We’re thrilled to introduce Chride Lassheikki who will be judging the Game Writing SIG Arcjam!
Chride Lassheikki is a Senior Narrative and Game Designer at Nitro Games in Helsinki, Finland. They are also a cofounder of the Pride Game Jam HKI, and have been co-hosting the Game Writing SIG script reading sessions since 2021.
Let’s get to know you! How did you originally get into game development?
“Through game jamming of all things! I was studying art education towards a teaching degree when my then-boyfriend, now-husband asked me to join a jam back in 2015. For me, what fascinated me was the multidisciplinary collaboration of it all. I’d tried film, comics, improv, illustration and other collaborative storytelling mediums, but games have a mix of technical, artistic, and people skills that makes that collaboration — and learning — sparkle.”
We’ve been going through incredibly tough times in the industry. What keeps you going?
“The sense of community, and the people. There’s just something absolutely fantastic about game developers that I haven’t found in other creative endeavours. There’s also a much stronger aspect of lifelong learning, and a more vibrant culture of knowledge-sharing than in other fields I’ve been in.”
We shared some basic advice for our jammers in this blog post. What’s your #1 tip for our game jammers?
“Stay open-minded! Let your curiosity guide you into the weird. I know it’s tricky, but the less you focus on winning and just do your own thing, the better your chances will be.”
Learning new tech can be quite daunting, but is vital to a career in game narrative. How do you approach learning new technical skills?
“I’m a discovery-based, rather tactile learner. I usually start by messing around in the software or tool, asking questions in my head like ‘what does this button do?’. Only when I have formed questions like ‘how do I do X with this tool?’ do I look at the documentation or tutorial projects.”
Finally — What do you like to see in a game narrative portfolio piece?
“Keep it brief, and show me what you find fascinating. To me, the worst kind of portfolio is the mediocre one. Don’t serve it raw, but don’t cook all the juice out either. Give me different characters, a bit of humour, and some local flavour. Dragons? Dragons. Whenever in doubt, dragons.”
Check out our other judge spotlights below:
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