Lauren E. Scott is a game designer graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz’s undergraduate program this June. A relatively new addition to the industry, she has already made a splash with such accomplishments as having spoken on the 2014 #1ReasonToBe panel and worked on 2012 IGF finalist Prom Week.
THIS PROFILE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED APRIL 2014
Name: Lauren E. Scott
Vocation: Game Designer
Years of experience: 3.5 (as a student)
Location: University of California, Santa Cruz
Twitter: @Lauren_E_Scott
Shipped Game Titles:
Xylem: The Code of Plants, Prom Week
1. What are you currently reading and/or playing?
– I am playing Papers, Please; DoTA 2; DmC (Devil May Cry); and Psychonauts.
2. First time you knew you wanted to work in games was…?
– I’ve always loved playing games, and I even took up games journalism the summer after I graduated from high school. I knew that I wanted to develop and design games as my profession when I went to UC Santa Cruz and began studying programming and game design seriously.
3. What was your favorite mistake?
– The first game I made was loaded with mistakes. But that was the best thing I could’ve done: started, even with a game that was riddled with errors. Because that meant that I’d broken the seal; I could now improve and iterate on my skills and ideas about design.
4. What was your favorite success?
– A little over a year ago I worked on a team with 2 other programmers and an artist to make a game called Half/Way for the Windows Surface. It was amazing to pour everything that I had into a project, to know that it was the best work I could’ve done at the time, and to be recognized for the achievement by my peers and professors.
5. What’s the best advice you ever got?
– Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of your medium with your work. Also, execution is one of, if not the most important part of any project. A great idea means nothing if it isn’t created.
6. Share one thing few know about you.
– I learned piano from 2nd grade through 6th grade, and play off and on when I can.
7. What’s one thing or trend you’re most excited about in the industry?
– I really like the range of new topics that games are being created around. From immigration document inspection to the wonders of female sexual organs, it seems as though the territory that game designers are willing to cover is widening, and it’s pretty exciting.
8. Anything else you want to add?
– As for advice I would give, if you want to start doing something in games, the key is START. You can’t just think about it and then it’ll magically happen. There’s no substitute for hard work when you want to see something happen.
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Feel free to reblog with a link back to this post. If you are a lady dev who’d like to be profiled or would like to nominate one, please contact tisamely [at] yahoo [dot] com
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