About Lou "Cdra" Carroll
Born January, 1992 | they/them | Based in USA
“Jack of all trades, master of none—but better than a master of one.”
So goes the saying, but when trying to find my footing as a person with varied interests and skillsets, it seemed difficult to find a career path that truly satisfied every part of me. Video games, being capable of powerful emotional storytelling via their interactivity and mixed media, naturally called out to me—especially as a way to synthesize both the creative and technical aspects of myself into a single piece of work.
My main interests in this world are threefold, and somewhat disjunctive from the media in which I work: the human voice (as a tool of expression, rife with potential for alteration and synthesis), the empathetic impacts of storytelling media (the emotional resonance between writer and reader, character and person), and the oft-reviled erotic impulses of repressed people (bizarre kinks, the process of seeking catharsis and freedom in a safe fictional space). All of these hold in common that I am fascinated by how humans connect with one another and with themselves: the process of identity, empathy, and expression.
In blazing my winding path, I’ve come to hold a BS in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis, and an incomplete MFA in Interactive Design and Game Development from the Savannah College of Art and Design (ironically stymied by my mental health, when my thesis project was about empathy and mental health conditions). Across many years and many projects, I’ve been a concept artist, an interaction designer, an electronic music producer, an audio technician, a game salesperson, a community manager, a software developer, a wiki admin, a project lead, an erotic fiction writer, a novel editor, a sensitivity reader, a vocal synthesis guru, a roleplay lore creator, a fashion accessory crafter, and quite possibly more things that I can’t recall here and now.
Currently, I work for imitone as a software developer and maintainer of other miscellaneous tasks, and I’m also working on my own projects involving erotic interactive fiction games and an open-source vocal synthesis application. I also help maintain a number of online communities.
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