Prior to joining Turbine, Linda was an independent design and project management consultant, and Creative Director at Create Studios, Inc. She was at while at Blue Fang Games, and was Design Manager of the design department. She worked as a Producer of Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania, and was Lead Designer on Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species and Senior Game Designer on the best-seller Zoo Tycoon: 2. Before that she was Executive Producer for Strategy First, and before that… well, you get the idea…30 years is a long time!

Linda was co-founder of the former Sirtech Canada. While at Sirtech she was the Project Lead on the award-winning RPG Wizardry 8 and Co-designer of the Jagged Alliance strategy role-playing series.

Linda Currie is an industry veteran dating back to the early 1980’s, holds a B. Sc. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and has extensive experience creating and working within teams of various sizes and functions.

Geek Woman: As a gaming industry veteran what changes have you seen affecting the role of women in game design since the eighties?

Linda Currie: There is little doubt that women are holding a wider variety of roles, including very influential roles in some of the largest gaming companies that exist and that there are more of them. Is that because there are simply more roles due to a growth in the overall industry, or is it due to an increase in the proportion of women in the industry? Alas, that’d be a good question that I’m totally ill-equipped to answer as I’ve had the pleasure of working with other women on almost every project I’ve worked on…. even in the 80s!

It seems like there are more women gravitating to art and design in gaming than there was before, are you seeing this change at all on a daily basis?

I see more and more women in every sort of role, not just art and design. As far as noting change on a daily basis?  Nope, can’t say I’ve observed change at quite that level of granularity.

If you were starting over today, attempting to break into the gaming industry, how would you do it?

These days there are more and more options for getting a foot in the door of the gaming industry but the most commonly used is through QA.  Of course with there are 1000x as many people looking to get a foot in the door so some other things to consider are:

There are an increasing number of game development programs being offered at schools throughout the country. When I first saw game development appear as academic course offerings (many years ago), I was skeptical. Since then I have seen the knowledge they bring to their students and having met and hired many great candidates graduating from these courses, I can attest first-hand to their value.  So getting into one of those programs won’t hurt and the opportunity to intern somewhere or simply make a personal connection to someone working in the industry is just the boost you need.

There are numerous other things you can (and should) be doing. Visit the wealth of game development related websites. Consider internships, paid or even unpaid if you can afford it. (Large companies often have official internship programs but your role may be small… small companies on the other hand often rely on developers wearing many hats and may expose you to a lot more variety.) Become a game guru on a given game and get yourself recognized by the devs. Read job postings to see what different roles are looking for… and develop those skills. Read books to help you understand the concepts of game design and the process behind it.

But ultimately, when you’re in a crowd of a 1000 people, whether you’ve gone to “game school”, have read every game development book known to man or have expertly mastered game X, you need to do things to get yourself noticed. Create things yourself. Teach yourself tools. Compile a portfolio of work. And make sure you make it’s easy for a prospective employer to see, read or experience your stuff. Do this and show off skill and initiative at the same time!

What challenges are there in working on design in a game that has so much source material to consider?

A couple challenges come immediately to mind. We know that our particular source material is incredibly iconic and very much loved by such a huge audience. This puts great responsibility on us to ensure we handle it with care and respect.  Then there is the incredible detail that exists in Middle-earth. It’s a lot to keep track of. Fortunately we have amazing (and much loved) Middle-earth experts on our LOTRO team and they are an essential ingredient in our ability to deliver such a rich and authentic experience to our players.

On a long running game like LOTRO, what projects are there for you to work on?

An endless variety actually! For every project we could possibly undertake, I typically put a colored sticky note on my wall. My office is now a mosaic of colored pieces of paper! We have so many things we’d like to do that there is never any doubt that we’ll run out. Our biggest dilemma is which to pursue next! And while I wish I could share some specifics (and I bet you’d like to hear ‘em), I’m afraid I have to leave you in the dark as to what those projects are for now J

Can you tell us what being a Design Director means for those who don’t know?

For me it means planting creative seeds and watching them hopefully grow into huge plants. It means providing guidance, giving feedback, sharing and shaping ideas, and acting as a liaison between design and other departments. It means problem solving. It means planning, planning and more planning. Planting more seeds. More problem solving. More planning. Rinse and repeat.

What types of tasks do you have to perform in your job?

My days are really never the same and the things I do each day are constantly changing. But there are some constants… lots of meetings, lots of email, and lots of conversations. I do little to no actual game design. I know, sounds weird huh? The reality is that I work with a team of excellent designers and they do the hands-on game design.  I get to plant seeds J

Were you a fan of LOTR prior to working at Turbine?

Yes, absolutely. I was first introduced to Middle-earth from the books… geesh, I can’t even remember how many years ago that was (either that or I refuse to count that high!) That triggered a great love of fantasy worlds and fiction.  And perhaps with that early exposure to the quintessential party-based adventuring story, it’s no wonder that my introduction to Wizardry with its party-based game play so successfully pulled me into this industry forever.

Are you playing LOTRO yourself?

Yup! I’m especially fond of my Lore-master J.

What are some of your all time favorite games, or game art?

Now that’s a hard question. There are so many games that gave me such great experiences that a favorites list would be really long… and it would go back a really, really long time.  Without doubt though, the two franchises that have had the biggest and most far-reaching impact on me were Wizardry and Jagged Alliance… without those experiences, who knows whether I’d even be here completing this interview for you today!

In that post, I mentioned that it seemed likely that StripGamer will exist primarily to draw some of the more undesirable traffic away from GameCrush — the users of the service who tended to ignore the fact that the site’s terms of service note that nudity isn’t allowed in video chats. On StripGamer, the site’s intentions are right in the name, after all.

In any case, my assumptions about the relationship between StripGamer and GameCrush were confirmed within a couple of hours by GameCrush co-founder Eric Strasser. My original post reflected some of these notes, but I thought it necessary to bring more information to you.

“StripGamer is our effort to keep GameCrush about meeting and playing games,” Strasser said. “As you know, we have been struggling with a brand image and we have learned a lot from the gaming community. We want GameCrush to be thought of as a friendly place to interact and, if you are interested, exchange a gift just to be nice. We are committed in making GameCrush like a bar, where buying a drink for someone is considered a natural and friendly act of kindness.”

(Fun fact: The GameCrush idea was conceived after watching men try to buy a bunch of drinks for women at a bar who knew a lot about football.)

“Struggling with a brand image” is definitely one way to put it, I suppose. Most people who know about GameCrush who haven’t used it (and a few that have) automatically label it as a “gamer girl sex cam site,” which is apparently not what it’s supposed to be. Not if you go by the rules, anyway. StripGamer is about making the difference very clear.

It’s also about fulfilling the wishes of some GameCrush users.

“[W]e received constant feedback from users, both male and female, wanting something different than what they could find on GameCrush,” Strasser said when I asked about the decision to go “adult.” But it appears that the two sites will operate separately.

“We started shopping around and talking with companies who are better at managing the type of experience the new site will offer,” he said. “We also didn’t want there to be any confusion about what the new site is about, hence the very matter-of-fact name ‘StripGamer’.  We really don’t know how much traffic this new site will see, but we do hope it helps improve the image of GameCrush.”

Of course, some “PlayDates” will be making the jump to the new site. That’s how I found out about StripGamer in the first place — they asked a (now former) PlayDate if she’d like to participate, and she told me about it.

That led me to think that the two sites were going to have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. It wouldn’t make sense for them to move PlayDates over to the new service if it meant they’d lose any money they’d normally be bringing in. The sites have to work together to make those staff shifts make any sense at all. And that may be true — for now, anyway.

Eric let me in on some things further down the pipeline. “Currently the two sites do have commonalities, including the same operational parent company,” said Strasser, referring to Whamspot, which owns GameCrush. “That will be changing in the near future as StripGamer will operate as an entirely separate entity.”

Oh, and it seems that Strasser definitely understands what some people were using GameCrush for. In reference to the flirty/dirty nomenclature that both sites have used, he said that “[this] was actually in response to this feedback that users will want different types of games and that we couldn’t just ignore it. Just look at what became of Second Life!” (If you haven’t been there, it ended up turning into sex all the time.)

I’m personally still of the opinion that the response to StripGamer is going to be very, very interesting, mostly because we’ve seen it all before. StripGamer is what everyone thought GameCrush was. It very openly crosses a line acknowledging the fact that the male gaze does tend to linger a little longer when it comes to women who game. Of course, now we just have to wait and see if GameCrush can garner a better reputation. No matter what, it’s all still really, really weird.

Jessica Chavez is a 29 year-old localization specialist who has a love of Japanese culture and gaming, a penchant for the sarcastic/absurd, and an unholy love of bacon. She has worked at XSEED Games for nearly three years as an editor and is primarily responsible for inserting crude and shocking witticisms into unsuspecting treasure chest messages. She has been lead editor on several projects of questionable humor such asHalf-Minute Hero, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and Rune Factory: Frontier, has labored with great justice on works such as Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces and Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, and has slaved mightily over the text-heavy monster that is Ivy the Kiwi?. Most recently she tackled The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky during a nine month stint where she was chained to her home desktop and allowed neither sunlight nor the joy of human company. Her current mental state is considered ‘extra crispy’.

Geek Woman: We have some things in common, I also have an unhealthy love for crude and shocking witticisms, and *sigh* bacon. How important do you think it is to use language ‘for adults’ in games ‘for adults’?

Jessica Chavez: Pig-candy IS such a lovely compliment to sardonic statements. ^_-

As for using adult language in games, I think it’s paramount actually. While I do localize with an aim to convey the original intent of the game, which can mean simpler language for younger titles, I don’t like removing or simplifying intelligent games just to appeal to a wider market. If by “adult language” you’re also touching on swearing, I think there are times for it and plenty of times where a well-turned phrase works even better than a crude expletive.

They told me that you were chained to a laptop for nine months, so that must mean you are a writer?

Nine months of having one’s face melt off from the screen glare doing rewrites, terminology checks, and basic clean up certainly qualifies me for editor (or masochist), but aside from the “Treasure Chest” messages it was all translated text. While I’d love to do more purely creative writing, “localization” calls more for working over other people’s text much like one would hammer an aged steak into tender jelly.

Do you find it difficult that so much of gaming is censored because “Oh, the children might hear.”?

Hmm… Sometimes it’s better to use less frequent swears in order to meet certain ESRB criteria (an area of some flexibility when localizing text), but I actually feel that gaming, at least our genre anyway, holds its own pretty well without kid-ifying the language. I’m not aware of any real censorship, at least not in our games. I mean, we’re more than happy to throw around an errant (but emphatic!) “fuck” where it suits, as well as moderate sprinklings of “bastard,” “bollocks” and “skin-chandeliers.”

For those who might not know, what does a localizer do?

Localizers are a kind of human sieve. In XSEED’s case this works like a set of bright-eyed, fleshy colanders that you dump a Japanese game into and get a native English version dripping out the bottom. An easy way to imagine it would be as such:

Niche Japanese Game Name
Translator
Editor (Me!)
QA (Quality Assurance)
ESRB/Master Submission

So basically, localizers of Japanese video games take Japanese products, like The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for example, and make it palatable for the gaming/RPG enthusiast in the states. We try to render it as close to the original as we can, but in our native language.

How hard is it to localize language for games?

Some games are easier than others to localize because of the setting or theme. Usually fantasy RPG-type games are easier than very Japanese-esque titles to localize because gaming fantasy themes between Japan and the states carry over somewhat. Wizards, magic, etc, are all things that are very clear on both sides of the ocean. There’s no need for a lot of rewrites to help the audience understand the material or characters.

On the flip-side, a title like the Persona series from Atlus probably takes quite a bit effort to localize because of its very Japanese setting. Localizers on a game like this would have a lot of work trying to make sure that the audience understands what’s going on in the game without sacrificing the very things that make it Japanese. Choices like whether or not to use or remove the honorifics –san, -sama, -chan, etc, in the text or whether or not to rename products that are famous in Japan but have no meaning here are just a few of the tough decisions the localizers would have to make.

Is it true that a lot of content lost in translation?

Only if the localizers aren’t doing their job right. Some things will always be lost in translation, but the job of a localizer is to make sure that as much of the original ‘meaning’ or ‘intent’ of the game shines through. The jokes or some details might change, but the game should, at the end, be representative of the game you started with.

Are you bilingual?

Somewhat. I lived in Japan for three years, and I know enough Japanese to carry on conversations, do day to day stuff and insult people with some verve, but I’m not truly bilingual. I know just enough to make me dangerous, I guess. I’m by far the worst in the office, but I can still catch mistakes in the Japanese text while I’m editing, so they haven’t fired me yet.

Do you find it easier to understand spoken language over written language?

DEFINITELY. My sense of Japanese is very nebulous. I’ll understand about 30% of a gaming meeting clearly, catch a few key words here and there, and then using a bit of common sense, I’ll be able to piece together what everyone is talking about. I can even catch the jokes at times because I can ‘feel’ the flow of the conversation. The written language, sadly, affords me no facial or intangible mood clues to help me out.

What did you do on The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky?

On The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky I was lead editor, which basically means that I was the conductor of a very small orchestra. This game was so large (~1.5 million characters a.k.a. kanji or symbols) that it called for the work of three separate translators, help from two of my other coworkers, and the moral support of an overfed house cat. When translations would come through for the various chapters of the game (these were divided into .csv files for translation/editing) I would go over each and every line (cell) in the game to make sure that A) it made sense, B) it wasn’t a fiesta of typos and run-on sentences, C) it had consistent terminology, and D) it had a single ‘voice’. Working with three different translators, all with very different writing styles, makes it imperative that a single person line things up so that it doesn’t feel like a patchwork game. I also make it my job to add a bit a textual mischief where possible.
Aside from my main job as text overlord, I also had other less exciting chores that will make my job sound way less glamorous and probably bore everyone to death. One of them involved a microwave. And maybe a staple gun.

Marti McKenna is a 22-year game industry vet and a lifelong geek girl. Her games career began in the late ’80s at Sierra Online, where she worked her way up from the assembly line through the fulfillment, customer service, marketing, and game design departments. In the early ’90s she took a senior writer position at Electronic Arts and eventually went on to lead the EA writing team. More recently she worked on Guild Wars and Aion (for ArenaNet and NCsoft) respectively, and now holds the position of Writing Team Manager at En Masse Entertainment.

Marti has also been busy outside the games industry. Over the past decade she worked as fiction editor for Scorpius Digital Publishing and Aeon Speculative Fiction and as editor-at-large for The Internet Review of Science Fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in Tomorrow magazine and “More Amazing Stories” anthology, and she’s hard at work on a YA fantasy novel.

Stacey Janssen has been playing video games and writing speculative fiction since childhood. She graduated from Seattle University with a BA in Creative Writing in 2009, and almost immediately joined the writing staff for Aion (NCsoft). After Aion, she worked on Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet) and is currently on the writing team for TERA (En Masse Entertainment).

Before working in the games industry, Stacey was the Editor-in-Chief of the Internet Review of Science Fiction. Outside of work, she is currently the Managing Editor of Shimmer, a speculative fiction magazine, and is working on a comic book with her writing partner.

Questions answered by: Marti McKenna (MMc) and Stacey Janssen (SJ)

Geek Woman: The two of you have managed to make that won-the-lottery leap from unemployed fiction writer to working video game writers, how did that happen?

MMc: Well, I was even luckier than most of us. I knew I was pretty good at stringing sentences together, but hadn’t really imagined a writing career until I sort of fell into mine at Sierra Online. I was working in Customer Service and had been writing articles for Sierra News Magazine. One day my boss’s boss quite literally wheeled my chair (with me in it) across the hall to the marketing department and said “You’re promoted!”

SJ: My experience was likewise a lot of luck, and I actually owe that luck to Marti. I had worked with Marti as an intern for a while when I was in college. Two weeks after I graduated, she called me to ask if I had found a job yet. I told her that no, I was still looking, and she said, “Do you want one?”

You both worked at Arena Net and NC Soft, is that how you met?

MMc: Actually, my partner and I hired Stacey as an intern for our publishing company a couple of years before all that. When I was tasked with building a kickass writing team for the Aion Westernization effort, Stacey was one of my first hires.

It seems that many science fiction writers do work in teams. I wonder why that is?

SJ: I can’t speak for everyone, naturally, but on the writing team here at En Masse, I think part of it comes down to the simple fact that creating a new world with a group of people is a lot of fun and gives you a chance to make the world deeper and richer. In a brainstorming session, each person builds off what everyone else has said, and I’m going to suggest something that focuses more on X while Marti might suggest something that focuses more on Y. The end result is world building that goes beyond what any one of us could have developed.

How does the process work when you have a writing partner?

SJ: The process of writing on a team—or at least, the process of writing on our team—starts with a brainstorming session. What do we want the game to be? What do we want this zone to be? We pick out our prominent NPCs and give them personalities, then we break the game zones up into batches, each of us working in one, then reviewing and editing each other’s work.

Outside of work, I also have a writing partner (he and I are working on a comic book). Our process consists of a lot of meetings where we talk about theme, characters, and world building. Then one of us will do the primary first draft of an issue, getting input from the other wherever we need and following the general outline of the arc we’ve developed, then we switch and the other person essentially writes the second draft. The meetings, though, are probably where the core of the story we want to tell comes from—we’re constantly exchanging ideas. (Just ask anyone who’s ever had to sit by us.)

Aion is still going; how come you left?

MMc: About the time Aion launched and things slowed down for the Aion Westernization Army at NCSoft (which ultimately comprised 17 writers), En Masse Entertainment asked me to build a (smaller!) writing team to Westernize TERA. We’ve got ten this time, and incidentally, eight of us are women.

And Guild Wars 2 hasn’t launched yet, but what made you move on?

SJ: I really enjoyed working on the Guild Wars 2 writing team and I’m still good friends with many of the people on that team. I was working as a contractor, though, and during my time there, Marti had started working over at En Masse. As soon as she started assembling the writing team here, she let me know that when my contract was up at ArenaNet, I would have a position on her team, which I was happy to take.

Can you tell us about the new MMO TERA?

MMc: To me, TERA is like the love child of an MMORPG and a console fighting game. When gamers tell me they’re not really into MMOs, and I describe the combat system, they get this curious gleam in their eyes and nod their heads. The graphics are, of course, amazing, and the monsters are huge! You really get a sense that you’re fighting something that could put a serious hurt on you.

What work have you been doing on TERA?

MMc: The writers are primarily focused on Westernizing the game text as it comes to us from the translators. As I’m sure you know, translating story from one language to another often results in loss not only of meaning but of personality. And some concepts and norms just don’t translate well from one culture to another. So we start by looking at the overall quest and story structure, then break the content down by character and storyline and rewrite it from the ground up to resonate with Westerners.

Prior to joining MMPR, Kate was at The 3DO Company, where she headed up PR for the Might and Magic brands as well as several other titles, and Broderbund Software, where she handled campaigns for Myst, Riven and Prince of Persia. She was the first female on the editorial staff at Computer Gaming World magazine, where she managed the online properties and relaunched the covermount disk. She also served as a news editor at GameSpot.

Prior to entering the electronic entertainment field, Kate worked in the hospitality and construction industries. She has a Masters degree in Library and Information Science and a BA in History.

—————-

Geek Woman: Your background is deep geeky, you worked for the 3DO Company, and you did  PR for Might and Magic, and you have a Masters in Library science. Magic and books, some of your favorite things?

Kate Hedstrom: I’ve always been an avid reader, but as a kid I was mostly into mysteries, like Nancy Drew and the Famous Five, and adventures, like Swallows and Amazons and Tintin. Now I read almost anything, and usually have 2 or 3 books going at a time. I like solving puzzles and that’s probably what lead to the library degree. I just earned it a few years ago while still working full time in PR. My concentration was in special collections and archives, so it’s a lot about doing research and finding answers to questions for people.

Were you a gamer yourself?

Absolutely. I played a lot of games on the Apple II and the Atari 2600 in the early 80s but then kind of drifted away from it in high school and college. Once I got a PC with a good graphics card, I was able to start playing again. My family has always enjoyed boardgames and jigsaw puzzles, especially my mom. She’s actually an avid online gamer to this day.

What are you playing now?

There are so many games I want to play, but just don’t have the time anymore! I try to play as many of my clients’ games as possible so I can talk about them to the media. When I get home in the evening though, I usually turn off the electronics and do a crossword puzzle or pick up a book.

How did your education lead you to your career path today? Did you set out to be involved in the game industry?

Not at all. Even though I’d played games, it never occurred to me that I’d end up working in the industry. I went to college with the idea of becoming a journalist and majored in history, but when I got out of school jobs were really hard to come by and I ended up doing a lot of administrative type work. I’d just quit a job as a project manager for a consulting company and was looking for something in business journalism or corporate communications when I landed the editorial assistant position at Computer Gaming World magazine. It was like I’d found my tribe. That’s one of the things I love about this industry–people come from all sorts of backgrounds and have expertise in such a vast array of odd subject matter.

What did you work on with Might and Magic?

I’d been a huge fan of Heroes of Might and Magic before coming to work at 3DO, which had recently acquired New World Computing. My supervisor had her hands full with the other 3DO brands so I happily volunteered to take over the M&M lineup. I worked on Heroes III and IV, and three installments of the Might and Magic role playing series, plus some of the brand extensions.

Then you were at Broderbund Software, they did some of the earliest versions of Myst, Riven and Prince of Persia. Were you there during the Apple and Mac gaming era?

Sadly, I didn’t get to work at Broderbund until just before the company was sold. It was a great place to work, a real family atmosphere with so many wonderful people. A lot of women worked in development there, which made it much different than most game companies at the time. Myst and Riven were still such huge-selling titles–even people who never played any other computer or video games had heard of them, and some of the press who wanted to cover the games had to be educated about very basic things, like how to put the CD-ROM into the computer.

What kinds of PR did you do for Konami?

The Konami project was a lot of fun because we were working on the 25th Anniversary of Frogger. The brainstorming meetings for that were insane–we came up with so many wacky ideas that never got used, like staging a real-life Frogger game in downtown L.A. It was also my first experience wrangling an actor in costume. We’d been asked to bring Frogger to some parties at the Game Developers Conference, but the poor guy couldn’t really see out of the giant foam head. None of the taxi drivers would pick us up from the hotel, so we had to walk everywhere–very, very slowly–and people kept running up from all sides to hug him. The poor guy was traumatized, but we had a blast.

Which title(s) did you promote for Eidos?

I worked on mobile titles for Eidos, like Kane and Lynch and Tomb Raider 3D. That was before the iPhone took mobile gaming mainstream and entertainment on the phone was still the wild frontier for many companies, at least in the US. The wireless carriers and the phone manufacturers have a very different culture than the game industry, and the technology was evolving very rapidly, so there were a lot of challenges.

How were you involved with Ubisoft? And which of their projects did you work on?

My agency was brought in to sub for a PR manager who was on leave, and among the projects were were assigned was an action/adventure game called XIII, about an amnesiac who is being hunted by assassins (based on the European comic book). We were trying to figure out how to handle the exclusive previews, and I said, just trying to be funny, “Wouldn’t it be fun to kidnap the press and take them to an abandoned warehouse? It’ll scare the crap out of ‘em.” And everyone went, “Yeah!” So that’s what we did: we hired a big, intimidating guy to “kidnap” the journalists at their offices. Then we blindfolded them, shoved them into an old van, and took them to an abandoned building in a not-great part of San Francisco where the developers were set up to show the game… but in a nice, cozy room with couches and food and stuff.

Sabine Duvall has a long history of work on many recognizable game titles. Her history includes being on the team at Hudson Entertainment, Inc. For many years where she worked with Diner Dash, Alien Crush Returns, Omega Five, Star Soldier R, and Bomberman LIVE. Before that she worked for one of the most popular casual game companies, Oberon Games, Inc. on BeTrapped!.

Some of you may remember Riven: The Sequel to Myst from back in 1997, with Red Orb Entertainment. She even worked during the event horizon of gaming with Sierra On-Line, Inc. On The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, Space Quest (Collector’s Edition), Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Dagger of Amon Ra Gobliiins, and Inca.

Geek Woman: I remember those Sierra On-Line games very well. I loved that era in gaming. Do you miss those simpler times?

Sabine Duvall: I don’t think those times were necessarily simpler, just different. Technology of course was less complex but still your imagination and designs were just as complex as today.

Was it easier to make the games back then or now?

Again, not easier, just different. Today’s technology standards are giving you a much greater opportunity to really create what you had envisioned.

In the past there were less pressure and concerns with video games, since not as many parental and religious groups were projecting misinformation onto the game industry.

How do you feel about the ESRB using bots to rate games in the future?

It’s a good attempt at managing a very complex process, and it’s definitely in the best interest of the industry.

Another legend you worked with was the Myst franchise, on the sequel, Riven. Do you think we will see a game in the future that had as much impact on gaming as Myst did?

Oh yes. As much as we think it couldn’t get any better, someone else is creating a game or application that changes the way we play or interact with games. I love that part of our industry. Quite often the idea or implementation is rather simple and already existed already in one way or the other, but then someone adds a new twist and there you go, a new fad is born.

Diner Dash is huge, what was your role on that game?

We licensed the game from PlayFirst and moved it over to the downloadable console platforms. Our development team added certain game functionalities to make it much more user friendly for console players, like allowing the player to run around using the analog stick. It actually felt pretty good, since you don’t really have a mouse to use on consoles.

Do you wish you had a penny for every knock-off of Diner Dash?

It just proves the game had some great game mechanics. There have been other games before Diner Dash which had the same concept idea. PlayFirst was very smart by actually investing in its user base. I have great respect for anyone who understands the PC market well and knows how to adapt to the market and give people what they want.

Is there any kind of residuals that game developers get when their ideas are “borrowed” or are used in a sequel, the way that actors get checks when their shows air again in syndication?

That depends on the contract. Some seasoned developers know what to ask for in royalties and sequels. But overall, the game market is just as well educated as other industries, and like other industries, people are inspired by what they see in other games, so they incorporate that feature into their new game. Movies wouldn’t be where they are today if people didn’t borrow ideas or get inspired by other people’s works, and neither would the game industry.

What have you been working on since Diner Dash?

I recently left Hudson Entertainment to join TikGames. At Hudson, I had been working on a sequel for Bomberman Live and Bonk. Hudson is now owned by Konami and I am not certain what Konami plans to do with those properties.

At TikGames, my team is working on a couple upcoming games, once of which we just announced (Chucky). I’m very excited for one of the unannounced games: the game looks and plays beautifully, the graphics are out of this world, and I am very fond of the game. The development team is doing a fantastic job.

Can you guesstimate a percentage of women to men that you have worked with on games over the years?

Yes, easily. 80% men, 20% women.

What advice would you give young women who want to get into game development?

The sky is the limit. I would want to see many more women in this industry. It is an interesting industry. Yes, it is hard work, many long hours, but it is also fun and very rewarding.

Shan Poon from Two Tribes has told us that she has been playing video games since she was a little girl.

She also says, “I had never imagined I would work in, or be a part of the gaming industry. Mostly because in my imagination I always thought only men were supposed to work in the gaming industry. So, after high school I choose to study social work and graduated, after spending two years in the field of social work I knew something was wrong. I knew this wasn’t really the field I wanted to work in, so I decided to take a risk and find my way towards the gaming industry. Then, at the age of 23 I choose to study Media and Entertainment Management with just one goal in mind, the gaming industry, I had to find an awesome internship and get them to hire me. Now here I am, working as PR & Marketing Manager for game developer Two Tribes. Although I didn’t really have all the experience, during my internship I showed my passion and motivation towards my work in the gaming industry. They acknowledged it and hired me to work for them after my internship. Although Two Tribes is a small company, it gives me enough space to let loose my creativity to set up some interesting and outstanding marketing activities for our games. I’ve been working on iPhone and iPad games, PC games, DSi Games and worked closely with companies such as EA Mobile, Chillingo, Valve’s Steam and Nintendo.”

Geek Woman: You mention in your bio that when you were growing up that you thought that only men could work on video games, how did you get that feeling?

Shan Poon: Mostly because of the environment where I’ve been grown up as a kid. I only played video games when I was either alone or with my brother and our neighborhood friends (who were all male). When I started to get my own (female) friends, it was a big no no for me to play video games (because I was a girl). I had to switch my video games for more girly things, like playing with dolls and stuff. With this in mind and everyone telling me that video games aren’t for girls, I just assumed that video games were only meant to be played by men and be created by men.

How did you get past having those feelings and move on?

Actually, because of Mortal Kombat for the Playstation 1, haha really! When you are young, it’s really important for you to know how other people think about you as a person. You don’t want to feel like an outsider and I did, because none of my friends had any interest in video games and said video games were for nerds to play. Of course I didn’t want my friends to see me as some kind of nerd, so I never actually told them I loved to play video games. Around the age of 14, during a party, my eyes got caught by some guys AND girls playing Mortal Kombat on the Playstation 1. It was actually the first time in my life that I saw 3D animation out of a video game console. I just couldn’t resist and had to play it. At that moment I was like: OK, I really don’t care what my friends think about me now, this is just too awesome! During that party I also made some new female gamer friends

What were your favorite games as a kid?

That’s a hard question, I enjoyed (and still do) a lot of games when I was a little kid. But if I have to choose, I would pick Gremlins (Nintendo), Tiny Toons (Nintendo), Kirby Adventures (Nintendo) and there was a great Olympic game on the Gameboy which was very addictive, I don’t remember the name though.

You had a career change early on in your life, moving from social work to gaming, what motivated you to take the leap?

I was still young when I graduated for social studies and I just took a job to earn money for my living. After spending two years of working, it just didn’t feel right, like something was missing. I didn’t want to spend my whole life working with this gnawing feeling. I was still young so I had the opportunity to get more educated without spending too much money. Although I knew the industry of games was very interesting, I always thought that you have to be talented in math (programming) or drawing (designer) to get into the industry of games and I sucked at both. During that time I was following the conferences at the E3 and I was kind of surprised to see all kind of people speaking who actually worked on the business side in the industry of games. So at that moment I knew it wasn’t necessary to be a programmer or designer to work in the industry of games. My goal was set, I wanted a career in the industry of games on the business side.

Did you have to get more education or take courses to approach the new career direction?

Yes, although I did had the experience and education on business level for the non-profit sector, I did know that I had to get more educated in the profit sector and especially in the entertainment field. Because I already had a Bachelor degree, I tried to earn a Master degree in Media, Art and Communication. But after spending 2 months in books only, I quit the University, I needed more practical work than only books. So, I started my second Bachelor degree in Media and Entertainment Management and just a week ago I graduated

How did you get the job at Two Tribes?

Through my internship. When I started my second Bachelor degree, I knew my internship would be my first step towards the industry of games. During my internship I’ve worked really hard to show my passion and motivation towards my work. Luckily the people at Two Tribes acknowledge that and offered me a job after my internship.

Is it difficult to get internships in gaming?

Yes and no, it depends on different factors. For example if a student is looking for an internship at a AAA-company (like Nintendo or Blizzard) you have a lot of intern openings to go for, but you will also have a lot of competition. As a student you really have to stand out to get an internship in a AAA-company. If you go for a smaller company (like ours) you don’t have many intern openings to go for, but because the competition is smaller, your chances are higher.

Also our company is established in the Netherlands, over here we just have a few (small) game/publishers companies, so we don’t have that much opportunities if you compare it with the United States for example. But like every internship and/or job, if you really are motivated to get into a company, just go for it and do your best!

What do you do there?

A lot of things! My main task is to devise a marketing strategy and a marketing plan for our games. Where large companies have different departments for every piece that concerns marketing, here at Two Tribes I’m responsible for every piece. Beside my main tasks I take care of the communication with the press, publishers, platform holders and our community. I also arrange interviews, features, (p)reviews for our games and since I’m the only woman in the company I’m also responsible for company parties (see picture)

What were some interesting marketing activities that you came up with for them?

Since we are a small company, our budget for marketing is way smaller than AAA companies. Our marketing activities are mainly focused through the internet. So the best part of this job is to find a creative way to stand out on the internet. I’ve really enjoyed thinking and creating our marketing strategy and campaign for our game Swap This! We’ve thought of a marketing strategy where we didn’t want to show anything off the game itself before the release, but only about the mechanic part of the game. Unfortunately I didn’t had the chance to carry out this marketing strategy because EA Mobile showed interest in our game.

One of my favorite marketing activity is cross-promotion, where I can think about cross promotional ideas for our games. Like the cross promotion we did for our games (Toki Tori and RUSH) during the Portal 2 ARG.

Are there upcoming games from Two Tribes that you want to tell us about?

YES! We are currently working on a game called Swords & Soldiers for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad! The game is originally developed by Ronimo Games and we from Two Tribes are improving the game for the Apple Appstore! The storyline and characters of the game are hilarious! The gameplay is suited for casual and hardcore gamers! Highly recommended for everyone who owns one of the iOS devices. More information will be revealed on our website: www.twotribes.com

Quinn Dunki, code writer, game developer, mobile enthusiast, and not just mobile gaming gives us this interview today. She has worked on Trucks and Skulls for iOS with Appy Entertainment lately. Quinn is the founder of her own company, One Girl One Laptop.

Geek Woman: I was told that you are a code Goddess. What is code and what do you do with it? (yes this question might sound stupid, but there are people who don’t know )

Quinn Dunki: Well, “writing code” is shorthand for computer programming. It’s basically just text in an editor with a bunch of syntax rules that allow the computer to convert (“compile”) it into a binary format that it can execute. That’s the really short explanation. The long explanation… well…  there’s a reason people go to university for four years to learn this stuff.  Seriously though, there’s no magic to it. The great thing about programming is that there are a lot of different ways to get into it. You can start easy and teach yourself various scripting languages like PHP, Javascript, or Python, or go deeper with something like C++. Anyone can do it, and I would heartily encourage people to try their hand at it. Once you get serious about it, then you can get into algorithms, data processing, operating system theory, and so on. I write software for a number of different platforms, but lately I’ve been focusing on iPhone and iPad. I’ve worked mostly on games, since that’s what holds my interest the most.

Some would say that people who write code can also write their own ticket in the games industry, is that true or a myth?

I would say that engineers are certainly the discipline in games for which there is the most demand. Particularly people with experience. It’s an unusual skill set in engineering, and not something that is strictly taught in schools. The most valuable candidate (among new grads) for a games industry job is someone with a strong traditional computer science and math education, and who has supplemented that with game development on their own time. If you’re an engineer with five or more years of experience, you can probably go work anywhere you want. That said, nobody is irreplaceable. Personality and attitude always matter. If you’re a jerk, you may get the job on your credentials, but you may not last long.

The games industry is growing so strongly that I don’t know many people in any area that have gone long without a job, but experienced engineers probably have the most choice of projects and companies. It also helps a lot to be willing to relocate anywhere in the country, or to at least live in a city with a big game development industry. Good choices include Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Austin, Vancouver, and Montreal.

What kind of education would young women need to do in order to have a job like yours?  Would it involve a lot of math?

Computer science is a great place to start, and a certain level of math is a must. Some calculus, linear algebra, graph theory, matrices, that sort of thing. More advanced stuff like theory of computability, combinatorics, etc, is nice, but probably not required for games. You don’t need the level of math that would be required in mechanical engineering or physics. More is always better, but being strong in coding is more important for most teams. It also depends what sub-discipline of game programming you’re hiring for. For example, physics or graphics programmers need more math than gameplay or AI programmers generally do. The best candidates are often generalists that can do some of everything, but lots of really large teams have highly focused specialities in their engineering groups.

This stuff can be learned in school, or self taught, or some combination of the two. A nice part of the games industry is that there is less weight put on the expensive piece of paper you get from a university. I’ve worked with lots of very talented and successful people with little formal education. That said, university is probably the safest and easiest place to learn the basic math and programming. The games-specific stuff is generally self-taught out of passion for the genre.

Did you create a scientific calculator program for programmers? That sounds really impressive.

I did create one, yes. Mainly for my own use, because my beloved 15-year old HP48 finally died. There were lots of scientific calculator apps at the time, but not many that had programming-specific operations, and supported Reverse Polish Notation, the way my HP did. I was just getting started on iPhone programming at the time, and it made a nice simple project to get to know the platform with. Unexpectedly, it has become my best selling iPhone app. It’s filling a niche, I guess!

You worked on the “hardcore” consoles prior to iOS was it a difficult transition? What games did you work on back then?

My games industry career goes all the way back to the Apple //, but my most recent AAA experience was on Xbox 360 and PS3. I was at Pandemic Studios for eight years, and worked on a number of titles there. Before that I was at 3DO, and before that I was at Bungie where I got to see the early stages of Halo (I was on a different project). The most recent game I worked on was The Saboteur. It was a four year effort, and we were all really proud of the result. Prior to that, the list is pretty long, so I won’t bore you with my whole resume. The transition to iOS was pretty easy, because I had been doing it in my spare time for quite a while. I’ve always used pet projects at home as a way to vent off steam from a hard day at the office, as a way to keep up my skills in other areas, and as a way to try things I don’t get to do at work. When Pandemic Studios closed down, I decided it was a good time to make my hobbies into my paycheck!

What do you prefer working with?

My preferences shift around quite a bit, but right now I really enjoy iOS. It’s a phenomenal set of APIs and tools. The best I’ve seen in my 25 years of engineering. Those folks at NeXT really knew what they were doing, and Apple was very wise to snatch up that technology.

How significant do you think the Mobile games movement is on gaming?

I think it’s enormous. In fact, I think it’s the future. The “hardcore” game segment is a drop in the bucket compared to the market share of casual and mobile games. On top of that, there’s so much more innovation in this space. Because the games are smaller, the risk is much lower, so people can experiment. Combine that with novel hardware features and an audience with no preconceptions of what a game should be, and you have a recipe for real creativity. It’s like computer games were back in the ’80s. Every day entire new genres are being invented. I think AAA game developers tend to look down on mobile (I know I did), but I’ve since learned that’s completely backwards. In my opinion, AAA games are in a stagnant rut. The projects are too big, and the business model isn’t sustainable. Meanwhile, mobile and social game companies like Zynga and PopCap are quietly eating everyone’s lunch. They’ve created whole new generations of gamers, and it’s a very exciting area to be in.

Are you an iPad person yourself?

I do own an iPad, yes. I bought one to develop on, and honestly I was pretty skeptical of it as a user. I’m still not certain it has a permanent role in my life, but I do use it a fair bit. I think the gaming potential of the iPad is absolutely huge, though. Touch is a great way to interact with games, and the hardware performance is terrific. Keep a very close eye on this segment. We’re going to see big, big things here. With HDMI outputs and HDTV streaming over wi-fi just around the corner, I can easily see tablet gaming replacing the traditional living room console.

What games are you working on now?

Well, I’m still working on new content for Trucks & Skulls, and I’m working with Appy Entertainment on an unannounced project that I’m very excited about. Keep an eye out!

Do you race cars often? How passionate are you about the sport?

I race with my team about once a month. We’d race more often, but time and money have a way of limiting these things. It’s an incredible way to let off steam, working on the car is fun, and the people are great. As hobbies go, I’d recommend it to anyone! It’s an example of how you should do things that sound cool and interesting to you, regardless of peer pressure or what society might be telling you. You’ll have a blast, and be happier for it! It took me until my early 30s to figure that out. Better late than never though, right?photos.

http://www.quinndunki.com – my company’s website
http://www.quinndunki.com/blondihacks – my side-project site
http://www.facebook.com/bteamracing  - our racing team’s FB fan page