Show Notes:

Love at first sight. “When I saw Space Invaders for the first time, I was enthralled by everything. From their slow descension upwards to the jumping jack animation, I knew that that was my destiny. I knew I wanted to be a part of that world somehow. I had been in Drama class in school and performed in plays, and while I enjoyed it, I always came back to my first love of games. I enjoyed manipulating images on television in order to escape the sh*tty reality that we’ve all been forced to live — and here I am today, still doing it.”

Navigating our online world. “We live in an online world. We can play any game we want whenever we want — but once that game has run its course for us, then they just pull the servers and you cannot physically play the game anymore. That’s why a little bit of video game history is kind of vanishing, and that makes me sad. But the thing is that everybody plays games these days. You could be a hardcore player playing Call of Duty for tons of money if you’re Twitch streaming or if you’re a pro player, or you could just be a person who downloads and plays a mobile game on your phone. Regardless, if any device was built for work, people will find a way to f*ck off and entertain themselves.”

A lack of equality. “The majority of people I’ve worked with in the gaming industry are men. When it came to interviewing people, I quickly started realizing that there weren’t many non-white dude applicants, and I’m not sure why that is. I think one of the main reasons for there not being many women in the industry is a lack of encouragement. It also seems to go back to gender roles you see when you go to Target and look at the little boys’ and girls’ shirts. Why do the boys’ say ‘Future CEO’ and the girls’ say ‘Let’s go shopping’? The gaming industry isn’t really that much different. It has a long way to go before I believe it can be considered equal.”

Understanding imposter syndrome. “One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that one of my biggest strengths is knowing my biggest weaknesses. I’m not a good programmer or artist, but I know how to surround myself with people who are. I’m at my best when I have somebody to ping things off creatively. If I can fight this imposter syndrome that I feel like I have, maybe I do have a say in what I do. But the problem with imposter syndrome is that you sometimes wind up being cocky and get an attitude, and that’s why I’ve been trying to kick it for so long.”