Over all the years I’ve worked in games, especially since also working in games education, the one universal truth that I have noticed that seems to plague our industry, even through all our ups and downs, is that it is “hard to get into”, often opaque, and sometimes outright hostile to newcomers.
What if we changed the way we thought about growing the industry? What if we realised that creating art/entertainment/media/all of the other great things games can be is not a zero sum game? What if we realised that anyone can do it, most people just need to be pointed in the right direction?
So I started a studio with these exact goals in mind, Mana Tea. I had seen year after year, dozens and dozens of talented, enthusiastic, versatile and valuable graduates bounce off our industry because there “wasn’t enough room” for all of them. The thing is, they had everything they needed right there between them. With the right guidance, they could have been making their own games rather than someone else’s.
As well as telling my own story, this talk is going to be a thought provoking call to action to everyone in the audience to get out there and help the newbies. Our industry has the potential to be so much broader, richer and more diverse, but for a little bit of effort on our part to stop accidentally keeping people out.
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