Date: 2009-02-23 Category: Events

Women Shaping the Future of Wales

Biography, Emma Westacott

Research Fellow, Computer Games Design, Newport School of Art, Media & Design University of Wales Newport

Emma Westecott has worked in the game industry for over ten years, producing and programming games as well as lecturing in game design internationally. She achieved international recognition for working closely with Douglas Adams as producer for the best-selling CD-ROM adventure game, Starship Titanic 1998, Simon & Schuster.

Over the years, she has built up a worldwide reputation for developing original, as well as popular projects and products. She has established herself as a figurehead and spokeswoman for a more emotional approach to gaming.

Westecott has been invited to present her vision and philosophy at many prestigious international venues including BAFTA, the Tate and the Banff Centre amongst others. She has spoken alongside the big players of the industry such as Peter Molyneux Lionhead and Will Wright Maxis of The Sims fame.

Her focus is based on a belief that the current boom of the industry is not sustainable without a creative evolution of game form, both in terms of creating new experiences and new markets, and in 2007 she organised the international Women in Games confererence.

She is currently consulting as a Skillset Evaluator on the validation of computer games undergraduate degrees in the UK, and is a core contributor to the Synergy games research group at Newport. This, combined with her recent invaluable experience running the Zerogame Studio for The Interactive Institute in Sweden, and the impressive body of work created under her leadership, have brought her to her latest position as Research Fellow at University of Wales Newport.