“Ceiling-smashing, see-it-to-be-it badass”
-Marie Claire
My compulsion is to take everything apart and put it back together just to see how it works. My strength is in being able to see beyond genres, beyond art and platform and IP, directly to the building blocks of any system.
And with the right materials? You can build anything.
Consulting
I’m a hiring manager who’s spoken extensively on how to find, hire and retain women and marginalized people in the game industry. I’ve led live operations and monetization strategy on some of the biggest F2P games in mobile history. I’ve worked on gamification projects for Cedars-Sinai, Starbucks, and the LA Dodgers. I’ve consulted on serious games for the Nike Foundation and the Ford Foundation. If there’s something I can help you with, get in touch.
Independent Game Design
In my spare time, my passion is making independent games that are personal and that revolve around connection: between players, between players and the designer, and connecting the player to themselves. This includes Deadbolt, a 2012 Indiecade award nominee that I've brought to conferences around the United States and Europe, including the SAAM Arcade at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
Writing
When I'm not making games, I write essays about personal experience, the game industry, and pop culture. I've written for OZY, The Billfold, and Gamasutra, and I was a contributor at The Yearbook Office. I’ve also contributed to multiple anthologies about the game industry.
My book Empathy Engines: Design Games That Are Personal, Political, and Profound released in early 2017.
Speaking Requests
Over the years, I've given dozens of talks at conferences and universities around the United States and Europe. I've talked about topics like how to fall back in love with what you do, why you should make games that scare you, and how to support and hire marginalized people. I’ve also appeared on a number of podcasts as an expert, including Masters of Scale with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
No gluing together of partial studies of a complex nonlinear system can give a good idea of the behavior of the whole.
— Murray Gell-Mann