Media Molecule’s Studio Director, Siobhan Reddy Shows that Gaming Can Succeed with More Diversity
Gaming, perhaps more than any other industry, found itself under the microscope in 2015. Conversations abounded about whether the industry could successfully diversify and welcome women and minorities within its ranks.
Luckily, critics don’t need to look far for a leading example: U.K. gaming studio Media Molecule, led by Siobhan Reddy — a rare female studio director — is an example of what can be achieved when a range of voices contribute to a creative endeavour.
Reddy, 36, who grew up in Australia before moving to the U.K., is the head of a team that makes award-winning games that are a far cry visually and mechanically from your average post-apocalyptic epic or shoot ’em up. LittleBigPlanet, one of the studio’s best known titles, allows players to build their own artistic worlds and share them with other players.
Media Molecule’s upcoming PlayStation game Dreams aims to take this idea even further, with stunning visuals and innovative player controls. Mashable Australia sat down with Reddy in Sydney in December, 2015 at Playstation’s 10th anniversary celebrations to discuss building Dreams and how she manages her studio.
Building Dreams
Media Molecule had been mulling the idea of an adventure game based on surfing through people’s dreams for awhile, Reddy explained. The team wanted users to experience challenges in different times, moods and atmospheres, while also being able to construct their own worlds.
Working on Dreams has been a ground-up, exploratory process. Particularly important to Media Molecule is the process of “jamming” — coming together to throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks.
“We’ve had the concept of jamming at Media Molecule for a long time, it’s how we aspire to work,” Reddy said. “The best thing about the idea of a jam is it starts in one place and ends up somewhere completely different.”
To Reddy, creation and play are universal concepts, and integral to what she called the “dreamaverse” of Dreams. “One of the things we’re encouraging with the tools is a very human element — pick it up and move it,” she said. “You can pick a character up and change the walk and talk cycle, you can add a hat. Things are very personal, very unique.”
The strength of a diverse team
While admitting there is always more that can be done to diversify the studio, Reddy said her own experiences have emphasised the importance of working with a broad range of people.
“I was born in South Africa, I grew up in Australia. I’ve always been surrounded by diverse communities of people,” she explained. “When I was first worked in games, I was younger, I was female, I was Australian. Those differences have always added to the mix of who I am.”
The studio, which is 10 this year, has seen valuable creative results when it has added people from different backgrounds. “I see it when we add new people to the team who come from somewhere different, with a different perspective, whether their culture, sexuality, age,” she said.
While Media Molecule, like many similar companies, is a tough environment, Reddy said it’s important to her that that people within the studio feel supported. “There’s this wonderful thing about creating a place where people are happy to work, where we can grow old creating games together.”
It’s rare to hear a director talk so honestly about the lives of their employees. “There is work involved in having flexible setups for people so if they have children they have time to deal with family life,” she said. “On the other side, it’s also really important to make sure people who don’t have children don’t feel the pressure … to pick up the slack.”
“It’s a pretty tough environment to work in,” she went on. “When people are in the studio, it’s all about getting on and achieving goals. But I think it’s important for us as a studio to have an environment that enables creativity, and also respects people as human and makes sure they feel that.”
Reaching a new audience
Reddy agreed that Media Molecule’s approach has created a unique set of games that appeal to people not always thought of as gamers.
“We’re starting to see people who haven’t even necessarily played any games before, or wouldn’t consider themselves gamers, being interested in Dreams,” she said. “People who are creative or interested in technology, but haven’t yet made that console purchase decision.
“At the same time, we’re seeing a lot of interest from traditional gamers. It’s quite broad.”
Even Reddy herself doesn’t come from a traditional gaming background. It was just by happenstance that she discovered the Internet after she left Australia when she was 18, but she had always been interested in film and music as a teenager and it came naturally. “Video games are this amazing combination of those things,” she said.
Encouraging others to join the fun
Reddy said she welcomed the increased discussion around diversity, but emphasised it’s important the conversation also looks at craft and attracting people to the industry broadly.
“It’s important for people to know you can actually have a wonderful career in gaming,” she said. “It’s a fruitful career, it can be a lucrative career, it’s a creative career. Until we’ve cracked that, I still want to keep talking about it because it’s important for people to understand the potential.”
Nevertheless, in 2016, it’s not yet time to stop talking about encouraging minorities in gaming. “We need people’s different perspectives, because it’s a medium,” she said. “If writing was only by one type of person, then you’d only get one type of book.”Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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