Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Éloïse Laroche, 3D Artist and Indie Game Developer. Read more about Éloïse in this interview:

Hi Éloïse! Your new game, Lemon Cake, is coming soon. Could you tell us a little bit more on why and how you became a game dev and 3D artist?

I’ve always been interested in different spheres of art, such as writing, performing and visual arts. I fell in love with video game development because it blends multiple disciplines together into a single product. It made me realise that I wanted to create more than art, I wanted to design an experience that players could interact with, change and customize to their own taste. I studied digital art in college, which was a good introduction to 3D art and the most popular industry softwares. However, there’s so much more than art that goes into making games, and so I’ve had to teach myself through online documentation and tutorials how to program, design and market games. Fortunately, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be a self taught game developer; there’s a ton of resources online to learn everything that’s needed to get started. There are also excellent free development softwares, such as Blender for digital art and Unreal Engine for game development, which makes it accessible for everyone.

You’re not working with a studio, but as a one-woman game dev. What are the challenges you found yourself facing in the process of developing games on your own? And how did you find the right people to work with when you’ve reached your limits, regarding the game’s music, for example?

The main challenge I face as a solo developer is that I have to learn a wide range of skills, which makes it difficult to become an expert in a specific discipline. It’s a lot harder to excel in a particular field such as art, programming or marketing when I have to divide my time between all of them instead of focusing on a single one. Because of that, it’s been crucial to figure out my strengths and weaknesses and decide which skills I won’t practice at all, and instead hire other artists who can complement my work. On the other hand, being able to develop almost everything by myself gives me a ton of creative freedom and flexibility. I can iterate and test my designs quickly without having to explain my ideas to someone else, and it allows me to create exactly the vision I have of a game. It’s still a good idea to hire freelancers to fill in specific skill gaps, which saves me a ton of time learning and practicing a new skill. For example, I’ve worked with Matthew Harnage who composed the game soundtrack and Karen Teixeira who drew the cover art for Lemon Cake. The first thing I look for when hiring a freelancer is to find someone whose work I love; once I find that, everything else falls into place.

There are lot of great games out there, and as an indie dev, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd and get your game noticed. Do you have any tips for fellow devs on how to promote their game?

Find a niche! I think too many indie developers fail to gather attention not because their game is bad, but because it appeals to a mass audience. AAA studios are already doing that, and I don’t really want to compete with them. Instead, I think it’s much more viable for indies to cater to smaller audiences that are mostly ignored by larger studios. I recently participated in Wholesome Snack, an event specifically created to showcase wholesome indie games. The community behind it is really supportive and appreciative of the devs catering to a friendly & casual genre of games. In the future, I plan on exploring further themes that haven’t been showcased much in video games. It’s a bit risky to make games for a market that hasn’t been proven yet; but to me being indie means pushing new boundaries, and I think that’s why players fell in love with indie games in the first place!

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and advice with us, Éloïse!

Links: Éloïse’s Twitter | Lemon Cake on Steam

WWW Feature by Jessica Hackenbroch

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Olga Alavatcaia, Senior Game Artist based in Berlin. Read more about Olga in this interview:

Hi Olga! Apart from being a passionate Senior Artist at your job, you are also working on some personal projects every now and then. Is there any creative idea you’ve recently developed or experimented with, that you’d love to share with us?

Thank you for having me here 🙂 Making games in my free time was always something I was thriving for – starting with good old FRPGs (forum rpgs) back in 2005 and carrying on with mobile games nowadays. Game development allows one to explore different tools and techniques in the most possible fun way. Check out our game Pots.io!

I am lucky enough to be married to an awesome developer, Vladimir Grati, and to be acquainted with an excellent artist like Anna Akrabova, so we teamed up together for a little side project. The idea for this hyper casual game came to me based on a fun itsy-bitsy activity in Dark Souls, where the player rolls around the ground, destroying clay pots. The whole development took several weeks, with all three of us acting also as game designers and QA. We take special pride in all the silly puns that accompany the user’s wins and fails.

Do you think it’s beneficial for artists to learn how to code?

I do believe that constant learning is always beneficial, especially in the gaming industry which is advancing every year. 

Considering that we are talking about generalists, I see two main perks of knowing how to code: first is the possibility to be a “one-man-army”, and the second one – to better understand how the project is built, and as a result – to be able to optimize it in the best way. Besides, if the game artist career loses its appeal, you’ll always have great alternatives to continue as an engineer or a technical artist. 

The first perk opens up a lovely opportunity of being able to make a game of your dreams without depending on anyone else’s abilities and availability – it’s like being a builder and an architect at the same time. There are several examples of this approach resulting in worldwide critically acclaimed titles such as Stardew Valley or Undertale. Of course, there is the other side of the coin such as time consumption and lack of your teammates’ reflection, but isn’t it wonderful – to be able to shape your idea and all the aspects exactly as you envisioned it?

Regarding the second perk – very often, a lot of time is wasted on optimizations and back and forth between engineering and the art department. In a team environment, it can be crucial for an artist to know how exactly to deliver the results or event to implement them. A team member with an insight into the work process of their coworkers is a valuable asset in building a lean organization.

You travelled the world quite a lot, were there any places that you found particularly inspiring from an artistic perspective?

I do firmly believe that artistic inspiration comes in many forms, from standing in the clouds of Fansipan Mountain to walking through a dystopian high-rise building district in Eastern Europe. In both cases, the artistic reflection, the ability to apply your impressions and the sharpness of perception play a critical role in making some internal conclusion that later on can bring new fringes to the art you create. It is probably something very personal to me. Travelling and being in new places satisfy my curiosity and allow me to update my visual library, but the very core of being driven to create is activated by the quiet of being alone with myself. I would say for me it’s not the place that matters, but my ability to perceive. And I am pretty omnivorous in that sense.

Thank you for your time, Olga!

Olga’s Links: Olga’s LinkedIn | Olga’s Personal Project Pots.io

WWW Feature by Sophie Brügmann

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Anna Hollinrake, Principal Artist at Mediatonic. Read more about Anna in this interview:

Hi Anna! You work as a Principal Artist at Mediatonic and have gathered years of experience as an artist in game development and television even before that. Could you tell us a bit more about why you chose to work in games, and your journey towards your current job?

It has long been impossible to separate me from three things: art, making things and tech. Once I discovered digital art I knew I was a goner; as a teenager I had to be pried off the computer with a crowbar. I first pursued games because they were the medium in which I could make digital art most easily (as well as having enjoyed them very much as a kid). However, over time I realised a little more about myself – I love the broad brushstrokes of worldbuilding and mood-setting in games, and I also wanted to be on the forefront of new technologies. Games is still a very young medium that is figuring out the rules as the industry grows, and that’s an incredibly exciting place to be in.

In terms of my journey toward my current job, I pushed for the things I really cared about and said yes to things that scared me. I studied Game Art at De Montfort University and began my career as a generalist artist, before getting my teeth into a much-loved project in which I was able to concept for large swathes of the game. A lot of opportunities for things I was interested but intimidated by popped up in a distinctly butterfly-effect way – taking part in social media events led to meeting people that would invite me to sell at comic cons, and my presence in those locations led to invites to speak at events. One thing snowballed into another especially after being named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, as I repeatedly found opportunities to jump in with both feet; art directing games, moving into TV animation and art directing a TV show, leading international teams, and now leading the art side of pitches at Mediatonic.

What does a typical work day in your life look like (if there is such thing as a “typical” day)? Can it sometimes be difficult to be creative on an everyday basis?

A typical day really varies for me depending on projects and upcoming events. If we’re making a pitch deck then it’ll often feature a lot of time spent concepting and giving feedback to other artists, and being in meetings to review how the slides are taking shape. I also do a lot of work in outreach – planning talks and breakdowns of pitch processes. It’s a lot of fun having to make very rapid fire decisions across hugely different art styles, all the while making sure the choices are consistent with the game mood, themes, and technical limitations. As I’m more on the business side and not in a traditional dev team, it’s a much more reactive role that requires a steady eye on what the rest of the industry is up to!

As it absolutely can be difficult to be consistently creative, I (thankfully) really enjoy management and organisation almost as much as art, and that gives me the mental breathing room to focus on spreadsheets whilst I let the creative side of me recover. I work directly with design, which often involves talking out issues rather than purely drawing them to solve them, so that gives me a lot of variety as I get to problem solve in a whole host of ways. I’ve learned my patterns of productivity, too. Never schedule anything that involves a lot of thinking after 4.30pm!

What advice would you give to artists aspiring a career in games who might not feel as confident in their art, or who might not know how to take the first step towards their dream job?

Put your work out there and connect with fellow artists and developers looking to get into games – in your community or online. Your peers are your best ally for helping you toward your first job – a rising tide lifts all boats and my biggest help has always been the groups of friends I’ve had around me to give me guidance or put my name forward. Be diligent and hard working on the things that bring you joy, learn and study with intention, keep on pushing. It’s a persistence game – it just takes smartly applied time and effort.

Thanks for letting us gain an insight into your experiences, Anna!

Links: Anna’s Website | Mediatonic’s Website | Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout on Steam 

WWW Feature by Jessica Hackenbroch

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Katriina Penttilä, Social Media & Community Manager at Dirtybit. Read more about Katriina in this interview:

Hi Katriina! You have quite a lot of experience working in fields such as Social Media, PR, Marketing and Event Management. How did you get started in the gaming industry originally?

Hei! Such a pleasure to be invited to this interview, thank you for having me! I’m excited to share some of my experiences and hopefully help others who might be contemplating on pursuing a career in the games industry.

In high school, I was wondering what I want to do for a living and kept going back into wanting to work with arts and culture in one way or another. Multiple sources kept telling me “no” and that there would not be a stable financial future working with anything like those things I loved so much. I didn’t care about the warnings and kept on pushing to do my own thing regardless. I graduated with a Master of Arts degree majoring in digital culture with minors in cultural management, marketing, leadership, and entrepreneurship six years later.

I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember and working with games and gaming cultures had appealed me already during my studies as a viable career path. I moved from Finland to Norway in my last year of studies, despite never having visited the country and not having any connections or speaking the language here. It was super scary to move alone, especially as I had a fairly comfortable life already built in Finland with an OK (nowhere near a dream) job, friends, family, and home, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling there was more life and opportunities somewhere out there. Being unable to stop wondering “what if…” and to avoid becoming bitter when looking back later and wondering why I didn’t make the move when I had the chance, I left it all to give space for personal growth and seeking those opportunities. I wrote my master’s thesis about the history of escape games long distance from Norway.

Since then in four years and counting, I have put roots down here and made my way into my dream jobs as the social media and community manager of a local mobile game company Dirtybit, marketing manager of Norway’s biggest game developers conference Konsoll, and part-owner of a digital comics subscription start-up InkyPen.

I originally started working in the fields of cultural production and marketing over eight years ago through theater and event productions. As part of this, we were creating pervasive (IRL) games for children and youth, though we never really called them games but “drama adventures”. These games immersed participants inside the magic circle we created, like escape rooms or murder mystery dinners do while encouraging playful solving of puzzles and riddles.

I also worked for several years in producing, marketing, and managing escape rooms, which were the first genre of games I had the pleasure to work with professionally. Despite my focus and specialization in my studies having always been in digital culture and producing and understanding digital games, I found pervasive IRL games a great starting point to break into the gaming industry, be creative and gain experience.

Could you tell us a bit about your day to day life and responsibilities at Dirtybit?

I create my own schedules and manage my work independently (while always in collaboration with game teams), prioritizing whichever project goals we have and which game features are in production at any given time. Due to this, my workdays vary a lot; some days I might need to prioritize leading our customer support team and making sure they are equipped to answer the community’s questions in a coherent voice. Other days, I might spend half a day working on social media and marketing strategy and/or content execution and half a day writing in-game communications and programming in-game newsfeed posts to function as intended. Normally, at least part of my day is also spent researching and passing what I see forward to the game teams regarding what things the player community is currently wondering and talking about.

My responsibilities include leading our social media strategy, initiating and executing campaigns and events in-game and outside to engage the player community, creating a healthy community, ensuring communications between the game teams and players flow smoothly, and coordinating our customer support. I also work with broader marketing matters, such as push notifications and user acquisition. 

In my job as the social media and community manager of players from all around the globe, humanities background has helped me to understand and help people from different cultures coexist. Most of my coworkers in the tech field are from backgrounds such as programming. It is my responsibility to help them take the human factor better to account, and bring humanities perspective into decision-making. As a person from humanities working in tech, I am the bridge between the people using the technology and the programmers.

I wouldn’t change this career for the world.

What was your favorite, most beloved or creative marketing and social media campaign?

I have to say the one with our custom “Which Fun Run 3 animal are you?” Instagram AR filter stands out as my most beloved and creative campaign.

I had never created a custom AR filter before and used a couple of less busy workdays to teach myself how to make one online by watching mainly Spanish speaking tutorials, as I couldn’t find others with thorough screenshots of the process at the time about the specific kind of filter I wanted to create. Full disclosure, I don’t speak Spanish, but just had to make it work since I wanted to learn so badly.

Nobody at Dirtybit asked me to do it, but as part of my job is to seek out and identify new marketing opportunities, filters like “Which Disney princess are you?” were trending heavily on Instagram at the time and it appeared as an interesting opportunity to learn a new skill and gain loads of organic visibility to the Fun Run brand.

With the end result, it was very cool to see players sharing their videos with the filter on Instagram, as far too often players become just numbers and statistics especially for developers, who don’t work actively with the community. I created highlights with some of the videos to our Instagram stories and showed them in our weekly meeting internally. The response was overwhelmingly positive with how nice it was for the other developers at Dirtybit to actually see some of our players, as it makes the community more tangible and humanizes the players in a way, making them something more than just statistics.

Try out the final AR filter which has so far gained over 200 000 organic impressions with over 30 000 individual people having taken a picture or a video with the filter here: https://www.instagram.com/ar/764245844052956/.

Thank you for your time, Katriina!

Katriina’s Links: Katriina’s LinkedIn | Katriina’s Twitter | Dirtybit website

WWW Feature by Sophie Brügmann

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Miryam Houali and Diane Landais, Co-Founders of Accidental Queens. Read more about Miryam and Diane in this interview:

Hi Diane and Miryam, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! Your game dev studio “Accidental Queens” was founded over three years ago and is well-known for the “Lost Phone” games, as well as for the game “Alt-Frequencies”. Can you tell us a bit more about your journeys into the games industry as programmer and artist, and how you then became queens “by accident”?

The prototype that would become “A Normal Lost Phone” was developed in 48h at the 2016 Global Game Jam, by Diane Landais (programmer), Elizabeth Maler (writer & game designer), Estelle Charrié (2D artist) and Rafael Martínez Jausoro (writer & game designer). At the time, Diane was a programmer for web and mobile games at a small video game studio, where she had been working for 4 years.

The game was then uploaded to Gamejolt and made available for free: it was so warmly received by players and press alike that the team decided to push the game development forward, and quickly grew with the addition of Simon Bachelier (producer), Miryam Houali (2D artist) and Victoria Guillon (sound designer). Miryam was working as a freelance 2D artist and graphic designer at the time, and seized the opportunity because of the perspective of founding a game development studio if the first title was successful. Elizabeth & Miryam had previously met at ENJMIN (French National School of Games and Interactive Media) where they were both students.

We picked “Accidental Queens” as a team name: “accidental” because the success of our game was unexpected, and “queens” to celebrate the majority of women working on it. A few months later, a crowdfunding campaign was launched on Ulule with an objective of 10,000 € needed to turn “A Normal Lost Phone” prototype into a fully complete commercial game. The campaign was successful: 11,200 € are raised from more than 400 backers around the world. “A Normal Lost Phone” was then signed with publishing partner Plug in Digital, allowing us to receive valuable help on the marketing and distribution, and leaving the team more time to focus on the game’s development. We both relocated to Lille, a city in the north of France where Elizabeth was already living. We started working full time on “A Normal Lost Phone” in our brand new office in Tourcoing, while the other team members continued to work on the game remotely.

“A Normal Lost Phone” was finally released on January 26, 2017 on iOS, Android and PC (Win, Mac, Linux). It was critically acclaimed by press and players alike, and sold more than 100 000 copies in less than 3 months. While the others went back to their respective day jobs and studies, Elizabeth and us officially co-founded Accidental Queens as a company to build on this first success, and started working on a new project: “Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story”, a spiritual sequel to the first game, which followed suit in September 2017 after four months of development with a team of five people. The game was released on September 21, 2017 on iOS, Android and PC (Win, Mac, Linux) and Elizabeth left Accidental Queens shortly after.

We have since then developed and released a third game, “Alt-Frequencies”, and console ports of the Lost Phone games. We are now working on a new, unannounced project nicknamed “Diamonds”.

Your studio is all about creating games that tell stories through unconventional narrative design and mechanics, and deal with topics that most game dev studios or publishers still seem to be reluctant to tackle, especially in “mainstream” games. Which advice would you give to game devs who might be hesitant to tell their story because it doesn’t fit the norm, maybe because they’re afraid of getting exposed to harsh criticism or hate?

Our goal with Accidental Queens isn’t necessarily to “deal with topics that others won’t tackle”. It’s been the case, especially with the Lost Phone series, but we’re less about “swimming against the current”, and more about “being bold and unapologetic” regardless of the exact topics we tackle.

As an indie studio, we have a lot of artistic freedom in how we explore game design and storytelling. We can take risks, experiment, and try new things more easily. We can explore short and simple ideas like “a game entirely taking place inside a radio receiver”. We work with much smaller budgets than AAA productions, so the risks are also lower and we don’t need to appeal to millions of players to stay afloat. We can’t afford everything we need so we occasionally have to compromise on some parts of a game’s development, but never on the resolve and honesty we put in our works. If you need to drop anything, drop the framerate first – heck, drop the gameplay first! – and your identity last. Keep that, front and center, in the way you work and in the final product as well.

There will always be hateful and ignorant people looking to tear down others, but we quickly realized they are a minority, and the positive comments and feedback we have received about our games from people of all walks of life have more than made up for it. We need more diverse and interesting stories told by the very people who experience them so the goalposts for what “fits the norms” can keep being pushed further, until it’s not even a consideration anymore.

Not only do most video games lack diverse stories, but the games industry as a whole still lacks diversity in almost every aspect, too. Do you have any tips for diverse folks where they can find support in pursuing their career in games?

While our industry is still plagued in places by a deeply ingrained toxic culture that can prevent diverse folks from entering it or to feel supported in their career, it’s important to note that we live in a time of cultural shift. A lot of those issues are now discussed publicly, and many professionals and organizations are trying their best to promote diversity in our industry.

Those initiatives are of course always perfectible, it’s a long process, and marginalized folks’ experiences in the video games industry can be wildly different depending on where they live and which big or small studio they worked for.

Though one thing is always true: we are not alone. There are already diverse people working in the industry or aspiring to and it’s crucial to network and support each other. Many communities exist online, from support groups to spaces dedicated to a field of expertise (code, art, etc.) and a lot are welcoming to newcomers and diverse profiles. Networking is important for anyone aspiring to make it in this industry, but even more so for people from diverse backgrounds who might encounter more difficulties on account of who they are.

And while advocacy and community support are important, try not to put more energy into them than into honing your skills (that part is easier said than done, we know!). Hard work is mandatory to make it into any creative industry, and whether you aim at making your own game, joining an indie team, or entering a big AAA studio, you’ll need to be good at what you do! 2020 may have a lasting impact on how to land a job in the games industry, and luck has and will continue to play its role in all of that anyway, but if that’s really what you want to do, please keep trying.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!

Links: Accidental Queens at Twitter | Accidental Queens’ Website 

Photo Credit: (c) La Fille d’à Côté

WWW Feature by Jessica Hackenbroch

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Sabrina Carmona, Executive Producer and Head of Farm Heroes Saga at King. Read more about Sabrina in this interview:

Hi Sabrina! You are working as an Executive Producer and Head of the Farm Heroes Saga at King and have gained many years of experience in game production even before that. Could you tell us a bit more about your journey of getting into the games industry?

Sure thing! Actually, I was into sports when I was growing up – even played tennis professionally for a bit. It was not my passion, but it was something I was really good at. I always loved tech and wanted to work with something creative but I didn’t know exactly what that was. My parents, actually, were the ones that incentivised me to study Game Development – it was a new course in Brazil (where I am from) and the first one of its kind. I signed up for it and studied game making. 

To be honest, at the time, it was not really extensive as it was the first ever class, so I decided to do a Master’s Degree, as I didn’t feel prepared to work with it. In the end, I ended up writing papers and having a blog (I know, I am old) and got hired by a startup as a Designer, eventually moved to be a Producer. At a point, it was super lonely and sometimes even sad to be the only woman around, so I decided to open my own indie studio. It was called MangoLab Studio and I had the best time: worked insane hours, but did it all with passion.

It was the steepest learning curve I ever experienced, but also the most rewarding. We had deals with Blackberry, won several competitions and even got to be considered to be published by SEGA! However I was still very hungry to learn about games and I had a dream of being part of the real industry – successful games that were developed and consumed by the masses.

I moved to Mexico and started working at Square Enix in their Publishing area and there I learned what real mobile games were and what F2P actually meant. I got to work with the Final Fantasy mobile IP and several other amazing titles, with studios across Latin America. I also worked in Chile afterwards, making console games for Activision.

Lastly, moved to Europe and helped set up a studio in Hamburg until I finally landed at King. Started in Sweden working with midcore games and now I am in London leading Farm Heroes Saga.

A lot of people know they want to work in game development, but don’t have an educational background in games and thus think they can’t pursue a career in the industry, or that they lack the necessary skills to do a good job. What advice would you give to someone with those insecurities?

The gaming industry is one of the most inclusive industries we have, also because it is quite a young one. I have people in my team that are graduated in things that are completely different than gaming: fashion, cooking, psychology. We also have people that are not even graduated from University! My advice is that if you are really passionate for games and want to work in the industry, you should go for it. We are welcoming and we are always looking for talent as an industry.

While some companies are putting more and more effort into diversifying their teams, others still see it as too challenging and not worth their time. As a producer, you have been responsible for leading already diverse teams for quite some time now – from your experience, what are the greatest benefits when working with a diverse cast of employees?

To be honest, diversity makes teams stronger. It is a no-brainer. I will use my job as an example to show the value: my job is to make decisions, right? In order to make the best decision, I need as much information and context as possible. In order to do that, I need a good diverse set of information, scenarios and opinions so I understand all possibilities and make the best decision possible. That is just one example, but to be quite frank, making games is creating worlds, characters, gameplay and at the same time solving problems. Diversity plays a big part on this, adding possibilities and perspectives that you probably have never considered. In addition, if you want to make games for a specific target audience or even for a large target audience and different locations across the globe, you’ll benefit from having people that are similar or closer to that target audience.

Thank you for your time, Sabrina!

Sabrina’s Links: Sabrina’s Twitter | Farm Heroes Saga Website 

WWW Feature by Jessica Hackenbroch

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Wendy Young. In her position as Business and Executive Coach at Blue Raven, she helps game studios succeed on many levels. Read more about Wendy in this interview:

Hi Wendy! You are a professional coach, supporting Indie Game Developers in Australia and all over the world. Could you give us some insights into what your work is about?

In a nutshell, we help game studios succeed. What that entails depends on the studio, their particular challenges and their goals. For startups the focus tends to be on establishing basic business practices and creating an alignment between the intentions of all the people involved. Having clarity of direction and intention is really important for making decisions that serve the studio. Established studios often have business processes that are serving them, though they will need to adjust as they scale. The challenges at this level tend to be more about managing and leading people, and fostering a great culture. While it’s possible to function, to an extent, with poor leadership skills and a toxic culture, it can creep up on you and doesn’t end well. No one sets out to create that kind of environment, so being proactive in designing and maintaining the culture of the studio is its own reward. Other benefits include attracting and retaining great staff, and having a low internal cost to being in business. These costs tend to be invisible until a problem is solved and then it’s easy to look back and say, “if we’d done this sooner, this and this would have been different”. Whatever the challenge, the first step is always a conversation, and sometimes awareness is enough for people to resolve a challenge.

With your broad background in Arts and Technology, as well as traditional Project Management, why did you decide to move into the gaming industry sector?

I love the games industry. I love the creative/technical crossover that is normal here, and I love the commitment of developers/creators to their craft. I’ve had a pretty diverse career from researching in linguistics to business analysis to scrum master to my first small business venture, which was a photographic gallery (An unsuccessful photographic gallery, and boy did I learn a lot!) to mother to coach. I feel like all of these disparate experiences have led to this place where I have an ideal skill set to bring to an industry that often isn’t used to thinking of itself in terms of business and has a whole set of challenges that can seem insurmountable from inside while being resolvable with a new perspective and some different skills. I believe that creative people make the world a richer place and that I can help to ensure that their contribution is sustainable and rewarding. I’m always fascinated to see what comes next.

In your opinion, what are the biggest common challenges that Indie Game Devs nowadays find themselves faced with, in order to become successful?

The challenges at different levels in the industry vary. For indie startups, the challenge they think they have is funding: How to have enough money to make their game. This is definitely a problem, especially in Australia where there is very limited funding support for the industry. However, I believe there is a bigger challenge that is often ignored which is: Who is going to play your game? For startups it is pretty common to spend a considerable amount of time making a game before thinking about who would play it. This isn’t a problem if you are a hobbyist or if your motivation is to make ‘that one game’ you’ve always wanted to make without caring about whether it, or your studio, are successful. It’s a very big problem if you are planning on having a successful business. Spending a heap of time making something without any real idea of who would want it is a loaded dice roll, and highly unrecommended from a business success point of view. If you want to have a successful game you must do market research, and it needs to be done up front because the common solution of “we’ll pay to market it” will be a waste of money unless you know who wants it, where they are, and how to tell them about it in a way that resonates with them. Assuming the game is successful, the next challenge is how to stay successful which sounds easy, but there is nothing quite like success to put both relationships, and flimsy systems and processes under strain. Basic business skills are often lacking in a startup because the studio is being used as a place to house the effort of making the game. I believe it’s important to establish as much business infrastructure as necessary, and no more. And be willing to add to the complexity as and when needed. The most important conversation to begin with is around ownership and equity. I generally recommend a dynamic equity split and I suggest that if team members are uncomfortable having a frank conversation about finance, effort and IP, success is going to be very challenging and potentially relationship destroying. Culture is created in both the big conversations and in the day to day minutia of working together. Being proactive in creating a great place to live and work is, I would say, essential to long term success.

Thank you for your time, Wendy!

Wendy’s Links: Wendy’s LinkedIn | Wendy’s Twitter

WWW Feature by Sophie Brügmann

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Sandra Süsser, independent freelance artist and life-loving book author. Read more about Sandra in this interview:

Hi Sandra! You have just recently published a book called Magie der Gewohnheit (Magic of Habits). How did you choose this topic specifically – and would you like to give us a little preview as to why habits are important?

Most people probably associate habits or routines with monotony, “being trapped” and boredom – exactly what we as creative people want to avoid. However, at first, routines are neutral. They are almost automatically occurring ways of thinking and behaving, which is how our brain tries to save mental energy. This is the only way we can deal with so many things at once or one after the other. According to a study, these habits make up at least 50% of all our daily actions. That means we are in autopilot mode half the day. It starts with little things like when and how you wake up (example: Do you press snooze or not?), how healthy you are (example: Do you do sports? What do you eat?), how well you work (example: Are you productive and concentrated or do you constantly look at your smartphone?) and so on.

But your identity is also determined by habits. For example, not only do you smoke (if you do), you ARE a smoker. All areas of life are determined by these mechanisms. So everybody, absolutely everybody, has habits and routines. Therefore the following rule applies: If you do not consciously determine your routines, they will determine you. In the latter case, you then become a slave to your bad habits. A good example of this and also the reason why everybody (creative people) should deal with it, is my own story:

Structure and healthy habits are things that I myself as a creative person have missed out on extremely. The result? When I was no longer in control of my habits (actions & thought patterns), I was no longer in control of myself and my life. I was struggling with severe depression and was about to end my life. Only when I recognized and changed my destructive habits, the rest of my life changed as well. Only through this did I manage to turn my life around 180 degrees. I evolved from an unfocused design student to a successful freelance artist, from a sports grouch to a daily training sports enthusiast; from a pessimist to a practicing optimist; from a whining victim to a realizing doer; from a doubting anxious person to someone, who faces life, despite doubts and fears and from an insecure and depressive suicide candidate to a life-lover. Finally, I wanted others to achieve similar results, not to feel the way I had and see what a massive impact habits can have. That’s why in my book “Magic of Habit” I have finally collected all my experience and accumulated knowledge from all these years and developed a system of three simple steps to help other creative people achieve their personal success – from one creative for creative people.

Many fellow artists share the dream of working independently. What challenges did you have to face along the way and do you have advice for others on how to get started with pursuing self-employment?

The funny thing: I actually didn’t want to become a full-time freelancer in the beginning. I started freelancing on the side, during my studies in 2018. Last October however, I was faced with sexual harassment at my job as a game artist, which made me leave it. At this point, I had to decide whether to search for a new corporate job or to pursue an independent working lifestyle. I decided to take the leap and it’s been a wild ride ever since. I had to deal with problems and challenges of all kinds: how to get my first clients and jobs, how to structure my finances, the problem with my ex-employer, unreliable accountants, expensive hardware failures, printing companies that failed me in many ways (which lead to the delay in the publishing process of my book), harsh critique, now Covid-19 and much more. Still, these and other challenges helped me to grow a lot as an artist and person.

My top advice for others on how to get started with pursuing self-employment would be this: Actually, don’t jump right into it head first. Dip your toes into the water on the side. Obtain contacts and first jobs until you get a reliable income on the side. I was lucky to find a somewhat steady paying collaboration very early on. But if you don’t have any contacts to begin with and no experience in the real world, it won’t work. Spare yourself the grief and the stress. If you need more tips, I have actually written a three-part blog post series (in German), where I dive into this topic in more detail and show artists step by step how they can successfully become self-employed.

Are there significant differences between creating designs and artwork for games versus the non-gaming industry?

Of course! First of all, I mostly do designs for board games and serious games nowadays, since I want to bring joy to people, bring them together or help them grow as a person. In general, my illustrations for the games industry are therefore much more cartoony, colorful, fantasy inspired and just more free spirited than the other designs and artworks I do. I can really show off my drawing skills as well. Clients outside of this area usually want a more „serious and clean“ look to their graphics and have a higher focus on typography and graphic design. Also, there is a much wider range of skills and knowledge I need to have designing games, since I often design whole game sets or very specific parts. I need to know how to design UI elements, characters, environments, props, rule books, logos & icons, creatures, boards, miniatures, playing material etc. – both in 2D and 3D and game design as well. With board games, there is also a bigger challenge of designing things for print specifically and games often have very peculiar parts. This makes the whole thing very demanding but also highly satisfying at the same time: There is always so much left to learn.

Thank you for your time, Sandra!

Sandra’s Links: Sandra’s Website & Blog | Sandra’s Portfolio | Sandra’s Instagram | Sandra’s Youtube Channel

WWW Feature by Sophie Brügmann

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Sarah Longthorne, Narrative Designer at Sumo Digital. Read more about Sarah in this interview:

Hi Sarah! You are working as a narrative designer at Sumo Digital, an award-winning game developer, and have gathered years of experience in this field. Could you tell us a bit more about your journey towards your current position?

Sure! First thing’s first — I’ve always been a writer. Growing up, writing and acting were my ‘thing’, and I pursued both until I finished my studies in 2014, graduating from the University of East Anglia (UEA) with a first-class degree in Scriptwriting and Performance. But past that point, I didn’t know what options were available to me. Film and television were attractive choices, but seemed impossible to get into. Becoming an author was something one had to pursue on the side until they (maybe) became successful. I played games, but knew nothing about the industry; it didn’t occur to me that there were opportunities there for creative writers like myself. So I bounced around in marketing for a few years, thinking I’d become a copywriter, until one day a coworker asked me, “You like video games, right? Why don’t you apply for Jagex?”

Jagex was local, one of perhaps four nearby studios. Looking at the company website, a career in games seemed about as lofty as film or television, but I saw a marketing role I could apply for and went for it. I didn’t have all the required skills, so I took a few days off work to teach myself and ended up landing the job. Once in the studio, I soon clocked that *someone* must be writing this content — in this case, the developers themselves. So I volunteered to pitch in. I contributed RuneScape lore books and took part in game jams and competitions — even winning one. Soon, people were approaching me, and I got my first taste of writing bark lines for Block N Load. By the end of my time at Jagex, I had enough experience for a small portfolio and — with a lot of encouragement from my partner, and much support from my new mentor, Greg Buchanan, whom I’d met through Twitter — I took the leap into freelance.

I was freelance for about two months, and the whole time I was applying for in-house roles and updating my website and portfolio. By the end, I had job offers from UNRD and Fusebox Games, as well as an invitation to a second interview at Wooga. I went for Fusebox, excited for the opportunity to hone my skills writing branching narratives. I worked there on season two of Love Island The Game (as well as the season one reunion) for about nine months before I was headhunted for my current position at Sumo. It was a tough choice to leave because the team was fantastic and I’d had so much fun writing for Love Island, but ultimately, I think, the right one for my career.

A lot of people might confuse narrative design with games writing, or assume that they are the same thing. While writing is a big part of the narrative design role, there is more to it than ‘just’ writing, right? Which are the most striking additional responsibilities a narrative designer has to face?

Games Writing and Narrative Design are two separate roles, but often studios will hire someone to do both tasks under one title, which has been the case for me.

It breaks down like this: the narrative designer literally designs the content that the writer will, well, write. They come up with the premise, then outline (or ‘break’) the story and document everything. They’re asking questions like, “Should we use a cut scene to tell this part of the story, or is there another way we can deliver it that will be less intrusive for the player? Is the narrative complementing the gameplay, or are we dealing with ludonarrative dissonance? Would choices bolster this game and its themes, and if so, what’s the right approach to take with them?” They set the parameters for the writer to work within. After that, the writer’s job is to write, edit, rewrite and re-edit.

Which advice would you give aspiring narrative designers or games writers who maybe doubt their own abilities, or don’t know how to take the first step towards their career goal?

Women generally have more of a tendency to rule themselves out from opportunities where they don’t fit all the criteria. Every step I’ve made in my career has come at the cost of months of coaxing and encouragement because I didn’t think I was good enough. But it is ALWAYS worth applying. Don’t apply, don’t get; do apply… might get. If you rule yourself out, you’re just doing the hiring manager’s job for them. And who knows? They may view you more favourably than you view yourself. As my manager often says, a job advert is a wish list for his perfect candidate; your job is to convince him you come closer to that description than the other candidates, not to check every box.

If you’re unsure about your first step, I recommend reaching out to other devs. Conferences are great, but I personally owe a lot to social media, particularly Twitter. Most devs are a friendly, welcoming bunch. Say hi! You may meet someone willing to set you on the right path. It’s also where you’ll learn about the various available mentorship opportunities! I recommend Limit Break in particular, but individuals will often offer mentorship on their own, too — my own mentor, Greg Buchanan, is one such (keep an eye out for announcements on his Twitter), and there’s recently been an initiative to match aspiring Black devs with mentors. Have a look!

Thank you for your time, Sarah!

Sarah’s Links: Sarah’s Twitter | Sumo Digital Website 

WWW Feature by Jessica Hackenbroch

Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Roxy Dürrmann, who is currently in the middle of her Game Design studies, while also doing an internship at astragon Entertainment. Read more about Roxy in this interview:

Hi Roxy! Let’s start with a very basic question: Why did you choose to join the gaming industry?

Actually, I got in touch with video games relatively late in my life, but then I fell head over heels in love with them. It was the combination of art and high tech that fascinated me from that very moment on. The game that fascinated me at that time was, and I know that it’s quite an obvious choice, The Witcher 3. This game originally sparked this passion in me and meanwhile there are dozens of games, especially indie titles, that inspire and excite me. This admiration has only become more and more intense over the years of my studies when I discovered all the amazing technology hidden behind their beautiful surfaces. It’s great to see what other developers contribute to our branch, with their fantastic ideas, great concepts and finally, their high-quality games.

What motivates you to do your very best every day, specifically in times of lockdowns and work from home?

Currently, my strongest driving force above everything else is my fantastic internship at astragon Entertainment and the opportunity to learn so much here. My amazing colleagues are my biggest inspiration. They are doing a really damn good job and give 120% every day, all despite lockdown and home office. To be able to experience the daily operations of publishing games and to have the chance to learn something is especially valuable to me in the current confusing times. I can only express my luck to work here, while many other students and interns are in a really bad situation, as many of them were not able to start their internships and others lost their student jobs.

Apart from this dark thought, I am always motivated to also give at least 120% and manage to motivate myself with positive thoughts about the happy future after Corona.

In your opinion, which game is most underrated from a Game Design perspective?

This might not be true from the perspective of the gaming industry, but maybe more from a consumer perspective: “The Return of the Obra Dinn” is what I would consider a rather underrated game. In my fourth semester, I developed a game with my team, which was also supposed to be based on detective mechanics and it made me realize how difficult it is to develop these kinds of mechanics. During my research, I came across “The Return of the Obra Dinn” and was excited from the very beginning, how the game manages to engage the player’s imagination and encourage him to think for himself and draw his own conclusions based on the given clues.

Thank you for your time, Roxy!

Roxy’s Links: Roxy’s LinkedIn | Roxy’s Twitter | astragon Entertainment Website

WWW Feature by Sophie Brügmann