IGEA Celebrates International Women and Gender Diverse Day 2025

The theme for International Women’s Day 2025 is “Accelerate Action”.

Each year IGEA likes to celebrate and expand upon International Women’s Day, branching out to include gender diverse people to recognise that marginalisation that occurs across many genders.  This year to mark the occasion, we are celebrating women and gender diverse people in our membership, working across all areas of the local video games industry by profiling them on our website.

We think it’s important to showcase the people behind the products and also the types of roles available in the industry with a view to inspire the next generation of women and gender diverse people considering a career in games.

This is an updated version of last years resource, which we intend to have grow year-on-year!

In the spirit of inclusion this is open to women both cis and trans, as well as gender diverse people.

Additionally, we have seen some amazing statistics coming out of Australia regarding gender diversity, both in who makes games and who plays them.

To download a PDF of this infographic to use or print, click here.

If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please reach out to Sav (sav@igea.net) or Raelene (raelene@igea.net). Otherwise, please read on for our showcase!

Irina Andreev

Tell us about your job:

Why Games?

What is your favourite game?

Liz Ballantyne

Tell us about your job:

Everyday I work with our crazy-talented team, encouraging new ideas and processes to make games that not only look good but feel good too. How we make games is just as important to me as the games we make – ensuring our team feels supported, with space to create and confidence to share ideas, big, small, and out of this world!

I also mentor on various programs, from students to leads, and serve as an industry representative on the QUT Industry Advisory Board for Games and IT and the Screen Queensland Equity and Diversity Taskforce. Fostering and supporting diverse talent to not only survive but thrive!

Why Games?

I remember spending hours as a kid creating art and music in Mario Paint on the SNES! The little mouse trackpad, combined with the playful Mario-themed sprites, had me hooked! Years later, I started working as a Graphic Designer, and after graduating, I found my way to the wonderful world of games. But I often think of Mario Paint as a gentle nudge in the right direction!

The playfulness of games in their creation is what has stayed with me and what I enjoy the most. Having friends to make and play games with is pretty great too!

What is your favourite game?

Little Big Planet

Molly Campbell

Tell us about your job:

Well, I write a lot of emails! At IGEA, I am responsible for the organisational operations of the company as well as assisting with webinars, GCAP, AGDAs and all other events that IGEA hosts. My average day consists of meetings and task tackling and no two days are the same. I’m lucky to be in my position at IGEA because every enquiry we get is unique and exciting. I learn more and more about Industry everyday and enjoy meeting our members across Australia and New Zealand.

Why Games?

Video Games were a big part of my childhood. I have so many fond memories repeatedly playing CTR with my family and giggling every time my parents hit a wall. Games bring so much joy to households and this industry is so diverse and vast, that I have loved meeting those who make and play games. Turns out, it’s everyone!

What is your favourite game?

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Katherine (Kitty) Grace

Tell us about your job:

The great thing about my role is that there is very rarely an average day, it is an ever moving cog that eventually spits out a three-day kick ass gaming show. As Content Lead at PAX AUS it is my job to make sure there is cool and engaging activities to do at the show outside of the Expo Hall. I work with communities, developers and brands to deliver panel content over 9 theatres, and 6 community lead rooms, the Cosplay Central Crown Championship, our Storytime Speaker, special guests you name it! I also manage PAX AUS content areas such as the Console Freeplay/Tournament area, PC Freeplay/Tournament area, SpeedRunning Stage, Handheld, Classic Gaming, TableTop, VR, Foyer Games, Bandland, Omegathon, honestly there is so much more I cannot list them all! I also have the privilege of curating PAX AUS Indie Showcase and Collaboratory. Both put a spotlight on Australian and New Zealand talent. It makes me really proud to showcase the talent across ANZ! I also support our Strategic Account Managers and Marketing Team to curate all experiences at the show. The heart of what we do is to make the Badge holders have a memorable weekend, and seeing those smiles make all the hard work worth it!

Why Games?

I held my first SNES at the rip age of 4 years old and I thought, wow this is cool. Until the age of 8 I had a brief bush with the belief I would be a princess when I “growed up” but swiftly decided I would be very bored and really didn’t enjoy wearing dresses. When I was in my teens a family friend who worked in Marketing asked me about games and it was then, I decided I too would pursue a career in marketing video games. Marketing morphed into Public Relations which then lead me to content. The glue of all these movements has always been gaming and community. Whenever I feel stuck or unmotivated I think of the little girl who held that controller and how dang cool she’d think I was today.

What is your favourite game?

Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was the first RPG I remember playing that invoked emotion. The fear and discomfort of leaving Saria on the Bridge from Kokiri Forest to the big bad Hyrule, the trials of the dreaded Water Temple and the incredible stories of the characters we meet along the way. It was also the first Video Game OST I saw live at the Opera House. It is a popular classic which may sound like a basic answer but for me it will always remind me of the moment I fell in love with games.

Riley Hanlin

Tell us about your job:

I have the awesome job of creating 3D environments for our studio. Whether it’s a crafting bench, a collection of plants or even a cosy building for one of our characters, I’m on it. My day is always a little bit different depending on what I’m working on, but the process usually starts with collecting reference images and then formulating a prototype model in Maya for the team to look at. Once a model has been approved, I polish it all up, texture it in Substance and Photoshop, then set it up in Unity, ready for the programmers!

But that’s just the pipeline for model creation. I also spend a lot of time reading through our character bios and thinking of ways I can tell stories through the pieces that I’m making, giving them as much personality as I can. I’m never working on one thing for too long though – you wear many hats in an indie studio! There’s plenty of jobs to do in Unity like creating collision, navigation meshes and foliage wind effects. I even got to make outfits for our main character, as well as a duck! I have too many programs and internet tabs open every day!

Why Games?

I always knew I wanted to make games! Games have played a huge role in my life. As kids my brother and I would sit in front of the telly with our consoles for hours, coming up with our own games-within-games or even just playing the same demos on discs over and over again. We often had game nights where the whole family would bicker over Mario Kart, laugh at You Don’t Know Jack and make endless notes for puzzles in The Neverhood. Games really bring everyone together!

I also drew a lot as a kid. I was constantly creating characters and creatures, making up the worlds they lived in, what magical powers they had. I did think I’d go into character design but when I got my hands on 3D at 17 there was no turning back. I fell in love with environments. The fact that I could create my own worlds felt so exhilarating—there’s limitless potential for creativity in games. There’s always been something so special and magical about exploring a new world for the first time and I love that I can create that experience for others.

What is your favourite game?

The Neverhood

Jane Kennington

Tell us about your job:

As Game Director, I’m overseeing and constantly re-evaluating the production and timelines of our game, Incolatus, to make sure it hits marketing beats and can be released on time. In the dev sense, I’m playing the game every day with every change that is made and evaluating the ‘fun’ factor, suggesting and debating changes and improvements to the core loop with the team. On the business side, I’m applying for grants, talking with publishers, and having weekly meetings with our marketing manager to make sure we’re getting our name out there.

As 3D Generalist, which is my other main job, I’m creating and rigging 3D models, UV mapping, creating textures and materials for them, designing levels and environments and bringing the whole visual aesthetic together.

I like to say that I do everything except for programming and music. As a new studio working on our first project; if there’s something that needs to get done, I’ll find a way. This includes odd jobs like graphic design, website design, UI design, writing dialogue, video editing, sound effect creation, presskit creation, voice acting, font creation, occasional bug fixes etc etc. While I would like to have a dedicated person for all these jobs, of course, we all know the idea ‘we wear many hats in Indie.’ That’s how it is at the moment.

Outside of Funny Fintan Softworks I’m the Vice Chair of the WA Games Industry Council (name change pending from Let’s Make Games) which means I oversee and am involved with many matters affecting the local industry, at the moment I’m collaborating with a local anime/art themed convention to get our local games on display, it’s all about supporting the games projects coming out of WA.

Why Games?

I actually kind of fell into it. My original interest was in film and CGI, which led me to learning effects and 3D programs. In year 10, I was in a project management class and assigned the task ‘create a project that you can manage over time.’ My friend asked if we could create a videogame, I said ‘I don’t know.’ So we googled it. Turns out my skills in CG and film helped get us a start.

I didn’t initially care too much for the project, until I played Doom 2016 for the first time and then Eternal the week it came out. I was like ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever played, why isn’t the art style and world of Destiny made into a gameplay loop like this.’ Thus the original idea for our mix of gameplay and art styles. Now there was a game I WANTED to make.

The idea from the teacher was that we’d be managing the project over the course of that year, but we ended up making a 3-year plan for a videogame that we could take to publishers/screen agencies to get a job. That wasn’t the original intention, but it’s one that grew after months and years of iteration, realising we had a real shot of turning this into a career.

Turns out it worked! In our fifth year of production, I’m the only one left from that original student team, but people drift apart in life and have different priorities.

What is your favourite game?

Doom Eternal

Victoria Kershaw

Tell us about your job:

My job is super varied! We are a small team, so our marketing department is essentially me with support from a community manager. When preparing to launch Wylde Flowers, I worked on things like naming the game, briefing and guiding the creation of our logo, starting all our social media profiles and community spaces, briefing things like trailers & our website, community content planning, reaching out to press and working with game content creators.

My role boils down to lots and lots of communicating, whether that is through copy, or visuals. I’m passionate about all comms being simple, clear and accessible to as many folks as possible! Things that are part of my everyday are: EMAILS, checking in with our community and replying to fans, planning sales, lots of writing and cooking up schemes to make people care about our cutie game!

Why Games?

I’ve been chronically online as long as I can remember, spending time in online spaces and online games like Neopets, Runescape, Second Life, and Gaia Online. Games felt like a natural fit, as like me, it’s playful and creative.

I love so many parts of my role, but I especially love working with artists to make beautiful things for our community, as well as creating merch!

What is your favourite game?

Online Game: NEOPETS (Always and forever) Console: Banjo Kazooie on N64

Raelene Knowles

Tell us about your job:

I’ve been working in games for longer than I care to remember. I love working at IGEA and it’s an honor to be a part of this vibrant and creative industry and be constantly inspired by all of our community and stakeholders My role is to ensure we provide value for members and the broader industry through the provision of services and projects across our 4 main pillars – Advocate, Educate, Create and Celebrate.

I look after our events, our research projects, our communications and am across all of our member services. My days are varied and interesting and whilst some of the projects seem the same when we deliver them annually, they are always different due to the nature of working in a dynamic industry.

Why Games?

I love the opportunity to engage with so many different stakeholders both internally and externally to IGEA to highlight the power of games. When I started almost 15 years ago, we had a couple of issues under management – now we probably have 12+, alongside many other deliverables. The work is interesting, sometimes very challenging and I’ve loved to see our industry grow, our membership grow and of course our team grow as well. The people we represent are great people and the work they produce is inspiring.

What is your favourite game?

Don’t judge – Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Lara Low

Tell us about your job:

A little bit of everything! My main role is to lead the production elements on PAX, which means I am across the majority of the event and heavily involved with the management of our wonderful enforcer community. You will find my team as the first team you see at the info booth when you enter the event. We are the first point of contact for all our exhibitors and customers, you know when you email that info email address – that’s us!

Why Games?

I didn’t look for a gaming role specifically. Through a number of circumstances, I came into this role and have loved every minute. I am a big board gamer and love sitting around with friends and family to play any board game!

What is your favourite game?

Eldritch Horror

Skye Lavelle

Tell us about your job:

I’m typically bouncing between art and marketing tasks throughout the day – one minute I’m making menu concepts and the next I’ll be writing a newsletter. I’m responsible for creating design briefs or concepting new ideas for our small team, but also updating our socials and making new marketing materials.

I just love the process of creating, regardless of whether it resides inside or outside the game! As someone still new to the industry, I really enjoy pushing myself to learn two disciplines and how they complement each other!

Why Games?

I’ve always been drawn to games. To me, videogames are the ultimate storytelling device, an infinite source to explores narratives through so many different visual and interactive experiences. And as an artist it’s just a perfectly endless way to develop new styles and skillsets.

Plus with my ever-increasing love for immersive sims, the more I play, the more I appreciate game development and become inspired to see how much I can grow!

What is your favourite game?

Prey (2017)

Michela Ledwidge

Tell us about your job:

Running Mod means juggling art, science and business and there’s no average day. Too many hats. On a good day I’ve got a finely balanced diet of research, time on the tools experimenting, adding features or tweaking while trying not to break things, playtesting builds, running our all-important standup meeting, and trying to stay connected to the wider world who enable and help us do what we do.

Why Games?

I’ve been making games and tools since the Commodore 64 but it’s only been relatively recently that the kind of cinematic interactive entertainment I dreamed of has become a creative and commercial reality. “Game” is a such a convenient short hand for interactive and immersive entertainment more broadly. There are easier ways to make a living but there’s so much satisfaction in the process of crafting something new. There aren’t many areas of life where all my interests converge like this and I feel very lucky to run a true indie. My favourite part of the gig is getting stuff made and into the hands of people who enjoy it.

What is your favourite game?

The Last Of Us

Caitlin Lomax

Tell us about your job:

Running my own studio I get to put so many different hats on! Most of the time I’ve got my Producer hat on and I’m wrangling Jira tickets, chasing deliverables, milestone reports, pitch decks and checking builds. The cool thing about the way we do things is that I get to be across a few projects at once. I love the challenge of understanding the different ways each team is working and planning out the dependencies between all the tasks and resources.

Alot of our projects are using emerging technology and I get to use my programming background to create R&D plans & build prototypes of things that not many people are doing yet, it’s really exciting!

Why Games?

Christmas 2000 – My sister and I got beanbags and a Playstation 1. I think we played a mix of Crash Bandicoot and Mary Kate & Ashley’s Magical Mystery Mall non-stop until we had to go back to school. I knew I loved games but I grew up in a regional town in WA where there was nowhere to learn to make games. It wasn’t until I was 13 and my addiction to The Sims was out of control that my Dad got me a book, “Game Programming for Teens”. I had to earn time on The Sims by spending time learning to code. I just got addicted to learning to code instead! I never pursued programming professionally, but the knowledge came in really handy to get my first job in games as a Producer. I love how there’s so much to consider when making a game across so many different skillsets and the collaboration that it takes.

What is your favourite game?

Bust-a-groove

Kiera Lord

Tell us about your job:

I’m pretty socially focused for a programmer. Usually I’d start a morning by wrapping up whatever I had left over from the day before and then check in with whoever’s using whatever I’ve been working on recently to see if there’s anything that needs changing or fixing.

My favorite thing is getting problems where I can deep dive and learn new things. These happen occasionally but it’s great fun digging deep into systems or engines and finding out why something works the way it does.

Why Games?

Honestly there really wasn’t a choice. I was one of those kids who at age 9 discovered programming, decided I wanted to make games and everything else was a straight line from there. It was a hobby from childhood and then a job from 2005 onwards.

I’ve done a few games adjacent jobs of the years but it’s never been the same. I know it’s not for everyone, but for me… I’ve never found anything else as satisfying or rewarding as working on games.

What is your favourite game?

Neverwinter Nights

Emma Losin

Tell us about your job:

An average day in my roles as a producer and product manager usually entails a range of planning, organisation and ideation with the director and the development team.
My role in production consists of a lot of planning ahead, communication and organising necessary meetings such as sprint planning and retros. Miro and product management software are my best friends at work. One of my highest priorities is the health of the team and taking on feedback from individual team members and the team as a whole to optimise our production processes and customise them to meet the specific needs of our team and project. Being able to provide the team with opportunities for these kinds of discussions is important for people to feel heard, but more important that is following through with recommendations and promises I have made to the team as well as providing updates. It would be unfair of me to expect team members to report to me or others on their tasks without responding with the same kind of transparency.

One of the joys of my role is working with individual team members to understand their areas of expertise and their career goals. This means where possible, I am able to help them work towards their future ambitions by allocating them tasks that are relevant to them, suggesting training and working with people who are experts in the areas they want to learn. I believe that letting experts be experts as well as providing clear pathways to future ambitions where possible is imperative for team health. I get to know individuals in my team through one on ones as well as encouraging open and honest discussion in our retrospective meetings.

Working between the director and marketing is another enjoyable part of my job. It is important to have an understanding of a range of topics when working in an indie company or a smaller team. Part of my background relied on understanding demographics, game analytics and player behaviour and using these skills to make suggestions and recommendations. I also thoroughly enjoy being a part of pitching processes, either projects or the game design and paper prototype workshops that Catalyst holds in the community. Designing and facilitating workshops is also part of my role and I am very proud of our contributions and accomplishments in this area. Our team members have brought valuable industry knowledge to workshop participants and I love being able to do the same.

In game development, especially in small teams, there is rarely an average day. Preproduction, production and post production stages can feel very different, but they are markers of progress. Displaying our game at events is another highlight. I always look forward to the first time I see the new build as all of the hard work from every member in the team is so evident.

Why Games?

What is your favourite game?

Portal 2

Emma McCaw

Tell us about your job:

As a QA Analyst, I test game functionality as well as reproduce and document defects found within software to ensure they meet the user’s needs and the client’s requirements. I design and maintain documentation to ensure adequate test coverage and consistency for the developing product.

Why Games?

I love the intricacies of game testing and development. Games are a way for people to escape reality, engage in fun activities alone or with friends, and use the space to look after their mental health. Games allow players to forge their own experiences at their own pace and learn new life skills or improve overall knowledge. This is what makes games fascinating, and I love being a part of this unique medium. One of the things I love about my job as a QA Analyst is having the opportunity to detect and report experience-altering defects before they reach the end user.

What is your favourite game?

That is a tough question to answer as I have too many favourite games. But a game that I will always return to is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I love Skyrim for its vast, explorable map, hidden secrets, fun gameplay mechanics, dragons, intriguing narrative, and never-ending replayability.

Sorcha Millican-Nagle

This one is special – we have a full video for you to enjoy!

Renee Mott

Tell us about your job:

Why Games?

What is your favourite game?

Kayla Panozzo

Tell us about your job:

At Riot Games Sydney, I manage a team of ~7 developers who create exciting new features for Valorant. Most of my job is making their lives as easy as possible. Normally that is brainstorming ways to solve hard technical problems, pushing for product decision to be made in meetings and sometimes even writing code. I just love being able to enable game developers to create their best work and work closely with the US Valorant teams to make it the best game for players that it can be.

One part of my job I enjoy is solving hard problems. The games industry provides very unique but challenging problems – everything has to scale to millions of concurrent users and sometimes thing are very subjective (e.g. something just doesn’t feel right). This means that I am always faced with new challenges to try and solve and it keeps life interesting. On top of that people management adds another level of complexity to my work. Everybody has different experiences and react to different scenarios in unique ways. Working through this with people and helping people grow is very rewarding. I really want everyone to enjoy their job and be the best they can be and I am privileged to help people do that everyday.

Why Games?

Games are a great way to make new friends, be creative or help you get through a hard time. I love being able to make something that is such a big part of people’s lives and games have helped me many times when I just needed to escape from the hardships that life throws your way. On top of that, games have always been a big part of my life – it was a way for me to connect with my family and friends. As a child, at every family barbeque you could find me and my cousins playing Spyro, Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bash or Guitar Hero. Now that I work in games, I pretty much live, breathe and sleep games. I play Valorant at work, cozy games after work and then cooperative games on the weekend with friends. So once I left the finance industry and was looking for a different industry to move to, games was the obvious choice and I was just luckily enough to join the Australian games industry. I am very excited to see the industry grow so that more people have the chance to join us.

What is your favourite game?

Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer

Kirsty Parkin

Tell us about your job:

I run Supaglu, an employment agency specifically for the games, VFX and animation industry in Australia. Together with my amazing team, I work to help our studio clients find the best Australian talent, with the right skills and experience, to help them complete their projects and build their businesses. We work with studios all over Australia, and find freelance and permanent/contract staff. For example, we find work for experienced 2D and 3D artists, tech and VFX artists, production staff, developers and engineers, game designers and also associated support roles like marketing people and business development leads. We also work in “games adjacent’ industries – industries that might need the skills of people with a game development background. We also spend as much time as we can giving to the industry – attending and sponsoring events, and working to improve things for everyone as much as possible.

Why Games?

I’ve been playing games since the late 1980s. Our family bought a Commodore 128, and my brother got given a game called The Bard’s Tale. I was transfixed – there was, finally, a cartoon you could play, even if you had to type each command! I have never stopped playing RPGs, and later MMORPGS in all their various forms. I’ve worked in training, education and talent acquisition for many years – first in advertising and design in the 00’s, then in games and VFX in the teens. When I was a girl, I never believed it would be possible to work in the games industry. We’ve come a long way.

What is your favourite game?

Breath of the Wild. And also World of Warcraft, back in the day :) And also all the Civilizations.

Kathy Smart

Tell us about your job:

Part of having a creative career is living with financial ups and downs. At present I teach part-time at SAE Creative Media Institute to fund my studio. I really enjoy supporting students as they grow so amazingly in their own creative lives, but I am always wanting to get back to making my own games.

When I am in my home studio I have to spend a disproportionate amount of time on admin, because social media and BAS statements still exist even for studios marking time while they build up capital.

My production work right now involves liaising with one totally blind QA tester in the US and another in Poland and one programmer working remotely, while we make my current game more accessible to players.

My creative work is when I have the best time, making small improvements to scenes in my current game in Unity. I get lost to the world, making sprites move, rotate and change size or colour, then saving the changes one way, checking them, saving them another way, checking them, and, you guessed it, building the game and checking them again. I work on characters, props, background cut-outs, UI buttons, sound, text, and menu settings. My next patch will be a big one. It will look much the same to players but will incorporate thousands of small changes.

I also attend Adelaide game developer events, which are bigger every year. We have the support of IGEA which has completely changed the landscape for game developers in Australia. I speak to so many indies who are aiming for ScreenAustralia funding, brought about by IGEA lobbying. I personally have used IGEA contract templates, and I benefited from IGEA mentoring.
So… back to the job!

Why Games?

I have a Masters in Creative Writing and I have written stories all my life. I have also played games all my life. I used to organise children’s parties, I have attended bridge tournaments, I was in the school chess club, my whole teen social set thrived on board games, I played Carmen Sandiago then Halo with the kids, and I had to take Microsoft games off my PC because I was playing them too much. However I had never thought to combine my two passions until I attended a seminar by Professor Christy Dena whom WritersSA brought down from Brisbane. Dr Dena showed us the powerful emotions that games can elicit and I was overwhelmed with ideas. I signed up to study game design at AIE and I’ve never looked back.

What is your favourite game?

My own game, of course! Frog’s Princess.

April Trapp

Tell us about your job:

Why Games?

What is your favourite game?

Jhenne Tyler

Tell us about your job:

A typical day for me involves lots of reading, even more writing, and thankfully not too much arithmetic (though I’ve fallen into the habit of creating lots of character and plot tracking timelines for future-me to reference.)

I’ve always enjoyed doing a little bit of everything when it comes to creative pursuits, and narrative design (especially at a studio of this size) is divinely aligned with my attention span. There’s a little of everything! One day could involve developing quests, character arcs, and penning dialogue, the next might focus on item descriptions, flavor text, and barks, or sitting in on and assisting with VO sessions, or clarifying in-script wordplay and puns for localization, or a million other micro-adventures.

Inter-team communication and collaboration is a constant; I ping-pong between the studio’s art, animation, and marketing peeps the most, and remain armed with plenty of moodboards for the ultimate visual learner vibe curation/story conveyance. (Sometimes, I end up simply marveling at the art– I file these moments under “inspiration-finding and brainstorming”.) After a successful outfit dubbing endeavor, I have also been giving the hilariously vague-yet-distinct task of “naming things”; if an in-game item needs a cute n’ cozy moniker, I’m your gal.

Basically, narrative design means donning whatever storytelling hat helps bring our game to life!

Why Games?

Naturally I grew up playing all manner of games (shoutout Super Mario 64 and my much beloved elementary school Oregon Trail days) but I slid into the gaming industry somewhat sideways; freelance TTRPG writing gigs and phone storage weighed down with mobile games turned into me wondering if my fav episodic story game was hiring. They were; I applied by harnessing the delicate balance of a serious business word-nerd résumé and a dorkily effusive cover letter promising curated ship playlists and a commitment to making players wail and/or squee as necessary, and ended up landing the position!

It’s a fantastic ride. I have a degree in Media Studies and had gotten used to looking at the medium from an analytical, academic perspective, so going from player to creator has been such a fun and fascinating experience. I’m grateful to have the chance to move the needle forward in terms of representation– I want to center stories and people that aren’t often under the spotlight– things I’d personally always hoped to see not just included, but highlighted and treated with care.

What is your favourite game?

Heavenly Sword (2007)

Camille Woodthorpe

Tell us about your job:

As a (usually) solo developer I’ll wear many hats of game development – from programming, to art, to design, to marketing, and even some audio. Despite being experienced in managing Agile development teams, my own game projects are managed with simple priorities. Most of my day is comprised of doing hands-on development and programming in Unity or making pixel art in Aseprite. Being a solo developer is challenging in that the responsibility and ownership falls entirely on yourself, but that is also where you can take immense joy from your creations and where you take them!

Why Games?

I grew up playing games a lot with my 3 brothers, and was very creative from a young age – first, writing my own stories, then making pixel art in Microsoft Paint, then learnt Photoshop to do a lot of editing, all whilst playing and being inspired by games. Games was the perfect medium to practise all these areas of my creativity in the one place, in a medium which I loved. So I studied game development at Uni and have been doing it ever since.

What is your favourite game?

Tough question – maybe Pokemon Red on Gameboy or Zelda Oracle of Seasons