Elena Dimopoulou – Womenize! – Inspiring Stories
Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Elena Dimopoulou, Unreal Authorized Instructor at Epic Games. She speaks about her mission to make game development and digital storytelling more inclusive, accessible, and emotionally resonant by combining her background in fine arts, education, and technology to mentor others, create supportive communities, and champion diversity in the gaming and tech industries. Read more about Elena here:
Hi Elena! Your work at Epic Games combines mentoring with developing tools for game creators. As a woman in this industry, what challenges have you faced along the way, and how have those experiences empowered you to uplift and inspire other women to pursue their creative visions in tech and games?
Being a woman in the tech and gaming industry can feel isolating at times, but it’s important to know that we’re not alone. There are incredible global communities like Women in Games, WIGI, IGDA, and Epic Games, which also had a fantastic program called the Women Creators Program that I was highly involved in and took part in. Many grassroots initiatives are actively working to promote diversity and uplift women’s voices in this space.
I always encourage women to speak up, seek help, and lean into mentorship—because support networks are real, powerful, and growing every day.
Communities are at the heart of this movement—we need to show up, speak to each other, tell our story,, support and uplift one another, share knowledge and guidance and experience whether that’s in Discord, forums, or any shared space. That’s where real inclusion begins. And to anyone reading this who might be looking for courage or guidance: don’t hesitate to reach out to me. We’re all stronger when we lift each other.
My work as an Unreal Authorized Instructor has shaped me deeply—technically, creatively, and personally. Epic Games has equipped me with powerful tools and a supportive community that not only enhanced my own practice but also empowered me to guide and uplift others on their creative journeys.
I’m mentoring emerging creators, designing inclusive learning experiences, or helping build pathways into the industry, I see it all as part of a larger mission: making game development more accessible, inclusive, and human—empowering people to tell their stories, whether through games, art projects, or films.
As an artist and mentor, how do you balance the creative and technical aspects of game design, especially when working with emerging technologies like VR and 3D geospatial visualization? What advice do you have for aspiring creators looking to merge these worlds?
Balancing the creative and technical aspects of game design is like swimming with both arms—you need both to move forward. My foundation in fine arts gave me the confidence to trust emotion, intuition, and aesthetics. But as I moved into game design, VR, and 3D geospatial technologies, I had to become just as fluent in technical language. What helped was approaching technology as a creative partner rather than a barrier. I don’t separate the two anymore;I see code, tools, and systems not just as functional elements, but as integral parts of the storytelling procedure—each one offering a new language for emotion, interaction, and meaning.
One thing I always tell aspiring creators is: don’t be afraid to start messy. Play, prototype, experiment—even if you don’t fully understand the software yet. Learn through making. And surround yourself with people who are better than you in areas you’re not strong in. That’s what collaboration is for. Also, especially in emerging fields like VR and geospatial storytelling, you don’t need to have all the answers. You just need curiosity, empathy, and the courage to ask new questions- and of course read documentation first!!! Haha
You hold a Master of Arts in Digital Arts and a BA in Fine Arts, which have shaped your approach to game design and digital storytelling. How have your academic experiences influenced your work, and what inspired you to found Collective Apnea Art Gathering?
My academic journey through the Athens School of Fine Arts has been foundational to everything I do. Starting with traditional disciplines like painting, sculpture, and printmaking gave me a deep respect for craftsmanship and artistic expression. But toward the end of my undergraduate studies, I discovered virtual reality—and it changed everything. I became fascinated by the idea of using immersive technology not just as a tool but as a medium for emotional and psychological storytelling.
For my graduation project, I created a hybrid installation that combined physical artwork with a VR experience. The walls were filled with expressive, fragmented paintings—what some might call neo-cubist or graffiti-like—and inside this installation, viewers could wear a headset to enter my digital mind. It was a space filled with “tiles,” a recurring motif from my childhood as a competitive swimmer, representing the countless hours I spent in swimming pools. The idea was to let people walk both through my memories and my subconscious, bridging physical and virtual space. I called it Error 404—a kind of homage to mental clutter and disorganization that many of us feel but rarely get to express in public.
This experience taught me that immersive media like VR, games, and interactive installations can democratize access to emotion and story in a way that traditional galleries sometimes can’t. Not everyone feels comfortable walking into a white cube gallery, especially in Greece, where contemporary digital art was still seen as niche or even intimidating. But give someone a headset or a game controller, and you open up new worlds for them-making art and storytelling more accessible and engaging.
That realization is part of what inspired Collective Apnea Art Gathering. I wanted to create a space—both physically and conceptually—where artists, technologists, researchers and storytellers could explore hybrid forms of expression. It’s a platform rooted in experimentation, inclusivity, and deep emotional storytelling, often underwater, often surreal—just like my journey. It’s about holding your breath long enough to dive deep into your inner world and come up with something meaningful to share with others.
As part of Apnea, we also organize workshops with children and individuals with special needs, and we actively research and design digital tools that promote inclusivity and accessible storytelling for all. I’ve been working in education for over a decade—as a lecturer, educator, and art teacher for individuals with special needs—and this field continues to be a major focus of both my practice and my research.