About Me

Hey there, I'm Dora, an experienced Narrative Designer working across games, film, theatre, and writing.

I’m interested in how story functions as part of the experience itself; how writing, structure, systems, performance, and form can work together to create something cohesive and intentional. I’m drawn to stories where every element has a purpose, and nothing exists randomly.

Working across different mediums has taught me that each one approaches storytelling in its own way. Games rely on systems and player agency. Film depends on structure and visual clarity. Theatre lives through presence and performance. Writing demands precision and control of language. Ultimately, I try to bring those approaches together in my practice.

I grew up in Croatia, surrounded by sun, sea, and a food culture that set the bar inconveniently high for the rest of the world. Only after leaving did I fully appreciate where I came from. With some distance, Croatia revealed itself as something straight out of fantasy. Essentially King’s Landing, but with fewer dragons.

I eventually traded the Mediterranean for the Netherlands, swapping sunshine for northern winds and discovering that "peak cuisine" can also mean a frikandel. I studied languages, lived in five Dutch cities, and even took a detour to Saint Petersburg.

The move from Croatia to the Netherlands also led me into academia and, later, narrative design.

I started in academia, working on research around disgust, uncanny aesthetics, literature, and design. The work was intellectually rigorous but increasingly abstract. I found myself wanting to move beyond analyzing systems in isolation and toward understanding how they could actually be built and experienced in practice.

That shift led me to narrative design where story and systems could finally operate together in a practical context. It never really felt like a dramatic career pivot; more like different parts of my work coming together naturally.

The path was non-linear, though. Working in narrative design exposed me to all kinds of production environments, from structured collaboration to unstable and poorly led teams. There were definitely moments where I questioned whether this was a field I wanted to stay in long term.

At the same time, I expanded into theatre, film, and creative writing. They became extensions of the same practice and taught me how story functions across form and constraint.

In the end, I stayed. But my relationship to work has changed. I focus on projects where narrative is integrated into the experience, where collaboration is taken seriously, and where the story holds together as a whole.

I'm open to:

• Senior Narrative Design and Writer roles on story-driven projects.
• P-cap/ mocap / VO consulting.
• Script writing roles in TV and film.
• Script and story consulting roles in games, film, and theatre.