Games designer and writer for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 “Lean in to the weirdo in you and pursue it”

I’ve played video games since I was a toddler, but it wasn’t until I was eight that I realised someone, somewhere was making them. I studied English at the University of Edinburgh, the city where a division of Rockstar Games, which makes Grand Theft Auto, is based. After graduating, I applied for a role as a tester, and got it. It sounds like a dream job, but the reality was spending eight hours a day making characters run into walls to check they were solid!

Working at Rockstar, I learnt to tell people what I was interested in. Some won’t have the time for you but others will be delighted you want to be involved. And making friends as a junior is key – my mutually supportive female friendships in the male-dominated gaming industry are critical to me. Cementing those allies early will help you further down the line. Now, if I’m not available for a particular job, I recommend two or three other women who could knock it out of the park; if I don’t, the job will go to a mediocre dude. I also try not to turn down speaking gigs; 13-year-old me needed to see prominent female role models doing my job.

Later, I worked in radio and began writing about games on the side. I learned they could broach issues like consent and LGBTQ+ rights, and I became interested in writing for games. I started creating my own and when The New York Times covered my 2014 game Sacrilege, games companies recruited me to write their products.

In my twenties, I had an underlying assumption that men were mad, creative geniuses, and that women were there to support them. I didn’t think writing or creating was something I could do, and I even dated men I admired. Now, I realise I was more talented than them and I wish I’d listened to my instincts earlier. Lean in to the weirdo in you, and pursue it – it’ll be the reason someone hires you one day. ◆