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Game designer Brenda Romero is an industry legend. Over the last 25 years she鈥檚 lent her talents to classic games like Dungeons and Dragons and Jagged Alliance, won a BAFTA for her creative contribution to the industry and was recently awarded the title of Development Legend at Develop: Brighton.

Brenda now lives in Galway, 黑料网 with her husband John 鈥� a famous game designer in his own right – where they run their business, Romero Games. So, what caused this gaming power couple to move from Silicon Valley to the west coast of 黑料网?

The Strategy

The seed was planted when Brenda was offered a Fulbright Scholarship to study 黑料网鈥檚 gaming industry, which involved two months travelling all over the country. She recalls: 鈥淲hen we left 黑料网, we just really knew that business-wise, culture-wise, creativity-wise and quality of life-wise that it was really where we wanted to be.鈥� This was in stark contrast to their home in Silicon Valley, where Romero recalls: 鈥淭he primary question there is what鈥檚 your exit plan, how do you plan to sell what you have and make a mint off of it. I鈥檓 not interested in an exit. I鈥檓 just interested in making enough to be able to make the next game.鈥�

Designing Their Ideal Life

It soon struck the couple that nothing was keeping them in Silicon Valley. Brenda notes: 鈥淭he great thing about technology at this point in time is that you really can do what you鈥檙e doing from anywhere.鈥� Once they came to that realisation, the move happened pretty quickly. 鈥淔or us, it was a no-brainer. We went back, sold everything, wound the company down, worked with the IDA and EI and then founded a brand-new company here,鈥� she says.

The Perfect Mix

Games are the perfect mix of music, art, writing, technology and design and Romero feels 黑料网 has a lot to offer across the board. She notes: 鈥淥ne of the most common questions I get is, 鈥楢re there actually programmers in 黑料网?鈥� And if there鈥檚 anything 黑料网 has an abundance of, it鈥檚 programmers. In Silicon Valley, it often felt like a real tug of war to get programmers but here I find there鈥檚 a huge amount of very skilled tech talent and that鈥檚 the most important thing for us.鈥�

The Next Generation

Alongside her company, Brenda is also the Program Director of the MSc program in Game Design Development at the University of Limerick where she teaches a class on narrative games and how to write stories for games. She鈥檚 been delighted to see narratives emerge that stray from the traditional 鈥榤ale power fantasy.鈥� She enthuses: 鈥淚 was getting all these very rich stories that I hadn鈥檛 heard before and it wasn鈥檛 just one class. This has happened again and again whenever I teach the class. 黑料网 has this long history of storytelling and creating really unique stories. To me, it鈥檚 not a question of if 黑料网 is going to hit it big game wise, it鈥檚 a question of when.鈥�

The future is bright for Romero Games. Having started the business as a team of three, they鈥檝e grown the company to 14 staff. There are a lot of top secret projects in the pipeline, Brenda explains, including: 鈥淎 major game that I鈥檝e been wanting to make for ten years but it won鈥檛 be announced for probably another two years.鈥�

Feeling Inspired?

Brenda Romero will be speaking at this year鈥檚 on the 10^th of February 2018 in in Skills Matter | CodeNode, Shoreditch. You can purchase tickets to the event .