In their weekly interview series Womenize! features inspirational, diverse people who work in the games and tech industry, to share their experiences, give valuable advice and talk about their projects. In cooperation with Womenize! and Madeleine Egger, GamesMarkt is republishing these inspirations.
Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Bobbi A. Sand, Game Director at Transcenders Media. They speak about how their games and writing combine playfulness with exploring identity and existential challenges, how their focus on inclusivity and cultural expression shapes their creative work, and their hope to inspire others to reflect, express themselves authentically, and create freely. Read more about Bobbi here:
Hi Bobbi! Your career has spanned experimental games, narrative-driven indie projects, and fiction writing. Looking back, which experiences or challenges have fundamentally shaped your creative voice and how have they influenced the stories you choose to tell?
I think I have two main currents in my creative projects, one is the notion of playfulness, a spark that fuels creation, that I find very beautiful and that I love to share with others, through games and ways of creating. The other is the search for the self, identity forming, and existential challenges. When growing up, I had a tough time, and those experiences have drawn me to express my thoughts and emotions through writing, often in stories about challenges to the self. It has also led me to explore playfulness and creativity, mainly through game projects, since I see those as the joy that lights up the dark, if that makes sense.
In your roles at Game Habitat and Dataspelscentrum, you actively promote inclusivity, cultural expression, and the transformative potential of games. How does this work influence the games you create, and what does it teach you about the role of games in reflecting or shaping society?
It goes both ways around–I think I’ve come to work with those topics since I have a very strong belief in the power of games (and other cultural products) when it comes to understanding the world we live in and also shaping it. I want more people to understand that games can have that potential. Then it goes back into the games we make, where working with those issues also affect the outcome of my own creative work. There’s always much to learn about norms, culture, expectations, and prejudice… things that can be quite suitable to explore through games.
When you reflect on the games, stories, and communities you’ve helped build, what impact do you hope your work leaves behind and what guidance would you offer to those looking to explore identity, relationships, and culture through games today?
I think we as humans use cultural expressions in various ways to understand and communicate about the world with others. For me, knowing that my work made someone reflect about themselves and their place in this world, maybe even helped make them become more true to themselves… or that expressing themselves through games made them happier, then I couldn’t wish for anything else. When it comes to expressing oneself through games or other media, it’s easy to get self-conscious and that harms creativity. So dare to be sincere and to create freely, is my advice.
