Monday 5 August 2013

Profile: Sophia George

A few months ago, course tutor Josh Taylor brought my attention to a game called Tick Tock Toys.  It was apparent immediately that there was common ground between this game and the practical work I had done for my 'Eggles' game, so I vowed to interview the game's creators.


During the last few weeks I've made contact with Sophia George at Swallowtail Games, who has kindly offered to answer questions on aspects of the game's structure and on her philosophies as a designer.

While preparing questions I started to delve deeper into the background of the game, and Sophia's role as lead designer.  This has been a very enlightening exercise, so I've decided to post some of the stuff I've learned.  It has already had an impact on my personal development: reinforcing & challenging some of the concepts which have been outlined in this blog.

It's also grown into a bigger case study than expected.  Therefore I've split the summary into two posts: one looking specifically at Sophia's journey into the industry and the second at the practical development of Tick Tock Toys.


Sophia George -- Journey of a Games Designer


Sophia has had a quite prodigious rise over the last few years.  Her team started work on Tick Tock Toys in  2011 and, after finishing her Masters in 2012, she co-founded Swallowtail Games and released the game to great acclaim, gaining a BAFTA award in the process.  And, as if that wasn't enough, she has since been appointed as the prestigious V&A museum's Games Designer in Residence.  Not a bad start to a career!


Her interest in this field started when she was little.  In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland, she explained that she had grown up playing early Nintendo titles like Mario & Kirby as well as games on her Commodore Amiga 500.  Like many of us in this profession, in her youth she was quite geeky; she even learned a bit of Japanese at the age of 12 due to her interest in Japanese games.  Sadly this inevitably led to her being bullied, but thankfully didn't stop her following her passion.  She'd been fascinated with characters, cartoons & colours and liked to experiment with art software (presumably Amiga Deluxe Paint).

DPaint III  had some wonderful editing & animation features
that (in my opinion) even Photoshop still hasn't bettered
-- something that Neil Thompson mentioned at BAF 2012
when talking about his time at Psygnosis).

In 2008 she moved on to study for a BA in Games Art & Design at Norwich School of Art & Design, now re-named Norwich University of the Arts.  (The school has an impressive roster of alumni, including legendary comic artist Brian Bolland and Harry Potter movie designer Stuart Craig.)

Sophia graduated in 2011 with first-class honours.  Alongside her final year studies, she prepared a submission for the summer Dare to be Digital competition organised by the University of Abertay.  This competition sets teams of 5 people the task of designing a fully-functioning game prototype in just 10 weeks, to be displayed at the public Dare Protoplay indie games festival.  The entrants are judged by industry experts and the best three nominated for the BAFTA Ones to Watch award.  Sophia's team -- Swallowtail -- produced Tick Tock Toys, which won the award.


(The development of Tick Tock Toys will be explored in much more detail in the next post.)

Sophia then moved to the University of Abertay to do a Professional Masters (MProf) in Games Development.  During the course she worked on a couple of team game projects:



It'll be of little surprise that Sophia graduated from her Masters "with Distinction".  She immediately took on a role as "Chair, Artist & Designer" at Swallowtail Games, working alongside 4 other team members and a gang of freelancers, releasing the final production version of the game in February 2013.

Gender in gaming


It was during her BA that Sophia started to carry out research into gender in gaming.  Of the 8 girls in her class, 4 had dropped out before the end of the first year.  In an interview on the WomanTalking website, she explained: "I never had any issues with the other male students but outside the classroom there were very few girls I knew who enjoyed playing computer games. But for an industry that’s been around for over 30 years, there’s a substantial amount of history building up that begins to give it a lot more credibility."

This was nowhere more evident than on a visit to Eurogamer Expo.  While waiting outside, security guards presumed that she was in the wrong queue and tried to redirect her to the Earl's Court Wedding Show.

Her report "How should the games industry present gender imbalance?" explored the presentation of women within games and the lack of games targeted at women's tastes and interests, highlighting the (prevailing) surge in casual gaming.

After starting her Masters, her second report, "Engaging Women in Games Using Emotional Stimuli", took a deep look at ways of opening the AAA game market to female players, who represented a large (and growing) proportion of the general gaming market.  She quotes Sheri Graner Ray (see my own blog for more info) and Chris Crawford, concluding that emotional stimuli are an important key to this.

In her final report, "Is There a Need for Games with Gendered Narrative?", Sophia looked at feminist theory -- especially the concept of the "male gaze" -- to explore the potential for "gendered narrative".  Her findings are mixed, but it is evident that she is developing an interest in whether the best people to make games aimed at women are other women.

Sophia's example of male gaze from Mass Effect 2.
This is something that Sophia has mentioned in other interviews: "If we get more women into the development side of games, I'm sure we'll see some even more amazing and innovative games being created.”

V&A Designer in Residence


The Victoria & Albert Museum appointed Sophia as their first Games Designer in Residence, running from October until March 2014.

Being interviewed for BBC News.
"I will use the history of British design shown in the Britain 1500-1900 galleries as the starting point for my research.  One third of the residency time will be dedicated to public engagement, inviting a variety of audiences to experience and participate in the creative process of game design though an innovative programme of events and activities at the V&A [...] I plan to run a project with a group of students from a girls' school [...]"
The residency will produce a finished game in the summer of 2014, linked to interpretation of V&A collections (including the 1500-1900 galleries mentioned above).  "I like the fact that they are treating games as art because just like movies and music, they are very much a reflection of what we have enjoyed doing in our leisure time over the last 3 decades. They offer a snapshot of society in ways that might not be immediately obvious."


Building up this profile has been very interesting, providing insight into the mind and motivations of a fellow designer.  I've enjoyed it so much I'm looking to create profiles for other designers, as time allows.