We recently connected with Emily Pitcher and have shared our conversation below.
Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I joined ACM Studio, UCLA’s game development club, in my third year of college. I loved narrative games but was unfamiliar with the process of making them. From learning Unity to writing branching dialogue, I quickly fell in love with the craft. Sondering Studio started as a name for me to release my games under. But with the success of my game A Taste of the Past, a narrative game about a young girl overcoming the loss of her mother through cooking Chinese food, I wanted to take Sondering Studio further. Since the release of that game, we’ve been featured in Game Devs of Color, Code Coven’s Solstice Program, and Polygon.
Emily, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m Emily, a game developer and writer creating heartfelt narrative games with a focus on Chinese American representation. I work with a team of artists, musicians, and programmers to create a cohesive player experience that tells stories about loss, the coming-of-age experience, and identity.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
I handle our marketing through TikToks. At first, I was creating TikToks to market our brand Sondering Studio, but eventually I switched to making videos about myself and my game development journey. Eventually, I shared the story of how I was sexually assaulted by a person I used to make games with. I was nervous about speaking publicly about such a sensitive issue, but I received a lot of support from my audience. Ever since, I’ve been speaking candidly about my experience in the gaming industry.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my business partners through UCLA. We started making a game together, became friends, and quickly realized our team’s synergy. We kept making games together after receiving positive feedback for our projects. Eventually, when I realized I wanted to take game development more seriously, I had to recruit my favorite people to make games with.
Contact Info:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sonderingstudio
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sonderingstudio https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706930/A_Taste_of_the_Past/
Image Credits
Julia Lee Isabelle Szeto Caroline Wang Jaimi Qiu