Tara J. Brannigan is a passionate advocate for the role of player experience in game development. Tara has worked in Seattle, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, and most recently Canada. She’s worked in everything from QA to Productions to Sales, and finally to her current role as Head of Player Experience at Behaviour Interactive.

When she’s not working, Tara can be found whittling away at her crushing Steam backlog, tinkering on jewelry projects, contributing to the excess of cat pics on the internet, and spending too much time on Twitter (@kindofstrange).

Recorded: 12/09/2022

Tara's Contact:

• LinkedIn
• KindOfStrange
• Twitter

Much gratitude to The Halp Network for sponsoring this episode of Goddess in Gaming.

Becky Allen has been working in audio for media and gaming for over 25 years.

She received her MFA in computer music at California Institute of the Arts that set her on a course of audio exploration through technology. She started in the industry at Microsoft working on various multimedia and gaming projects as an Audio Lead and then to Soundelux DMG, where she worked on the business side for over 13 years.

She then went back to Seattle and worked at PopCap Games, where she was Audio Director on PVZ Heroes, contributed music on Peggle 2 and many others.

She started the Diversity and Inclusion initiative through the Game Audio Network Guild, when she was Vice President in 2019.

After 6 years at PopCap, she became Senior Audio Producer on Halo Infinite and is now Audio Director at a new AAA start up company, Twin Suns Corp

Recorded: 10/30/2022

Becky Allen Contact: Beckyallenella@gmail.com

Much gratitude to The Halp Network for sponsoring this episode of Goddess in Gaming.

Melissa Smith has been making art for games since 2008 across multiple studios including Santa Monica Studio, Insomniac Games, Vigil Games as well as a handful of indie teams and more recently having joined Riot games.

She has crafted worlds across a variety of universes including God of War 2018, Ragnarok(PS4, PS5,) Ratchet and Clank(PS4,) Sunset Overdrive(XBOX One,) and Darksiders I & II(PS3.)

She builds worlds for games that aim to heighten a sense of immersion and depth to player experiences.

She brings her passion for collaboration and novelty to innovate on the teams she's on - big or small.

A veteran in her craft, she still continues to pursue new frontiers and challenges through continually putting herself in a learning mindset.

Recorded: 10/3/2022

Melissa's Contact Info:

• Email Address: mel.mel.smith@gmail.com

Much gratitude to The Halp Network for sponsoring this episode of Goddess in Gaming.