Hi there!
I’m Arjan Terpstra, aka Ranja72. I identify as Dutch, male, bilingual, a father, a husband and a lot more. Professionally, I act as a writer, amongst other things - I’ve held various roles at various times, but all have involved writing, the thing I have loved dearly since the first day my hand held a pen.
Today, I specialise in writing for and about video games. I am co-writer of the book PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon (together with Tim Lapetino), and the writer of books on Sonic the Hedgehog, FINAL FANTASY XV, Killzone, and studio Vlambeer. For games, I have writer credits in PlayStation 5 behemoth Horizon Forbidden West, in the upcoming extraction shooter Project Black Budget, and in the PC game Blaze: Revolutions. Besides this, I worked as a games curator for the Storyworld Museum in Groningen, the Netherlands, and as a staff writer and content producer for online game art gallery Cook and Becker (also my publisher).
For these wonderful projects, I have worked for or closely with renowned companies as Guerrilla, Bandai Namco Entertainment, KRAFTON/PUBG Studios, SEGA, Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics, and others. Please check the project pages on this site for details.
Why video games? I think they are the most promising medium of our day. I am thrilled by the interplay of culture, technology and business practices that makes a video game happen, and find great personal and professional satisfaction in interactive storytelling. There simply seems to be no limit to where games can take you, be it through gameplay, through the stories they tell, or anything else, and I need to be a part of that.
As well as my writing work in the video game space, I have built gamified apps, coached video game startups, and have been hired in many other roles as a historian, journalist, curator, creative copywriter, and game design lecturer. Confusing? I think my current work greatly profits from this broad array of jobs, as it builds on past experiences in many ways - and let me assure you that a Master’s degree in history works miracles when you populate a living, breathing video game world!
In the end, these roles are all me. My pen, my background, my character and idiosyncrasies - they all add up to me. The easy-going, at-your-service, freelancing me. The sits-well-with-your-devs, fun-loving me, who likes to hear from you when you’re in need of a writer, creative copywriter, narrative designer, or curator, or even for a role I haven’t thought of yet.
Get in touch!
Arjan
Alkmaar, The Netherlands
Ps. Ranja72? Through every game I played, it has been my gamer tag. Ranja is an anagram of my first name (and coincidentally also the name of a certain soft drink brand, popular in the Netherlands), followed by my year of birth.