Welcome to an extraordinary day-long educational forum, dedicated to showcasing the incredible achievements and insights of professional women in the European Games Industry.
This unique event provides an invaluable opportunity for students globally to engage directly with industry pros, learn their career stories and game dev best practices. This forum is developed to inspire and educate the next generation of game developers.
This forum is proudly sponsored by Xbox, Acer Predator, and Skillsearch.
Partners include: SwipeRight PR, DevCom, and Women in Games UK.
Tune in to the Event Horizon School channel on YouTube on September 13 to stream our speakers, live interviews and video content, free and in English.
THE SPEAKERS
ALESSANDRA TOMASINA
SENIOR PRODUCER – NACON STUDIO MILAN
Alessandra was initiated to adventure, strategy and role-playing games when she was a young geek-in-training (and has never stopped playing since then). A few years later she was also playing for work, as she joined leading Italian gaming portal Multiplayer.it as a game critic and started collaborating with localisation and QA agencies around the world as a game translator, tester and scout. Fast forward 15 years, and she has multiple roles across the gaming industry under her belt, ranging from Production to Marketing, giving her a comprehensive knowledge of all the processes involved in making and marketing games, from concept design to distribution.
She is now working as a Senior Producer at Nacon Studio Milan, where she keeps leveraging her communication and organisational skills to coordinate cross-functional teams, with a focus on process design and improvement.
ARIANNA FUSETTI
LIGHTING ARTIST – FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS
Hi! My name is Arianna, I am a Lighting Artist for Frontier Developments, known for Jurassic World Evolution, Elite Dangerous and the Planet franchise.
Prior to joining Frontier, I’ve been working for Milestone s.r.l. as lighting and VFX Artist on various titles such as Hot Wheels:Unleashed and Ride4.
My journey to professional lighting has been far from a straight line. After completing a two-year course as 3D generalist in Milan, I’ve been freelancing from 2D motion design for television to 3D character art for indie studios.
Beyond my professional endeavors, I’m actively involved in several communities dedicated to supporting aspiring talents in the industry.
CAROLA PETTINATO
ASSOCIATE GAME DESIGNER – CRITERION/ELECTRONIC ARTS
Ciao! My name is Carola, I am a passionate Game Designer and Extended Reality enthusiast from Sicily, Italy.
After my studies in Modern Literature at the University of Messina, I have decided to move to London, a place where the past and the future coexist in harmony. If there is one very thing that this great city taught me, is that you can become anything you want, and so I did.
In 2019, after intensively playing The Last of Us, I decided to challenge myself with a new adventure: To become a Game Developer.
It was in 2020 that I finally decided to go back to university, I am currently enrolled in the course of (BSc) Computer Games Design at Staffordshire University London, graduating this summer 2024.
I landed my first job in the industry in 2022 as a Game Designer Intern for Criterion Games – Electronic Arts, working on the latest Need For Speed Unbound. Here I continue to work as a Game Designer, currently working on the Battlefield series.
I became a Women In Games Ambassador and Video Games Ambassador with Ukie in 2022, throughout this journey I have shared my passion for game design and helped people to understand how the game industry works and how to break into this exciting field.
Besides games, I love spending my time going to gigs and listening to music, going places and taking pictures, and travelling the world.
IRENE FILOSCIA
GFX/UI PROGRAMMER – MILESTONE SRL
Hi, my name is Irene and I am a gameplay programmer at Milestone Srl.
I have always played video games, read lots of books and generally consumed all (preferably sci-fi or fantasy) media I could get my hands on. My path towards video games development was not very straightforward: I began as a pure mathematician, mainly focused on geometry and topology. Then I slipped more and more into a hands-on approach, entering the magic world of digital fabrication; after one year of academic research, I was striving for something more applied and turned my gaze on game development.
Milestone took me in and made a game developer out of me: at first more focused on the GFX aspects and now with a main focus on UI.
LISA GOBBI
SENIOR ENVIRONMENT ARTIST – AVALANCHE STUDIOS
Hello!
I’m Lisa, Senior Environment Artist in Avalanche Studios Group based in London.
After a degree in economics and a Game Art course in Digital Bros Game Academy in 2015 I started my career at Ovosonico to then join Milestone in Milan as an environment artist.
In 2019 I moved to the UK to work with Codemasters on Dirt 5 before joining Avalanche’s new studio in Liverpool.
In addition, I’m a Women in Games Ambassador, DBGA panelist, Video Game Tax Credit Board Member and Red Bull Indie Forge 2023 judge.
In my free time, when I’m not playing video games or watching art tutorials, I try to stay active dancing, doing yoga and visiting as many art exhibitions as I can.
MARIA ELENA SILLETTI
LEAD UI PROGRAMMER – NACON STUDIO MILAN
Double names have a lot of issues to remember them, so I prefer Elena :)
Playing games since I was a child, the thought of being part of this world never abandoned me. So I took my sword and shield as a chance to work for elevating the User Interface at next level, especially in Italy! I work hard to fulfill whatever the user could expect from a good game product, that’s my main quest.
SCHEDULE
REGISTRATION
INTRO KEYNOTE
All of the speakers and the hosts for the Women Create Games forum will be on the stage to greet the audience and introduce the event.
Hosted by Fiona Cherbak.
CAROLA PETTINATO
HOW TO THINK? A GAME DESIGN JOURNEY
Illustrate the figure of game designers in the industry, differentiating roles and duties within game development. Highlight what skills are required for this role, emphasizing the power of choices we make to impact player experience.
LISA GOBBI
BEYOND BORDERS: THE JOURNEY OF AN ENVIRONMENT ARTIST IN THE BRITISH GAME INDUSTRY
In this panel we will explore the core responsibilities of environment artists, emphasizing their critical role in shaping immersive game worlds.
I will share my transition from the Italian gaming industry to working abroad, highlighting the significant differences in work culture, industry practices and creative opportunities.
The discussion will also provide an honest look at the challenges and rewards of working internationally, including adapting to new environments and the impact of diverse cultural influences on artistic expression.
Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, this panel aims to inspire and inform aspiring environment artists, shedding light on the global nature of the gaming industry and the exciting prospects it holds.
NETWORKING BREAK
Talk to the speakers and widen your professional network.
ARIANNA FUSETTI
LIGHTING THE WAY: THE IMPACT OF LIGHTING ON PLAYERS AND MY CAREER
Have you ever wondered why you get a gut feeling about a character at first glance or instinctively know which road to take in a video game? Chances are, it’s because of expertly crafted lighting. In this piece, I’ll explore why light is an essential storytelling tool and share my journey to becoming a lighting artist, including all the mistakes I made along the way.
NETWORKING LUNCH
A free lunch for all the forum participants.
ALESSANDRA TOMASINA
PRODUCERS: UNSUNG HEROES OF GAME DEVELOPMENT
What’s a Game Producer?
That’s the first question I get, whenever I tell people what I do for a living.
And that’s for a reason: the Game Producer role is largely unknown to the masses, and certainly not as popular as the Game Designer or Game Programmer roles even among the most savvy gamers or anyone with any interest in game development.
This talk aims to lift the veil on such an obscure and multifaceted job, while answering the big question above and more, including your own!
MARIA ELENA SILLETTI
TO USER INTERFACE AND BEYOND
Why do we need to take care about player’s expectations? How the game communicates to the user?
A brief introduction about UI structures with a touch of user experience and an interactive talk about what aspects of a product could engage the players more.
NETWORKING BREAK
Talk to the speakers and widen your professional network.
IRENE FILOSCIA
BEYOND CODE: PROMOTING TEAMWORK AND SYNERGY AS A GAME PROGRAMMER
Most people interested in video games know that, in order to create one, you need several different teams, each one dedicated to its own form of art: creating stunning animation, coding the most efficient save system or finding the perfect translation for that fundamental item description.
What is less known is that these separate entities need to constantly co-operate and if they do not work in harmony everything can rapidly fall apart.
In this talk we will see how a good synergy is essential to the game developing process and especially how game programmers can be the glue that holds everything together.
CLOSURE AND GREETINGS
OUR PODCASTS
THE HOSTS
FIONA CHERBAK
LEAD PEOPLE & TALENT PROGRAM MANAGER – XBOX GAME CONTENT & STUDIOS
Fiona designs and drives inclusive hiring initiatives across 1st-party studios at Xbox Game Studios. She was previously Talent Lead for Gaming Talent Acquisition at Xbox, and Talent Acquisition Lead, Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Fiona is former chairperson of IGDA Women in Games SIG, co-founder of Women in Games International, partnership advisor for the European Women in Games Conference and Women in Games Jobs U.K., co-creator of GameMentorOnline and co-founder of the Boston Festival of Indie Games, now in its 12th year.
MICAELA ROMANINI
FABIO CRISTI
He has been involved in videogames since 1997, when he was 16. After a decade as a journalist for several magazines (Multiplayer. it, Official Playstation Magazine, Fastweb, Wired) and translator, he joined Milestone Srl as a producer, working on MOTOGP13 and other games such as WRC 2, MUD and SBK GENERATIONS. He then moved to Digital Bros, in 2014, to take care of Fantasfida, the first Italian daily fantasy sports game.
After leaving Digital Bros, in 2016 he joined Vae Victis, a small independent development studio based in Cesena, where he worked on their new product Racecraft and some unannounced projects.
In 2018 he decided to take the leap and go freelancing, working as a freelance project manager with companies in PC, console and mobile games, virtual reality, smartphone applications and web services.
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