progress. A dark fantasy interactive fiction game with elements of psychological horror.

Large red letters reading "The Silent Oracle" sit in front of a monochrome background depicting Norse standing stones on a snowy hill. Each stone is engraved with curling patterns of runes, and just in front of the stones a metal sword has been stuck into
A cropped version of official Pillars of Eternity 2 artwork, featuring the main characters Eder, Pallegina, Serafin, and Aloth. Each character holds their signature weapons, ranging from a greatsword to a pistol to magical blue fire. The characters look te

Weapons of Lore (Mod)

A mod for Obsidian Entertainment's
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire that adds unique, balanced weapons with lore-appropriate descriptions.

The Soldiers Have Fallen

Genre: EspionageJam: 36-word RPG JamLength: Player-definedSkills showcased: Archival Research, Open-Source Image Acquisition, Document Design, ZinesI created The Soldiers Have Fallen shortly after the 2024 US Election. It's a deeply personal project that asks the questions: What is truly important? What matters?As someone who believes that archivists and their work are critically undervalued, I wanted to present players with a quiet, interpretive experience of delving into what they think is worth preserving. In addition, I'm fascinated by how people can crystallize definite meaning from indefinite imagery, so I purposefully left the prompts open-ended and supplied a wide variety of images sourced from both World Wars.It was important to me while working on this project that I didn't use images of the Holocaust, graphic images of human suffering, or images displaying hateful symbols. It felt vulgar to display those things in a random game zine. Instead, I tried to focus on images of the war that are not as commonly circulated, with a focus on the people involved. I employed heavy use of digitized archives and researched each individual photo to ascertain whether it could be construed as inflammatory.As for the visual design of the zine, I wanted to give the impression that you were stepping into a ransacked room full of covert material: loose files, images tucked between paper, scattered morse code tape and half-open letters. The goal was for it to feel like the player characters had only just fled the room, or that these were their final missives that never got sent.

The Silent Oracle

In Progress