Games Students Impress Mediatonic's Marketing Director

Being able to hear the expert advice of industry practitioners is just one of the benefits of attending university; having your work reviewed by those experts is another.

Haley Uyrus, Marketing Director at Mediatonic, recently visited the Games Academy, where she ran a talk, met with students, explored the facilities and reviewed some of the games being made.

Prior to working at Mediatonic, an independent games developer focussed on Live Games for Mobile and PC (such as Gears Pop, Fable Fortune, Amateur Surgeon and Yahtzee with Buddies), Haley worked at Failbetter, creator of the Fallen London Universe games.

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She told us: “It was a pleasure to come and speak to the games program. I knew it was going to be good but I was still astounded by the overall quality of the program, as well as the games that the students showed me. Walking into the computer lab felt like walking into a proper game studio (with sprint boards and post-it notes to boot)!” 

Many of the students showed Haley their games, talking her through their projects.

Haley said: “Trying out the games was a treat, but on top of that, it seemed a lot of students I spoke with already had a great understanding of game development, design and even the right type of questions and concerns they should have on their list to think about marketing-wise – with a few students already having accounts on pages like Game Jolt.”

Game Jolt is one of the biggest indie gaming platforms in existence, with millions of gamers and indie developers visiting Game Jolt each month, exploring over 100,000 indie games.

Haley added:

Honestly, I wish more current professional indie devs had the same level of marketing knowledge [as the students do]!”

The offering and quality of the students’ work impressed Haley so much that she is now looking at potential collaborations with the department, including a series of talks with professional game developers that are currently working in the industry. Stay tuned!