Emily Brown | Lead Designer

Emily Brown | Lead Designer

Emily Brown bounced between Oman and the UK when she was younger, eventually taking a psychology degree and then a Masters in Human Computer Interaction over here. This combo earned her a place at Sony PlayStation, designing games for the EyeToy. Her career snowballed from there, she says, leading to her current role at ustwo games, via Microsoft, Rovio and a period of freelance. Her passion for marrying entertaining gameplay with an affecting user experience provided a key element for ustwo’s joyful Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (2020), which earned three BAFTA nominations.

In their own words:

“My background is psychology and human computer interaction, so design and technology. I found myself more interested in playfulness and aesthetics rather than efficiency and effectiveness...

“I grew up in Oman, so we had the Famicon and a family friend gave us a Gameboy. I spent hours playing Mario on that. So games were always part of our lives, but I never really thought about it as a career. When I started to think about what I wanted to do, the appeal of making something that someone would get joy from was just too attractive...

“Ustwo games comes from a design consultancy background, they emerged from a studio that was client based creation, so they are this mix of design process, understanding user experience and player focus. So it suits my psychology background and UX background in games...

“BAFTA Breakthrough is something I was aware of, as there are people I’ve worked with who have been Breakthroughs. But I didn’t really know what it meant, what was involved or what it could unlock in terms of the connections you can make... Part of me is just excited to see what opportunities emerge from it. I’ve met some amazing people already from my fellow cohort. I’m really interested to meet people who have had similar experiences to me in this industry but maybe have been here a while longer... I hope to meet people I can learn from.”

Emily’s Breakthrough credit is the game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

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