Story & Game Design Studio
Where stories
become
worlds.
From vague concept, business goal, or early thinking — we build a structured game direction, documented and ready to hand off to a development team.
We make it interactive, gamified, and personal. Mechanics, progression, and engagement systems built into what you already have — so users keep coming back.
World-building, character design, and narrative architecture that gives your product a soul — and keeps players emotionally invested from the first moment to the last.
Everything we deliver is documented, structured, and ready to build. No mood boards, no vague briefs — just clear specs your team can run with from day one.
Curious Rat is a game design, gamification, and personalisation studio. We help startups, tech companies, and individuals turn their ideas and products into interactive, engaging experiences — ready for development.
Whether you're starting from a rough idea and need a structured concept your dev team can actually build from — or you already have a product and want to make it more interactive, gamified, and personal — we do that work, end to end.
Work with us →Narrative designer with 6+ years of experience and a background in psychological research and counselling (UCL). Has worked across international game companies leading narrative teams — as Story & Narrative Design Head and Head Writer. Her stories have been read by millions of players worldwide, contributing to over $500K in direct revenue impact. Expert in branching narrative, character design, player psychology, and stories that move people.
Lead Game Designer focused on building clear, scalable game design foundations for new products. Helps turn vague ideas, business goals, and early concepts into structured game direction that teams can actually build on.
Experienced in taking games from initial concept to release: setting up design processes from scratch, defining feature specifications, shaping production pipelines, mentoring designers, and coordinating cross-functional teams. Combines creative vision with structured production thinking, strong documentation skills, and practical understanding of how to bring games to release under real production constraints.
Most gamification fails because it layers points and badges onto products that were never designed to be engaging. We build from the inside out — creating the intrinsic motivation, meaningful progression, and emotional investment that makes people want to come back.
Talk to us about your project →We have experience building products that use game design to encourage self-exploration, emotional reflection, and self-awareness. By combining narrative systems, behavioural psychology, and meaningful progression, we create experiences people return to because they feel personally valuable — not addictive.
Branching scenarios, progress systems, and narrative-driven learning that feels like play — not work. We design the intrinsic drive to keep going, not just the badge you get for finishing. From concept through to production-ready documentation.
Retention-focused systems for apps, platforms, and digital products — designed around long-term engagement, emotional investment, and meaningful progression. We also build transmedia narrative systems: stories and experiences that move seamlessly across product, video, social, and web to deepen audience connection and increase retention over time.
We believe the best games and the best products share the same quality: they make people feel like they're getting better at something that matters.
We start with the human experience — what does the player or user need to feel, understand, or become? Every mechanic, every system, every progression choice is designed in service of that answer. Story isn't decoration. It's the architecture.
Rules, mechanics, and economies are only valuable when they create meaningful choices. We design systems that reward the things worth rewarding — curiosity, persistence, growth — and document them so your team can build with confidence.
We draw on research in motivation, habit formation, and narrative cognition — not dark patterns. Engagement that exploits is engagement that burns out. We build the kind of pull that keeps people coming back because they want to, not because they're afraid to stop.
Every project ends with deliverables your team can actually use — GDDs, world bibles, scenario scripts, design specs. Not a mood board and a vague brief. We do the pre-production work so development can start clean.
Narrative, game design, and gamification under one roof — so your story plays, and your mechanics mean something.
World bibles, lore documents, quest design, branching dialogue, and character arcs. We build stories that serve your mechanics — and mechanics that serve your story.
Systems, mechanics, economy, and progression — the architecture that makes your game feel good to play. Prototypes built from scratch, full GDD and technical documentation included.
Engagement design rooted in player psychology. We build intrinsic motivation, meaningful progression, and emotional hooks into apps, platforms, and experiences — without dark patterns.
Engaging learning and training experiences that use game mechanics with purpose. Branching scenarios, simulations, and educational narratives that stick.
Concept, narrative architecture, systems design, and full documentation — everything you need to go from idea to a fundable, buildable game or product.
Already have a game or product but something isn't landing? We diagnose narrative and design problems and give you a clear, actionable path forward.
Games and interactive experiences we have helped build, shape, and bring to life.
Multiple shipped mobile titles spanning adventure, crime, romance, and farm genres — built around emotionally driven branching narrative, character-led design, and retention systems with real commercial impact. Stories read by millions of players worldwide, contributing to $500K+ in revenue. Includes work on Hollywood Crush, Criminal Stories, Love Choice, Jungle: 1998, and Rooftop Survival - Zombie TD — all delivered end-to-end from concept to shipped product. Game design documentation, level design, and prototype development across all projects.
Educational narrative design for a leading tech learning platform — script writing, learner engagement, and gamified progression systems into a fun experience.
Game prototype built from scratch — from initial concept through GDD, Unity level design, and technical documentation. Plus side episode writing for a visual novel: scripts, character documentation, and location references.
We learn your project, your audience, and your goals. A free 30-minute call to understand whether we are the right fit.
A clear scope, timeline, and fee. No hidden costs, no scope creep without conversation first.
We build, iterate, and keep you in the loop. Regular check-ins, clear deliverables, documentation you can actually use.
Clean files, thorough documentation, and a handover call. Your team can run with everything from day one.
Got an idea you want to turn into something buildable? A product you want to make more engaging? We'd love to hear about it. We respond within 48 hours and offer a free discovery call for every new project.
Free 30-minute discovery call for all new projects.