about me
ACT ONE: THE ORIGIN STORY
I like to think I’ve always been a creative person. I remember being four years old and staring at the ceiling as I tried to fall asleep, telling stories to myself about flying into space in a big puffy astronaut suit. I remember being seven and building up Lego towns – just to crush them with an imaginary earthquake that forced our little Lego people to rebuild their lives from the ground up. I remember being 11 and crafting elaborate and perhaps overly-dramatic backstories for my Polly Pockets, whose lives seem, in retrospect, like something out of Euphoria. I remember being 16 and rediscovering my love of writing – I delved into a fantasy world of my own creation and refused to come out. I got lost in-between pages and pages of mediocre imagery and Riverdale-esque dialogue. Nothing could tear me away from the pure joy I felt when I was inspired to tell a story.
When it came time to leave home and begin my life proper, all I knew for sure was that I wanted to tell stories.
ACT TWO: GAINING EXPERIENCE
My passion for storytelling led me to the College of Creative Arts at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. I completed my degree in Creative Media Production, specialising in game design and eventually focusing on game production specifically. My university experience was nothing like I expected it to be, but I can’t deny that I learned a lot. Whether or not that was due to my classes, or simply the lessons I was forced to teach myself along the way…. well, we won’t get into that right now.
I spent the final year of my degree working as the producer of a team working to create a game titled Hnefa. It was a brutal trial by fire, to put it lightly. With zero producing experience and an eclectic team, I relied on my optimism, enthusiasm, and persistence (*cough* stubbornness) to get me through. And get through I did! At the end of the year, I was presented with an award for the Class of 2022’s Rising Star, as an acknowledgement of how much I had learned and how far I had come in only a year.
After graduating, I continued working part-time in an arcade whilst dipping my toes into various creative pursuits to find my next big project. I toyed with a few game ideas, began creating YouTube videos with my partner, and discovered an adoration for pixel art. However, it wasn’t long before my part-time job became a full life-consuming career…
ACT THREE: THE DREAM
These days, I’m spending my 9-5 managing an arcade, and my 5-9 doing my best to return to the thing that inspired me all those years ago: telling stories. I’m creating new pinball-themed pixel art each month for use in local competitions, I’m circling back to the stories I wrote when I was 16 and considering how I could tell them with my current skillset, and I’m gathering the courage to share all of my creativity with those around me.
Right now, that’s all the specificity I can put into my dream. I want to tell the stories that have spent years floating around in my head. I want to find ways to tell them that excite me and inspire me further. And I want to share those stories with the world, without fear of embarrassment or failure. I think that sounds pretty nice.
WHERE TO FIND ME
TWITTER YOUTUBE (PERSONAL) YOUTUBE (COLLABORATIVE) INSTAGRAM (ART) BLOG
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WORK HISTORY
August 2023 – Present
Venue Manager
Timezone Arcade
Two months after taking on the role of Assistant Venue Manager, I was further promoted to Venue Manager. In my time as VM, I rebuilt the culture of our team into one free of toxicity and full of enthusiasm and fun. My contributions in the time since have ranged from redesigning our redemption shop, to spearheading new avenues of guest engagement, to building up a library of training guides that can be accessed by all team members who are keen on upskilling. I promoted seven casual employees into management roles and oversaw both their training, and the training of my assistant manager. I’m incredibly proud of the work I have achieved in my time as Venue Manager.
July 2023 – August 2023
Assistant Venue Manager
Timezone Arcade
After 18 months as a casual employee, I was promoted into the role of Assistant Venue Manager. This was a huge leap in terms of workload and responsibility, but I embraced the challenge and gained a lot of skills very quickly.
November 2021 – June 2023
Guest Services Attendant
Timezone Arcade
I began my time at Timezone as a Christmas Casual employee, and was chosen to stay on the team as a part-time employee year-round. My responsibilities included customer service, cleaning, restocking redemption, and assisting with technical game repairs.
March 2022 – November 2022
Student Producer
Hnefa
I took on the producer role for my major project during my final year of university. I dove into the role with little producing experience, but a boatload of enthusiasm and organisational expertise. I came out the other side with a true passion for the role of producer and a whole lot of new skills to boot.
May 2021 – January 2022
Tutor, Caregiver, Nanny
During my university years, I gained work experience by looking after children and tutoring in digital technology. These various roles helped to hone my people and leadership skills, as well as highlighting my passion for working with children. My tutoring work was focused on the fundamentals of Scratch, Audacity, HTML and CSS.
EDUCATION
2020 – 2022
Creative Media Production
Massey University
I studied Creative Media Production at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. I specialised particularly in game design, jumping between the roles of writer, designer, and programmer. However, the role I ultimately fell in love with was producer.
During my final year, I was tasked with joining a group and producing a vertical slice of a video game. Taking on the role of producer was a huge and exciting challenge for me – one that I took in my stride and truly made the most out of.
To read more about my experience as producer, and the other projects I completed across my three years of study, check out my portfolio!