Interview series celebrating the women of Firesprite this March.
For International Women’s Day 2021 we celebrated the amazing women of Firesprite! Working in Code, Art, Animation, Design, QA, Production, HR, People Engagement, Marketing, Recruitment and Finance, some of our talented women explored questions on the topic of women in games in our IWD 2021 video.
Inspired by this year’s #ChooseToChallenge theme, and the awareness and empowerment celebrated during Women’s History Month, we’re continuing to showcase the women of Firesprite, their work, and insights as women in the game and tech industry throughout the month of March. Our team will be discussing the importance of diversity, how to increase the number of women in games, offer their advice to others aspiring to work in the industry, and much more.
This month, we’ve been celebrating the incredible women of our industry, so we asked our team:
Which women in games inspire you?
“All women in games inspire me – it’s a movement I feel passionately about. In a previously male dominated industry, I’m inspired by every woman who has said ‘screw that! I want to work in games.’”
- Anita, HR Assistant
“A person who inspires me is Meg Owenson, who is a senior concept artist. I met her four years ago at the gaming conference “EGX Rezzed” where you could meet staff from several games companies and see the new projects they were working on. She was doing portfolio reviews and as it stood, my artwork was far below the standard it needed to be for applying, I was in need of honest feedback. The chat that I had with her really helped me gain back some confidence, and I was told I would get to where I wanted to be eventually – it would just take time and practice. From that event onwards, I began practicing my art a lot more and building up a more stable portfolio – which gave noticeable improvements after a few weeks.”
- Victoria T, QA
“I’ve realised that almost all my life I have been reading books, watching movies and playing games that were created by men and talked about by men. So I’ve decided that I will watch more movies directed by women or that talk about women, read books written by women or that talk about women, etc. These last few months I’ve watched/read about the life of impressive women like Marie Curie, the judge Ruth Bader, the gifted pianist Nina Simone, the mathematician Katherine Johnson, etc. I encourage everyone to discover the life and achievements of the incredible women in our industry and beyond!”
- Ester, Senior Engine Programmer
“I don’t particularly know anyone by name, but when I finished my university course we had a showcase of our art work and I actually met quite a few female game devs at that time who were really inspiring and gave me lots of feedback on my work. They shared their experiences on how they got into the industry and how long all those different aspects of their journey took. I found that so motivating, it showed me what I could do and the kind of choices I could have for my career path. I found them all so inspiring.”
- Nagia, Character Artist
“Some women who really inspires me include, Ellen Shelley, she’s an amazing Lighting Artist and Rachel Noy, an Art Director whose work I love. It’s so inspiring to see a female Art Director, because I haven’t actually met a female Art Director in my career yet - which I think says a lot. You should definitely check these women’s work out if you haven’t seen it already.”
- Victoria G, Environment Artist
“Any women who continues to be herself and strives to be the very best version of themselves is an inspiration to me, and I think on top of that any women who help support and build other women up. I think it’s important for us to be supporting one another and helping each other out.”
- Sharan Bassi, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist
“The women of Firesprite of course, that’s an easy answer!!”
- Chloe, People Engagement Manager
Tell us something you’ve learned from one of your fellow women of Firesprite
“Becky Brown (our People Development Director) was instrumental during my first couple of months at Firesprite - she is a major organ in Firesprite’s anatomy. One thing I learned from Becky is that if we drive Firesprite’s culture into everything we (HR) do, we can’t go far wrong. It’s the soul of what we do here that makes it such a fantastic place to work. Bias or not, I guarantee Firesprite has a workplace culture like no other… because we care. Simple as that.”
- Anita, HR Assistant
“A sprite I’ve learnt a lot from is Chloe Sinclair, she’s our People Engagement Manager. She organises the weekly newsletters, weekly competitions, internal events and sends out care packages. She makes sure that everyone in the company is recognised for what they do and given the spotlight to tell us more about themselves. This sort of attitude is vital in a company, as all employees want to feel valued and appreciated in their workplace. She also looks after our mental wellbeing which is incredibly important especially with everything going on in the world right now. Massive thanks to Chloe for all the hard work she does, we all very much appreciate it!”
- Victoria T, QA
“At Firesprite, I have seen the culture of care and upliftment, female colleague Firesprites add on sparks in our day to day work to make our workplace energetic, happy and comfortable. We are championing each other to fight inequality and create a truly diverse environment.”
- Darshita, Senior Cinematic Animator
