IT'S HER GAME

Let's start celebrating Women's History Month with an awesome women who has been contributing for years to the development of one of the top performing sport mobie game - Fishing Clash. Eliza Chyży, Game Designer from Ten Square Games, is a living definition of passion for game design, natural challenger who is not afraid to test, design and improve on the way to creating gaming blockbusters. Tune in to get to know a few tips on how to approach game design, the importance of storytelling in mobile, and last but not least - discover the story behind Eliza's passion and success. You can't miss this episode if you consider working in gaming, but still don't know which path to choose or live under the spell of ' mobile is not fun to design', if anything, Eliza can twist your mind on that!

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Check career opportunities at Ten Square Games: https://tensquaregames.com/career/

Sophie Brugmann, Team Lead Live Producing at Gameforge has started her job in the way we now often only see in the movies - by finding the offer in the newspaper. From Inter Game Evaluation, through the roles of specialist her roles led her to...an IKEA chair and shared Excel in the Kolibri when she led operations for the newly formed, ye soon to be leading, mobile game developer. She later progressed production roles that led her to the current position of Team Lead Live Producing at Gameforge. Still not sure if gaming allows for a flexible career and defining your own path through it? Well, listen to my conversation with Sophie! 

Jessica Sundell is a Creative Lead & Lead Product Designer at Hatch Entertainment. I couldn't imagine myself interviewing a better guest than Jessica after finishing the last episode with Natalia Martinsson's advice - If you want to succeed you need to lose your fear.

Jessica Sundell most definitely did lose her fear when she decided to swap the established position in the world of creative agencies for the new land of the gaming industry. With a strong artistic background, but no prior experience in game design, she was not afraid to aim high! So what was her key to Rovio's door and the decade-long career in the creative roles in gaming? How did she implement her skills and adapt to new roles working on Angry Birds, The Walking Dead, and now Hatch Kids?

Listen to this episode to find out and get a lot of insights on the Creative roles in gaming and managing creative teams!

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Say hello to Natalia Martinsson, Killmonday Games Game Designer and CEO.  Her passions are art, storytelling, and brains! With no prior experience in gaming, Natalia and her husband had created a studio that by far have released two games Fran Bow and Little Misfortune - both with thousands of overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews.

If that hasn't convinced you yet to tune it her main goal while creating the game is to use storytelling as a way to guide the games they create with a deeper meaning; awareness of emotions and emotional intelligence. 

Listen to our conversation on the importance of designing for emotion, use games as a tool to cope with traumatic experiences, mental health, but also building a successful gaming studio with no idea about the industry - this episode is a true definition of ' If you can dream it you can do it''.

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Do you remember playing Life is Strange and struggling to make a choice - none of them seemed to be a good one, and you were terrified that your decisions would hurt Max or her friends? Or maybe you won't admit it now but the endless hours of talking to your Sims family made your heart feel a bit warmer? Well, this, in a very simplified way, describes parasocial relationships in video games!

In this episode, Gabe Elvery, an LKAS PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow will tell you much more about it. They study single-player Fantasy video games focusing on parasocial relationships, considering how playing video games makes us feel emotions for digital things and people, particularly Fantasy characters. They are a co-organizer of the Game Studies at Glasgow reading group, the Digital Heroisms Symposium, Vice Editor of Press Start Journal, member of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow, and member of the Games and Gaming Lab at The University of Glasgow.

The description would never do justice to this episode - tune in to discover the amazing, unconquered world of Game-related studies  and check Gabe's amazing blog or catch her on Twitter

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As an indie developer or owner of an indie studio, there are many things you need to do by yourself. Probably, you have struggled more than once with the 'what's now?' question - when facing HR issues, work delays, lack of marketing resources, or overall management challenges - in the end, you simply want to make good games, right?

Listen to the #6 episode with Wendy Young, Professional Coach, owner of Blue Raven, who is helping indie developers and studios to develop and scale up their businesses.

Tune in for the best advice you can get when it comes to building your own company - what are the 5 principles of succeeding, what is the company's culture, and simply - how to organize your work so you can create games and turn it into the well-performing business.

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How many people do you know that transitioned from managing rock stars' tours (yes, including Red Hot Chili Peppers!) to be in charge of the projects on one of the most successful gaming IPs - Angry Birds? After you listen to this episode - you will have the answer - Sandra Mittica. 

Tune in to find out how to best monetize a successful mobile game IP, how to design a game crowdfunding campaign, and find out more about cloud gaming for mobile.

Currently, Sandra is Head of Games and Business Growth Operations, Nordics & Baltics at Huawei, previously she has gained experience in Rovio, where she was working as an Audio Producer in charge of all the audio projects for the company - including projects ranging from animated series,  games' soundtrack, to books and many more. Sandra's mission is also to support start-up businesses and empower women. This is not the end, but if you want to know more - check the full episode!

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In the last episode of 2020, you can meet Natalie Mikkelson, a director, and narrative designer in Lo-Fi Games, a studio behind apocalyptic sandbox RPG - Kenshi (recently hit 1 M copies sold, congrats!). She is also a director of the non-profit Bristol Games Hub, a co-working and event space in the UK for indie game developers. On top of that, Natalie is a newly appointed WIGJ ambassador. I am not sure if Natalie's day is 24 hours long  or maybe she managed to add extra hours to the regular day, because on top of what she is doing she also has time to play games, and write a blog packed with interesting content about narrative design: https://indiegamewriting.com/

Hit the play button and listen to Natalie's story!

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Jacqueline ' Jax' 'Garrett, CEO & Founder of GGWP Academy, is a much-needed person on the map of the rapidly growing gaming & esports industries. Her startup - GGWP is an online platform that provides educational resources for aspiring esports athletes and gaming content creators.  But it wouldn't be in Jax style to simply stop on that. With her extensive background in operations, strategy, and communications, she knows that it is not enough to get the knowledge if you don't have a platform to put it into action. GGWP  Academy is bridging the world of niche influencers with brands. In a wider effect, bringing ease of monetization to the industry, providing quality content, and increasing ROI of Influencer marketing campaigns for brands.

Check our talk to find out more about the challenges of rising esport athlete, why education is so crucial in gaming & esports, how to effectively ( yet boldly!) approach business partners, and what does it mean to face a trial by media. 

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Jinesha Gandhi, Associate Producer at Ubisoft India is an experienced game producer with a demonstrated history of working in the console and mobile gaming industry. But what makes her truly unique is her passion for games. Jinesha's road to gaming was not easy - not only because there is a lack of gaming education in India, but also because there is low recognition of gaming as a respectable profession. In today's talk, we discuss how young people in India are trying to overcome that, but also we touch on  Takken, Cyberpunk, Bollywood, and Raji - who would have thought all those words could have something in common? 

Check this episode if you are curious about the Indie game development scene, but most importantly - to get to know one of the most inspirational women who is breathing games. 

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