Here's an email that landed in my inbox a few weeks ago:
YES!!!!!
I knew how long Mario had been searching, and for him to finally cross the finish line - what an accomplishment. 🙌 I may or may not have screamed a little at my desk when I read this.
In a time when it feels like we are just hearing nothing but bad news coming out of the games industry, it helps to hear stories of people that are making a go of it. People that are landing the jobs, breaking in, building careers.
And the fact is that some people ARE doing well. Good news like Mario's doesn't get nearly as much attention as, say, layoffs, but it's worth paying attention to success stories. Because there are clues there for all of us. Success leaves clues.
From Building Buildings To Building Quests
For eight years, Mario worked in construction design while nurturing his writing passion on the side. "I had originally started by wanting to be a computer engineer," he tells me during our interview. "It's one of the few regrets I have that I switched from computer engineering to a different engineering discipline, but at the same time, I held on to my writing."
Several years ago, he took his first steps into game writing. How? By just putting himself out there. But of course it wasn't as simple as that. (Quests never are...)
The Lonely Writer Problem
Here's something about writing that writers know, but don't talk about enough: it can be LONELY.
"You're just writing by yourself, and you're passing it over to an editor, or you're publishing it, and you have readers, but the feedback from peers isn't there."
This is the hidden challenge of breaking into game writing. You're trying to enter a highly collaborative medium while working in isolation. Without other writers to bounce ideas off of, without developers to tell you what works in-game, how do you know if you're even on the right track?
For years, Mario was stuck in this loop. Slow going, with no one to tell him if he was moving in the right direction.
Then Everything Changed
That's when Mario signed up for The Narrative Department.
Suddenly, Mario wasn't just a writer working alone anymore. He was part of something bigger - a team effort.
Every week in class, we partner students like Mario with a different accountability buddy. We do this because it's not just a great way to get feedback on your work - it's also a great way to get to know your fellow writers.
Mario's first accountability partner was Najmah. They became fast friends. In fact she was the person Mario told about his quest designer job!
That first connection with Najmah led to more connections with other students. Before long, the whole class felt like a team.
What started as a weekly meeting quickly became something more. "I was like, 'Oh my God, these are people who I'm going to be talking to every week now.' And that really became every day for a very long time."
The Weird Truth About "Competition"
Here's what's strange about the game writing world. In theory, everyone is competing for the same jobs, right?
It should be cutthroat. Dog-eat-dog. Every writer for themselves!
Except... that's not what happened at all in The Narrative Department. (Because that's not really how it works in the industry, either.)
"Everybody's kind of competing for a job. Everybody is, on one level, an opponent," Mario acknowledges. "But it never felt that way."
Instead, something magical happened.
"It really felt like people were looking at your strength and slotting you into the thing that you do better than them, and vice versa."
The community wasn't creating competitors - it was creating colleagues. People who recognized each other's unique talents.
"I always say that I do believe there are better writers in every room that I'm in. And if I see a job that's really script-writing heavy, I know who to go to. And I see that people view me the opposite way, where if there's a design-heavy role, I get pinged."
This is the hidden truth about creative careers: we don't all have to be good at the same things. In fact, it's better if we're not!
"You're Really Good at THIS"
Remember how I said success leaves clues? For Mario, those clues didn't come from job descriptions or internet articles.
They came from other writers.
"That's the part where I think other people pointed it out in me," he explains.
We all struggle with imposter syndrome. It's HARD to see our own strengths clearly. That's why feedback from peers who understand your craft is so valuable.
For Mario, that feedback revealed something important: "Seeing where everyone was kind of like, 'Oh, you're really good at understanding how the game part works to this story.'"
And just as valuable? Hearing where he could grow: "On the opposite side, the negative feedback was, 'Hey, you could be a little more out there here.'"
This honest feedback helped Mario see his true path.
"Having people constantly give me that feedback, both positive and negative, was really the part where I was like, 'Okay, if I can choose my path, then I'm going to guide it more towards quest design, more towards mission design.'"
And that led him exactly where he needed to be: "At the end of the day, I could not have picked a better role. It's the one that I enjoy the most because it's very game design-heavy, but it needs a story to get there."
The key insight? "It was absolutely the people who pointed me there."
It Wasn't Overnight
Here's something important to understand: even with amazing community support, Mario's job search took TIME.
This isn't a magical overnight success story. It's a story about persistence.
"There was definitely a time where we would all be talking in one of our later sessions, and just kind of sitting back and saying, 'How are we going to do this? How are we going to keep doing this?'"
The job market in games can be tough. Really tough. What kept Mario going was a mantra that the group rallied around:
"I didn't come this far to only come this far." Keep going, keep going. And lean on your friends to help you keep going.
When the offer letter finally arrived, here's what is so excellent: sharing the news with his community was as important as the achievement itself.
"I just received the offer letter... and your email popped up for a different thing that you had sent. And I'm going through my mind, like, who do I have to tell? How official is it? How unofficial is it? And I saw your name [in my inbox], and I was like, 'Oh my God.' I stopped everything I was doing and I just typed all caps."
Think about that for a second. In his moment of triumph, Mario's first instinct wasn't just personal celebration - it was connection.
"This is the exciting part for me too – I get to share this."
The Loneliness Alternative
What would his journey have been like without finding this community?
Mario doesn't hesitate: "I would have been so lonely. And I mean that seriously."
The emotional support proved just as valuable as the professional guidance.
"It was so powerful and so important to just be able to go online, and whether it was directly talking to people or just reading what they wrote, and just know that there are people who care about me, who are rooting for me, and who think I'm good at at least some part of this."
This is something I hear from students all the time. The community doesn't just provide tactical help - it provides emotional fuel for the journey.
For Mario, these connections created a kind of accountability that kept him going when the road got rough.
"I just felt like, 'I'm part of a team now, and I cannot fail my team, because if I can't make it, how can I support them making it?'"
And here's the kicker: "I couldn't quit because of them."
The community didn't just help Mario succeed - it made it impossible for him to give up.
What Can YOU Learn From Mario?
So what's the takeaway here? If you're on your own game writing journey, what can you learn from Mario's experience?
His advice is refreshingly straightforward: "Make something. That is a bare minimum."
This is step one. Just create.
But step two? Finding your people. And this is where so many writers get stuck.
Mario puts it this way: "When you start making something, you get stuck immediately, and that's a good thing. I've always said, tutorials are nice, but you don't follow a tutorial. Find something you want to make, and then when you get stuck, go search for the answer."
That search led Mario to a community that "opened all the doors." And it completely transformed his approach to his career.
"If nothing else, it put me in a spot where I also felt like I couldn't let people down. People knew me outside of my little studio. I have my family rooting for me, and I have my studio rooting for me, but I have like 100 people rooting for me all of a sudden."
That's the magic of community right there. Not just practical help, but the emotional momentum that keeps you moving forward when things get tough.
The Finish Line (That's Actually Just The Starting Line)
At the end of our interview, TJ asked Mario to say his new title out loud, for the sheer satisfaction of it.
When Mario says, "I am Mario Mergola, quest designer at Beast Burst Entertainment," TJ asks how it feels.
"Amazing," Mario responds, then adds with a laugh, "It still feels weird to say it, but it's awesome."
We often think of writing as solitary work, but especially in games, it's anything but. Mario's story shows us that the "invisible currency" in this industry isn't just talent – it's connections.
Not in a gross, networky, business-card-exchanging way, but in the geniune friendships that help us all keep going.
In a time of industry uncertainty, that's a lesson worth remembering.
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Susan’s first job as a game writer was for “a slumber party game - for girls!” She’s gone on to work on over 25 projects, including award-winning titles in the BioShock, Far Cry and Tomb Raider franchises. Titles in her portfolio have sold over 30 million copies and generated over $500 million in sales. She founded the Game Narrative Summit at GDC. Now, she partners with studios, publishers, and writers to help teams ship great games with great stories. She is dedicated to supporting creatives in the games industry so that they can do their best work.