Getting Into Games
Let’s start at the very beginning! You were a big fan of games before you considered it for a career, weren’t you? Where did that passion come from?
Funnily enough, my first exposure to video games was similar to the way Beth Harmon discovers chess in The Queen’s Gambit!
A family friend had brought a console around to show my stepdad. I remember seeing a very odd-looking ship on the screen and being amazed by it – I think it was the first game animation I’d ever seen. I sort of burst into the room and asked ‘what’s that game called?’ – just like Beth does with Mr. Shaibel when she first sees chess.
I remember that I didn’t even get to play the game – this mesmerising thing came into my house and then it went away. A few years later my Dad got a NES & then a Sega Megadrive and I finally got to play for myself! That’s where my passion for games took off. I quickly got up to speed with the classics; I adored Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. I spent so much time writing down all of the level codes for DOOM and trying to memorise them.
My college tutor was the first person who made me realise working on games was something I could do as a career. Before then, I’d imagined it as this unobtainable dream-like working in Hollywood or something. I was studying art and he saw my sketchbook and noticed I’d been drawing videogame characters. He said “you should try game design” and I thought, “wow, what’s that?”. I looked into it and discovered a university course in Game Design, so I jumped straight into it. I’m so grateful for the encouragement my college tutor showed me. I could quite easily have ended up in a completely different career.
I love that your passion and curiosity drew you towards games as a dream career. So how did you go from being a student to getting into the games industry?
At 21, fresh out of university, I started sharing my CV with all of the studios I really wanted to work with, but I didn’t hear anything back for ages. It was disheartening and quite a reality check – maybe the games industry really was as far out of reach as Hollywood. After a while of either hearing nothing or receiving cold rejection letters, you start to feel the pressure mounting. The pressure to find a job. The pressure of handling rejection. The extra frustration that comes with not even being able to show your passion and aptitude in an interview. It impacts your confidence, and it becomes harder and harder to back yourself. My advice to anyone in that situation is that you’ve got to keep going and keep building up your portfolio at the same time. Do whatever you can to add new skills and more examples of the work you are capable of!
That’s exactly what I did, all the while applying for available design roles. Eventually, I received an offer of a junior design role, which was a few hundred miles away on the Isle of Wight. It was a long way from home, but it was an opportunity I was excited about, so I packed a suitcase and booked the next ferry there!
It was so daunting and scary at first, to move away from home in pursuit of my dream career, but I’m so glad I did. It gave me the opportunity to work on a huge variety of games and build my skills in lots of areas of design. I also learned to understand different audiences, working on varied games and world-renowned IPs including Happy Tree Friends, Risk: Factions, Carmageddon and Magic: The Gathering.
Years later, and after a break from the industry, I heard about the role at Ripstone. I did some research and could tell right away that they had something special about them. Their track record of creating beautiful simulations spoke for itself, and I was equally as impressed by stories I’d seen on their socials about the culture they promote. That people-first approach genuinely shone through in the interviews I had with them.
Technology moves so fast that I admit I was a little bit apprehensive about coming back. Thankfully, in my interview, I was reminded that I’ll always know how to design a good game – it’s just the tools and technology behind them that change quickly. The technical side can easily be learned so long as you always carry a passion for creating experiences! I’m so grateful that Phil (Gaskell) put his faith in me. I started at Ripstone as a Designer, before becoming Lead Designer about a year later, and since then I’ve become the Lead Designer of The Queen’s Gambit Chess. It’s absolutely been the highlight of my career so far, and a huge moment for me personally. It’s made me reflect on how far I’ve come since that first role all those years ago.
Working on The Queen’s Gambit Chess
How did it feel when the opportunity to work on The Queen’s Gambit came about? I understand you were already a fan.
I fell in love with The Queen’s Gambit as soon as I saw the show on its first weekend! Do you remember the buzz it created? Chess sets were selling out everywhere when it came out! I was one of those people who bought a new set immediately after watching it!
Like a lot of people around the world, I was inspired to learn more about chess. I wanted to put myself in Beth’s position. I wanted to learn the things she learned. I wanted to go on my own journey of discovery and enlightenment and come out of it feeling changed. So when the opportunity came for us to work on the game I was overjoyed. With our incredible success with Chess Ultra and our passion for chess, I was already so confident that we were the right team to take it on. It was a dream moment for me. I’m hugely proud of what we’re working on. I know that players will instantly feel that connection to the show and I can’t wait to be able to tell you more.
Another part of the appeal for me is that, when watching the show, I realised I could relate to Beth Harmon on an emotional level. Just like Beth’s relationship with chess, I’m a woman that’s fascinated by the way games and the culture around them work – I’m sure other women in the games industry can relate to that too. Beth is often as intuitive as the people around her but, because she doesn’t know all of the technicalities of chess and she’s a woman in this male-dominated space, she sometimes feels out of place. The incredible thing about her is that she doesn’t let that define her or slow her down. I can relate to that experience from my early years as a designer.
Joining Women In Games
Those parallels with Beth Harmon are fascinating. Over the course of your career, have you found any industry role models?
This is going to sound sad – but growing up I didn’t have any role models! There were designers I admired, but there wasn’t enough representation of women like myself in design roles at the time. I’m sure there were some incredible women designers out there but they were very rarely front and centre.
Recently, people like Marie-Claire Isaaman (CEO of Women In Games) and Gina Jackson (OBE, industry thought leader and founder of SKILLfull) have both inspired me to do more to represent women in games. So, even though I didn’t find someone I could look up to early in my career, I’ve now got this circle of amazing women in the industry that I look up to in different ways.