Angel Leigh McCoy is a game designer and fiction writer based in Seattle, Washington.

Early life and education

Originally from the Midwest, Angel Leigh McCoy grew up delving into fantasy and horror novels and won her first essay contest in 6th grade. She studied French Literature at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

Career

She is credited with published work in the role-playing games industry as far back as 1994. Over the years, she has designed RPG material for companies such as White Wolf

White Wolf

White Wolf is a publisher of role-playing games, notably the World of Darkness.White Wolf may also refer to:*White Wolf , a location in Yosemite National Park*White Wolf , a Canadian heavy metal band...

, Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

, FASA

FASA

FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001. Originally the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. This tongue-in-cheek attitude was...

, and Pinnacle Entertainment Group. In 2001, she was writing in the video game industry for Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Studios is the video game production wing for Microsoft, responsible for the development and publishing of games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Games for Windows and Windows Phone platforms. They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the release of the Xbox, before...

, writing articles as Xbox.com correspondent Wireless Angel. She transferred to ArenaNet

ArenaNet

ArenaNet is a computer game developer and part of NCsoft Corporation, founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington...

 in 2007, where she was part of a team effort to make the MMORPG Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in development by ArenaNet. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in...

. She serves as the head editor for the Wily Writers Speculative Fiction Podcast.

Short fiction

McCoy has published short fiction in various anthologies and magazines, including:

• Ravens in the Library by Quiet Thunder
• Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror by Comet Press
• Masters of Horror Anthology by Triskaideka Books
• Cobalt City Christmas by Timid Pirates Productions.
• Fear of the Dark by HorrorBound
• Growing Dread: Biopunk Visions by Timid Pirate Publishing
• Tales for Canterbury by Random Static
• Necrotic Tissue, issue 14, Stygian Publications

Computer game work

McCoy worked as a game reviewer and journalist for Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Studios is the video game production wing for Microsoft, responsible for the development and publishing of games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Games for Windows and Windows Phone platforms. They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the release of the Xbox, before...

 and Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

. She currently works for ArenaNet

ArenaNet

ArenaNet is a computer game developer and part of NCsoft Corporation, founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington...

 as one of the writers on Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in development by ArenaNet. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in...

.

Role-playing game work

McCoy's work in the role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 industry includes supplements for Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

's Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms

The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...

; FASA

FASA

FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001. Originally the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. This tongue-in-cheek attitude was...

's Earthdawn

Earthdawn

Earthdawn is a fantasy role-playing game, originally produced by FASA in 1993. In 1999 it was licensed to Living Room Games, which produced the Second Edition...

; West End Games

West End Games

West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...

' World of Necroscope; Pinnacle Entertainment

Pinnacle Entertainment

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. is a gaming and hospitality company based in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada that was created in 1938. It owns and operates casinos in the United States and Argentina.- Company names over time :...

's Deadlands

Deadlands

Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some Steampunk elements. It was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group....

; and White Wolf

White Wolf

White Wolf is a publisher of role-playing games, notably the World of Darkness.White Wolf may also refer to:*White Wolf , a location in Yosemite National Park*White Wolf , a Canadian heavy metal band...

's Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic...

, Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....

, Hunter: The Reckoning

Hunter: The Reckoning

Hunter: The Reckoning is a role-playing game based in White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness. Compared to the other game in the franchise, Hunter does not explore the secret society of supernatural creatures founded over centuries, preferring to throw the player in a world of danger and mysteries...

 and Changeling: The Dreaming

Changeling: The Dreaming

Changeling: The Dreaming was part of White Wolf Game Studio's original "World of Darkness" role playing game line. Player characters are changelings, fae souls reborn into human bodies, a practice begun by the fae to protect themselves as magic vanished from the world...

.

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 product line, TSR

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

* The Magic of Faerun

Faerûn

Faerûn is a fictional subcontinent, the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described at a relatively high level in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more detail by separate...

, co-author; 2000