Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition, we collaborated with ESBD – eSport-Bund Deutschland e.V. and talked to Clara Dietrich, Team Lead Marketing & Communication at esports player foundation. She speaks about her role in marketing and communications, her transition from performance marketing to esports, and her passion for creating equal opportunities in the esports industry through initiatives like the Equal eSports Initiative. Read more about Clara in this interview:

Hi Clara! What’s a typical day like for you in your role as Team Lead Marketing & Communication, and how do you balance the different aspects of marketing, communication, and team leadership?

A typical day is fast-paced and varied. It usually starts with a team sync by checking all upcoming tasks for the day and distributing them to all team members. I also look at partner activations and see where improvements can be made. Simultaneously, I try to fulfil the needs of each partner by sending out regular updates. Managing relationships with our partners, and stakeholders is key, as well as driving the creative direction for content marketing. Balancing leadership with hands-on work means allocating time for strategic planning, mentoring team members, and ensuring open lines of communication. It’s about knowing when to delegate versus when to step in directly to ensure smooth execution.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Melanie Hauser, Game Developer at Aesir Interactive GmbH. She speaks about how persistence, continuous learning, and authentic communication helped her overcome early career rejections and thrive in game development, while her work has deepened her appreciation for games. Read more about Melanie here:

Hi Melanie! You mentioned that after graduating from your Master of Science (M.S.) in Media Informatics, you faced multiple rejections from game development studios before landing your current position at Aesir Interactive. Can you share how you stayed motivated during this challenging period and what personal or professional growth you experienced as a result of these early setbacks? Additionally, if you could give one piece of advice to yourself at the beginning of your career, what would it be?

I had just graduated and only had very little to show off, so I expected my application process to be rather tough. And it was. I can’t remember how many applications I sent out. Most of the time I was happy if I actually received an answer, even if it was a rejection, because more often than not I didn’t even get any response at all. After a while I gave up and started working as a programmer in a different industry. Not due to a lack of motivation, rather for pragmatic reasons. But every now and then I was still sending out applications when I found new vacancies at game studios – and finally was granted a chance to prove myself.

For me, the wish to make games evolved to be something I just knew I really really wanted in life. I felt that it will be my thing. A bit like when you fall in love with someone – you’ll just know that they are the right one. And if you feel this way, you won’t need any other motivation.

During all this time I tried to familiarize myself with tools and practices that are common for game development. That’s the most important advice I could give to myself back then – and it’s just as important when you have a job in the industry. Learning more, trying out the newest tech developments or finding those gems that were always there but which most people don’t know of – all of this can be very beneficial when making games. Even if the tools you try out are not what your future employer uses, gaining an understanding for core concepts and principles will help in any kind of project.

What I would also do differently if I got the chance: I would change the style and wording of my early applications. I had the impression that they would need to be rather formalized and overly polite, that it otherwise would look like I don’t take the job offer seriously. But eventually my applications became less formal, less strict, more playful – just more me. Of course you shouldn’t start off with “Yo duuude” but authenticity is so important. Especially when you don’t have a lot of hard facts to speak for themselves yet.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition, we talked to Rongfang Zhao, Lead Game Designer at Kolibri Games. She speaks about balancing her role as Lead Game Designer with her personal life, the importance of cultural diversity in game design, and key skills like collaboration, creativity, and self-reflection for aspiring game designers. Read more about Rongfang here:

Hi Rongfang! Can you describe what a typical day looks like for you as Lead Game Designer at Kolibri Games, especially as you navigate your return from maternity leave and balance the demands of leadership with your personal commitments?

Usually I start my work at 7 a.m. and have 2 hours of precious focus time before daily meetings. I use this time to do my own design tasks or think about next topics on the roadmap.

Before lunch, most of the time I’m in meetings, checking release status and current sprint progress, reviewing my team’s work, giving them directions or feedback, and having 1 on 1s.

After lunch break, I may need to support other departments, have workshops with other designers for big tasks, or test new features.

At 4pm, I finish work as Lead Game Designer and start my other job … parent! Finding a good work-life balance has been very manageable for me at Kolibri Games: I can work from home most of the time, which spares time from commuting. Additionally, my colleagues are very accommodating and understanding of why I need to leave work early. Finally, my manager is a great help with answering urgent questions when I am already out for the day.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Audrey Gravier,  Co-Founder at Outsiders. She speaks about how her varied education and volunteer work have shaped her game development and leadership skills, her approach to incorporating Cairo’s culture into “Lost in Cairo,” and offers advice for young women entering the gaming industry. Read more about Audrey here: 

Hi Audrey! Your educational journey has taken you from HEC Montréal to NEOMA Business School and even fashion studies at ESMOD. How has this diverse educational background contributed to your unique perspective and skills in game development?

I’ve always known that one day I would want to start my own business, and these various experiences have allowed me to develop my artistic mindset without neglecting the financial and commercial management skills that I would need to build my studio. I believe that as a woman stepping into entrepreneurship, it’s important to be independent and have a 360-degree understanding of the challenges a business must face on a daily basis.

A game isn’t just about art and technique; to run a studio, you have to be comfortable with managing a business. Business school pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was a girl from the countryside, not used to meeting new people every day, but it made me more comfortable with networking, which has proven very useful to me today. After studying at HEC Montreal, I completed my financial degree with a communication/marketing degree at NEOMA, because viral communication is central to my strategy for getting noticed as an indie studio.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Marilena Cassetta, Producer at Crytek. She speaks about the importance of team success and trust for motivation, the minimal impact of her early experiences on her current role, and the value of networking, volunteering, and continuous learning for aspiring game producers. Read more about Marilena here:

Hi Marilena! What aspects of your current role excite you the most, and how do you maintain motivation and creativity when facing the high demands and complexities of game production?

It excites me to see my team succeed and grow through development processes. Seeing a satisfied, efficient and motivated team means I’m doing my job correctly and that fuels me with more energy.

Maintaining motivation is a huge topic and different methods apply for each individual on my teams, however the most simple and yet powerful method is to let your actions you do for them speak for yourself in order to build trust. Unbroken trust and being a safety net for devs is what I witnessed to be very effective to keep motivation going. Additionally, I don’t make promises I can’t keep, but I try to get back to individuals with an outcome and try to make things work out according to the situation at hand. Other sources of motivation are retrospectives, as well as opportunities to show off work and recap the progress made in our team.

Retrospectives should not only be about addressing issues but to help forging plans to follow up on, in order to keep ourselves accountable and take action. Doing a Project recap on a regular basis helps everybody to get a glimpse of what other teams are working on and how every puzzle piece of the project comes together, which is an additional motivation spike. Other times, reminding people of natural consequences in terms of personal organization and reliability (for example reminding them that other developers could get bottlenecked) helps giving a little motivation as well.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Emese-Anna Hoppa, Game Designer at Ubisoft Mainz. She speaks about how her career in game design evolved from an initial focus on art, with her university experiences ultimately leading her to discover and pursue a passion for game design. Read more about Anna here:

Hi Anna! Your career path in game design seems impressively linear, with each step seemingly building seamlessly on the last. How did your experiences during your education at Mediadesign University of Applied Sciences shape your career trajectory, and what pivotal moments or decisions during this time influenced your professional path the most?

Initially I was surprised to see my career being described as linear, but just by looking at my work experience, it really is! Although getting to this point was anything but that.

When I started university I didn’t know what area in game development I wanted to work in. In fact, I didn’t even know I wanted to work in games until I applied to university, since I never considered it a possible career. Initially, I wanted to become an artist working on comics and illustrations. And since I come from an Art and Graphics background, it was natural that I focused on Graphics Design and 2D Art at first during my studies. 
Very soon the studies briefly reignited my long-forgotten interest in Programming, but over time I naturally moved back to more graphical work and I put a lot of time into creating VFX and materials. Aside from that I also was focused on tasks my more specialized teammates didn’t have time for, so I also did camera work and sound editing here and there, helped with asset creation, graphic design and did some very light code work (mostly blueprinting in unreal).
At this point I actually didn’t have game design in my periphery at all.

In one of my student projects we didn’t have a dedicated game designer, since we all wanted to decide on the game’s direction and rules. At that time I picked up some tasks that were more design adjacent. Working more with the game’s rules and structure made me realize that I have a lot of fun with these topics and that I want to try my hand at it properly. 
So after the project concluded I threw myself into the subject of game design and tried to learn as much as possible. We only had one year left before we had to do our mandatory internship and since now my focus was on game design I really wanted to get an internship as a designer. Thankfully, for the next student project I worked in a team that accepted my wish to do game design and I could focus on that a lot.
While working more intensely on designs I discovered that I enjoy the systemic part of game design so I started to look for internship positions in companies that worked on games with big systems, like strategy and management games.
I got really lucky and found a great place with Limbic Entertainment where I was allowed to grow as a designer, but also stay true to my scattered interest in game development and take on other areas in limits, like supporting the UI team.

University gave me space to explore what I want to be very dynamically. While we did have specializations, I never felt I fit into any of them and I am grateful I could explore all the different areas in game development until I found something that I felt fit perfectly. That being said, I can see myself still having fun with anything I tried during university.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition, we collaborated with ESBD – eSport-Bund Deutschland e.V. and talked to Lara Lunardi, Head of Creative at SK Gaming. She speaks about how her roles at SK Gaming and as a cosplayer complement each other, highlights the value of her game design background in creating immersive esports content, and advises aspiring women in the industry to seek support networks. Read more about Lara in this interview:

Hi Lara! As the Head of Creative at SK Gaming and an influential cosplayer with a significant social media following, how do you balance these dual roles, and what insights can you share about the intersection of creativity in professional esports and cosplay?

Balancing the roles of being a creative lead and a content creator is not as complicated as you’d think. Both roles fit in together very well, because I am constantly living and breathing content creation and content consumption, it allows me a lot of insight on what is trending in gaming right now. Creating content on your own, for me it’s been about a decade, for an example, also gives you really good insight on how to create cost effective campaigns, or products. The same works the other way around, working with bigger budgets for bigger gaming campaigns gives you insight on what realistically you can offer partners and your audience.

Esports and cosplay can also be paired quite effectively. Gaming is the core of this industry, and depending on what type of cosplayer you are, gaming will also be front and center of your content. In general, esports events are more exciting if you get to enhance the fan experience, and essentially, this is what cosplayers offer. Eye-catching creations that people are naturally drawn towards, whether it is online or at an event.

We have had campaigns where we need a costume for a player, or a prop from a video game, and because I am able to create these things from scratch, it brings an extra edge to the content we can produce together with SK, whether I am the one fulfilling these artistic duties, or I am hiring someone for it.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Romy Halfweeg, Business Development Manager at Poki. She speaks about the value of openness in networking, learning from event management, and balancing creative and business aspects in game development. Read more about Romy here:

Hi Romy! Throughout your career, you have held various roles. What key lessons have you learned about building and maintaining professional relationships within the gaming industry, and how have these experiences shaped your approach to business development?

I think that overall in all of my roles, from Event Manager to Partnerships Manager to Business Developer, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to always be open and approachable. You never know who might want to talk to you, so I make sure to give people that chance. I do this by being present at events, attending smaller meetups, giving presentations, making myself easy to reach online, and being active in Discord servers and Slack channels. I also usually try to lower the barrier by introducing myself first. Basically I try to enter physical and virtual spaces with an outstretched hand 🙂

This approach has worked well for me in business development too. Instead of saying no to a meeting or walking away from a conversation if I don’t immediately understand the mutual benefit, I try to listen to what they’re looking for whenever I can. Even if we can’t collaborate right away, there have been times when it became relevant months or even years later. If I hadn’t been open to listening to what these people were working on in the first place, I would have missed those opportunities.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Coline Sauvand,  Co-Founder & Artistic Director at Ram Ram Studio. She speaks about how moving to Brussels, art school, a competition win, and quitting her job were key steps in her journey to becoming an illustrator and artistic director. Read more about Coline here: 

Hi Coline! Looking back at your early days as an illustrator, what were some of the key decisions or risks you took that significantly impacted your career trajectory?

🔥 The spark was to come and live in Brussels. At the time, I thought it was a random post-adolescence move. ( I lived in Montpellier back then ) Today, I realize that it was the most important decision I ever made to become an illustrator. Brussels is a very open city, with a strong pictorial and alternative culture. Everyone is welcome, there’s plenty of room for you.

⚙️ I joined an art school, and for 3 years I had 3 hours a week of live drawing sessions: it’s mega important to connect your hand, your eye and your brain together. That was the technical key. 

🧿 Then I entered a “travel book” competition and won a trip to Istanbul. There I visited an exhibition of “Persian miniatures”, traditional images that illustrated 15th-century Persian tales. It was so different from what I was used to that it deeply inspired me; I decided to tell my journey through them, copying them. That was my “style key”😎. It also inspired the videogame “30 birds” I’m releasing at the end of the year!

📢 Finally, the decisive key was quitting my part-time job to take advantage of a full year‘s unemployment benefit: I had time to take more commissions, create my website, prototype my children’s book and my video game.