interactive fiction, game writing, narrative design, prose & poetry
Who is Langley?
Langley Hyde is a narrative designer at Romance Club, a mobile app a monthly audience of approximately 4m users. She writes Vying for Versailles, an interactive visual novel set in 17th-century France, in ink. Her work is known for its extensive branching, historical detail and world-building, lyrical prose, and dramatized interpersonal relationships that drive the plot. Vying for Versailles has been translated into Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Polish, and Romanian.
Prior to working for Romance Club, Langley wrote for indie game companies and did freelance prose for established IPs like Magic: The Gathering. She is known for her ability to write to deadline, her strong collaboration skills with cross-disciplinary teams, and her clear, kind communication style. She prides herself on being friendly, responsive, and interested in both accepting and providing feedback. She loves historical research and she’s unafraid to write her identity because she values representation in media. She enjoys creating and maintaining precise, accurate technical documentation.
Background
She began her career as a science writer, continuity editor, content manager, and editorial assistant. She has written promotional material, SEO, MailChimp newsletters, and articles. She has trained and supervised teams of five.
She wrote Highfell Grimoires, a novel that was named a Best Book in Fantasy/SF/Horror by Publishers Weekly, translated into French, and appeared in the Pride Storybundle. She previously served as an associate editor for the award-winning venue, Escape Pod, and the interactive fiction publication, sub-Q. She is published in a variety of fields, including fiction and poetry.
She earned her Bachelor’s Degree of the Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and her Master’s Degree of the Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Western Washington University. She studied abroad at Oxford University, at Wadham College. She is a winner of Writers of the Future and she is a Clarion alumna, a member of the Codex Writers Forum, and a member of Science Fiction Writers of America.
Other projects
She is designing, writing, drawing, animating an interactive autobiographical work using Ren’Py (Atom). At 2,000 lines at 17 minutes of play time, it’s currently in progress. With another small team, she is designing and producing an untitled game. She writes/beta-tests for StoryLoom and is available for freelance projects.
What does she do, when she's not writing?
Langley has lived in Washington state, New York, South Carolina, Britain (London and Oxford), Canada (Waterloo), and Germany (Friedrichshafen). She speaks German. Currently she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her two partners, two children, three cats, and her dog.
In her own time, Langley likes to garden. She has over 300 perennials in her garden and over 60 annuals, focusing on sustainable permaculture practices. She seed-saves heirloom varieties and grows and gives away her starts. Her multimedia art involves acrylics, found items, and resin. Her digital art includes collage and animation. She’s a voracious reader, enjoys tabletop co-ops and RPGs, and going to breweries. She makes her own soaps, lip balms, and lotions, and she changes her hair color every 3-6 months. She is designing a new cat tree for her three spoiled cats and goes hiking in the morning with her equally spoiled dog.
One day, she hopes to live the Stardew Valley life.