⚡️ I'm Sophia and I'm a video games producer with over 17 years in the games industry. I’ve had the opportunity to work across both mobile and console, combi...
I'm writing a series on Games That Matter To Me and last week talked about social play , so this week I've combined the two and written about EVE. EVE Online: Games That Matter To Me EVE had so many things I love in games, and made me love so many of the things I do in games. Community, spreadsheets, player-driven economies, player 'innovations' (hacks and exploits), and so much more. It's the…
First of all, I really enjoyed this post, Games don't have to be 50+ hours long by Emma at GLHF Club - because I am always saying this. Sometimes I just want to do a story, not run around in a vast expanse. This week I wrote about The Difference Between Working on Games and Loving Games because I think it's something that happens to a lot of people lucky enough to work in a field they grew up…
I'm bored of the usual heroes, antiheroes, and the typical Hero's Journey stories. So I wrote Hero of Another Story featuring Mary Bennet The Wicked Witch of the West Ellen Ripley Dunk and Egg Zelda Fable and Skyrim NPCs the Mighty Nein and more Recently... 29 Apr, 2026 Memories of EVE Online 08 Apr, 2026 Behind the curtain on games 01 Apr, 2026 Not your usual Hero's Journey
It's not just RPGs and shooters where timing is balanced on a knife-edge between success and failure. I wrote The Maths Behind 'Fun' thinking about pacing across games like bingo, slots, and RPGs. Behind almost everything that feels good in a game there is a set of numbers doing a very deliberate job. Probabilities, curves, timings, drop rates, scaling. The player feels emotion - the system is…
Most people, in most industries, have worked somewhere with pleasing, probably quite bland 'values' displayed in the recruitment material, posters on the wall, buzzwords in the marketing. No one really uses them, no one really cares. Even if the company values are put together with feedback from the whole team, genuinely reflect the real values of the studio, and are used in practice not just in…
I've written posts about Skyrim, 2048, and Battle for Middle-earth as part of a Games That Matter to Me series. Maybe I'll add some films to the mix too. I'll definitely cover Zelda sometime soon. Skyrim: Games That Matter to Me Playing Skyrim yet again and thinking about my personal canon of games. 2048: Games That Matter To Me Satisfaction, camaraderie, controversy, and merge mechanics. Battle…
There's a big difference between being busy and actually productive. It's a trap. I care more about alignment - everyone working together in the right direction, getting things done that actually matter. So I wrote: Busy Is Loud. Alignment Is Quiet. There are understandable reasons why teams default to busyness. It feels safe. It looks good. Full calendars signal importance. Rapid responses in…
Here are a few of my posts on finding inspiration in surprising places. What Tabletop Game Design Taught Me About Designing for Digital Prototyping with Lego blocks and that feeling of fun. What Live Ops Teams Can Learn From Theatre Ensemble casts and backstage chaos but the show must go on. The Future of Fun How playing with my niblings makes me think about games differently. Designing for…
Wrote a post about how useful competitor reviews can be and how to do them properly. They are also an excellent excuse to play a bunch of games! Here's the post: How to Run Competitor Reviews That Actually Make You Better Treating it as real work. Getting different disciplines together for a well-rounded take. Looking for magic moments. Breaking down the craft. Recently... 29 Apr, 2026 Memories of…
The Alien films are so important to me so of course I had to play Alien RPG from Free League Publishing . I've played as a player and run the game so I've got some thoughts. I heard some YouTubers saying you couldn't run a game based on Aliens the film... you totally could. I design new characters like it's a hobby but I actually really enjoyed having a pregen. The simplicity of the dice rolling…