Kel Bachus
Program Director, Interactive Narrative for Games and Digital Media
Biography
Kel is an author and veteran of the video game industry; they’ve worked on everything from titles like Elder Scrolls Online, to mobile games to the last game ever made for the Atari Jaguar. Working in game development as both a designer and writer while publishing in genre fiction led to teaching with a very story-forward focus. In 2022, Kel created Champlain’s Interactive Narrative major to meet the increasing need for narrative specialists in the current market.
Champlain provided the perfect opportunity to create not only cutting edge curriculum for story creators, but to work on issues of equity and justice in this sometimes problematic field. Kel’s interest is in radically inclusive spaces and decolonized processes; they work with students on a range of projects in their own studios, often with a justice focus.
Kel founded Rad Magpie, a Vermont nonprofit supporting underrepresented developers, and runs a summer studio for students working on independent projects and starting their own companies.