Hi, I’m Bertine van Hövell, freelance game designer and writer from the Netherlands. I have a decade of experience making games professionally. I’ve worked with AAA property, designed educational software and written for various studios both indie and AAA. Below you can find a selection of some of the titles I’ve worked on.
Currently Working on
- My company is 15 years old!
- Helping out studios with concepting, ideation and preparing pitches.
- Pitching Frayed Freedom.
Projects
Stellaris: Cosmic Storms (2024)
In collaboration with Behaviour Rotterdam and Paradox I designed and wrote a new precursor (adAkkaria), Origin (Storm Chasers) and a plethora of events, I also implemented and tested events, did narrative planning and provided game design support to Behaviour.
Old Skies (2025)
Worked with Dave Gilbert to design the penultimate mission of the game. My focus was on connecting the themes from earlier missions and having it lead up to the quality of climax Wadjet Eye games are famous for.
Among Ripples: Shallow Waters (Cancelled)
I’ve aided the team at Eat Create Sleep with designing the narrative through-line for Shallow Waters’ missions, written character dialogue and did extensive ecological and society research to represent the themes in a thorough but accessible manner.
Hauma (2023)
Helped out SenAm Games with writing and designing the first two chapters of Hauma. My role was to incorporate team ideas and early drafts into a cohesive narrative, as well as design narrative-push puzzles and the Inkl implementation.
At Eve’s Wake (2021)
For At Eve’s Wake I designed a complex interactive narrative based on Lovecraftian mythos. I was in charge of story, co-wrote dialogues and design. I also helped out with hiring additional members to the team and wrote design documents and art instructions.
Only Cans (2021)
I worked with the Only Cans team to provide tangible feedback to ideas and assist with writing. I also helped out maintaining team cohesion and motivation.
Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad (2020)
I worked with Ubisoft Reflections to write biographies for characters from the Tom Clancy universe. These biographies pertained a mix of established and original characters.
Oh Honey, There Is Something I Need To Tell You (2019)
Oh Honey was an experiment in designing a short game where the character cannot always say what they truly think. It is also a tiny mystery inspired by True Crime fiction.
Meryll Wants a Cookie (2018)
For Meryll Wants A Cookie I worked with Thomas Wrobel again. I designed most of the puzzles, much of the dialogue and scripted all of the interactions.
The Fanficmaker (2015)
The Fanficmaker was written by me and Thomas Wrobel. I also took care of some of the design and system design of the generator.