The Women Behind the Games We Play
If you’re outside the world of gaming, it can feel very abstract. My gaming life ended in my teen years when Sims 3 killed the family computer. But did you know that 54% of the UK population play games “on most days”? Yet they might not call themselves ‘gamers’.
Video gaming is often considered a male dominated platform, however recent studies show that there’s an even split between men and women who identify as ‘gamers’. So half of UK gamers are women... Why did I not know this?!
image from unsplash
Obviously, there are big brains behind these games - both digital and ‘real world’. I got the chance to speak with four women who shape the gaming industry in their respective roles.
Tasha Crozier is a technical animator at Frontier - a video game company which created two BAFTA-nominated games and has sold millions of copies. She codes and creates tools to assist the animation team’s workflow, as well as helping with technical issues. She started working for Frontier in Quality Assurance, before moving to Art Support to where she is now.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOUR JOB?
Definitely helping out and being there for the team. It’s fun and satisfying to problem solve, whether it’s figuring out how a tool should work, or why a strange issue is appearing in a game. It’s the best feeling when you can make someone’s day by helping them overcome something that was causing them trouble.
Another Frontier employee, Megan Brown, works as a gameplay programmer. This means she brings a game’s design to life by coding it’s key mechanics.
WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL EXACTLY?
We try to create a player experience that is as close to our combined vision of the game as possible. Working on a current game titled ‘Planet Zoo’, my job has been to implement the animal design. This has included everything from how and when animals herd to the frequency and size of each animal’s poop!
Megan Brown
After finishing a Masters in biology, Megan decided to veer off from a science-based career and instead pursued another field she was really passionate about - video games! She was hired as an intern at Frontier where she was trained from scratch before getting started on project work.
THAT’S AN INTERESTING CHANGE OF CAREER CHOICE BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE IN YOUR ELEMENT.
Yeah, I love the work and I’ve never looked back! No day is ever the same because being a gameplay programmer means having to solve problems for many different departments.
I also spend a lot of my time not just implementing design but discussing it too. Some of my favourite mornings are when I grab a coffee with the design team then hash out a complex feature for the next few hours. I love working collaboratively and find it so rewarding once the design is actually implemented and looking fantastic in-game!
But gaming doesn’t just happen on a screen. Ever done an Escape Room and thought “wow - this is really well thought out” whilst questioning your own intelligence trying a combination lock for the umpteenth time?
Well, one brain behind this scenario is game designer Mink Ette. As well as the ‘real world’ stuff, Mink has designed for alternate reality games, board games and computer games. She’s also designed for immersive theatre company Punchdrunk.
DESIGNING MUST DIFFER DEPENDING ON THE GAME, THEN?
Of course. Board games are mainly about conveying the rules clearly while for Escape Rooms and ARGs, I’m creating a story world. For computer games, there's the writing behind creating and maintaining the Game Design Document (which is the blueprint for the whole game) and then there is the writing that the players will interact with - the dialogue, instructions, plot etc.
Mink studied Product Design at university, but like Megan, decided to delve more seriously into her own gaming hobby. After volunteering for set building for a Punchdrunk show, Mink was inspired by the company’s ambitious work and began making her own games and theatre.
She went on to work with Coney, another interactive theatre-making company, before finding her way to a full-time job creating Alternate Reality Games. “In hindsight, everything was leading up to creating Escape Rooms,” she says “but those wouldn't exist until 2013!”
CAN YOU TELL ME ONE OF THE BEST BITS OF YOUR JOB?
Writing for Escape Rooms I often get to see, in person, the players react to what I've written and play things out. My favourite thing is seeing people experiencing genuine joy or relief that they don't even know I scripted for them to feel.
(Mink Ette ‘in action’, photo credit: Sam Wray)
Similar to a designer, a writer creates the dialogue, characters and narratives which drive the story of a game. Emily Short does exactly this for her work in games and new media. She says that the writer “might also be inventing the backstory and setting of a world or designing a plot arc — complete with multiple endings depending on what the player chooses to do”.
Emily began writing small games as a hobby and was noticed by the game industry which led her onto her professional work. She adds “it’s possible to go to school to learn game writing, but a lot of people are self-taught as well”.
As with the job roles above, there’s something to be said for following your passion over what you feel ‘qualified’ for; writing for games has undoubtedly led to a successful career for Emily.
TO FINISH OFF WITH - EMILY, WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
I love writing for a medium where the audience has some input into how the story goes, and can even choose what they want to explore next.
It’s easy to forget that behind the Escape Rooms, the Animal Crossings and the Cluedos, that there’s a team of people scripting dialogue, crystallizing graphics, and mapping out the journey for you - the player.
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Written by Annabel Chadwick
