We recently connected with Victoria (Vee Lee) Ferguson and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria (Vee Lee), looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
For six years I was in the gaming industry as an Animator. I was respected in my lane, but when it came to anything outside of animation, no one really listened. I was a single, chronically online gamer, who spent all their times watching or playing video games, therefore I felt like I had so much more to offer than just animation. I understood trends, I knew what was popular, unpopular, what people wanted out of games and ect. I had a constant flow of ideas and being a graduate of an intense art school, I was also prepared with many skills outside of animation (modeling, concept art, art direction, creative) but there was no space for my voice.
Early on, there was also definitely some sexism I faced such as inappropriate work behavior and blatantly stupid questions like, “how does a girl get into video games?” “don’t cry this Friday during review if they don’t like your work”. The only time I was referred to was for things like: “well you are a female what do you think about this thing involving your gender”.
I was starting to realize people saw me as a little girl that just showed up to do one thing really well, but I was so much more than that.
Then Richard Heyne came along. He saw me as a creator. Not a man, or a woman, or someone to be bossed around. He actually listened to me, and saw that I had potential. We were friends first, but quickly he realized together we could actually make something fun and meaningful since we had the same goal. And now we run a company together making something we love, games that make people laugh and smile.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design as an animator. It was hands down one of the hardest years in my life, but coming out meant I had an array of skills that made me a one many team nearly. At the time I wanted to be an animator and make video games, but quickly learned that making games for corporates wasn’t what I thought it was. I then, on the side of my job, found my passion of content creation and art.
Fan art quickly took ahold of me. I started making art, cosplays, comedy sketches and more online about what ever fandom I was in (anime, video games). It started off as just a way to build community and find people with similar interests but turned into so much more, the persona and brand of VEE LEE. I realized that I could fill a niche in the space of mixing fandoms together and creating something new that got a lot of eyes on my art while making myself happy.
I then started selling my art on Redbubble. I only took home 20% of sales, so it didn’t help me much financially I was just happy to see my art in people’s homes or knowing my animations were making people laugh. When my art got big enough, Redbubble was making bookoos of money off me with me bringing little home, so I transitioned to finally having my own shop that I didn’t open until this year, 2025 at the age of 30.
My art specifically takes something I currently love, (example Baldurs Gate 3 characters) and mixes them with content from our childhood in the 90’s (old disney movies or pokemon) creating something new. My art doesn’t live in the past, but certainly calls out to things from that time in order to evoke that emotion we had as kids. As in terms of style, I can easily mimic and experiment in many styles, so finding my ‘own style’ is still a work in process. I am an artistic chameleon, I can be whatever you need me to be, and pay homage to almost any style which is always an exciting challenge for me. Often my products can get hyper specific, but I think that makes it special. My goal is to really hit you in the heart with multiple meanings and references.
My most recent drop Unus Arcanus is a merging of Unus Annus (a silly yet deep youtube series about two friends spending what little time they have until ‘death’ catches up to them) with the characters based off those from Arcane (Jayce/Viktor who are similarly going through similar themes, racing against time with death around the corner) I love the challenge of taking these two existing things and making them merge perfectly into something new. It is a passion project targeted towards people who know deeply about both things and their themes, but makes it all that more special to those who do. For people like me and my community, fictional stories and characters mean a lot to us, and has gotten us through some really hard spots in life, thus their worth is priceless. By taking these beloved characters and pushing them further, has brought a lot of joy to people and myself, and that’s all I care about. When I started getting dms and emails about how much my art meant to people, I knew I found my purpose.
Fanart at the end of the day, is still pulling from something that already exists however. I still wanted to make something new, my OWN characters and world to bring comfort and joy. And that is where Quest Snakes comes in. It started off as a pitch for a Mobil game that never went anywhere. Eventually my business partner Richard Heyne designed a whole card game around my world and characters.
My goal ,as the artist, with Quest Snakes was to spin the negative narrative on snakes the general public has, since they are often depicted as villains, or dangerous in media into something cute and lovable. The snake community do know the joy of snakes, and don’t get a lot of content for their pets the way other animals do. How many cat/dog games are there? It’s the year of the snake (which we actually didn’t plan) and we want to spread the narrative how important and lovable these creatures are. We want snake people to have games, content, and merch of their favorite animal since its so underserved. And most importantly we want non snake people to find appeal in the characters to help ease them into the idea that snakes are not ‘evil’ or many of the other negative traits they have been given.
Quest Snakes takes derpy cute snakes and puts them into a D&D like realm, since fantasy is our favorite genre. This Ip will always be my baby. We want the main mascot, ‘Slippy’ and his friends to extend beyond the board game, and eventually become an educational outlet to teach and spread more awareness about snakes.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
My career and friend group worked for big entertainment companies, which taught me that money/sales is the goal and measurement of success. This is simply NOT true.
Tons of artists worked at these companies due to their love and passion of the medium. I have watched so many people loose their jobs and lively hoods due to greed of bigger corporations. This stuck to me, that money was the number 1 and if you could make a lot of money you could prove yourself and be successful. But after years of maturing and failure, I learned that success is different for everyone.
I felt that the games I had worked on in the past that didn’t do well with sales were ‘failures’. Now I can look back with pride and say, I DID that. I animated every creature, I brought to life a world, and no number high or low can take that from me.
It got to a point where I didn’t care if Quest Snakes sold a lot of copies, success to me was it simply that it just got made, and we could have a physical piece of our love and care on our shelf.
Now success to me is, did this improve someone’s day? Yes or no. Did this resonate or evoke inspiration to someone else? Yes or no. It is simple as that. Everyday can be a successful one now.
Money is great because it keeps us going, and allows us to continue making games, but I didn’t make any money with my Vee Lee art for over 4 years and looking back I can say it was wildly successful. It made an impact, a positive one at that.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Growing up I was a ‘gifted’ artist but nothing really came of that. In college I couldn’t even get a internship while all my friends were landing some at the biggest of companies. When I finally did get a job, I was over the moon working with the most AMAZING group of people on a VR Voltron game. It was my first taste of joy in the industry quickly ruined by 80 percent of the project employees being laid off right after the game shipped and won an emmy….
This experience was a honest taste of the industry that shows no mercy to the artists it uses and abuses.
Later on, I animated on my first AAA game, but it was tossed aside and left me feeling broken and defeated after dedicating 4 years of my heart and soul into something people said ”eh it sucked”. The ratings and reviews were hard to swallow when you put that much into something. Being an artist in this industry means you are constantly beat down. Whether it be by the employer, the work itself, your own mental, or the audience.
I eventually worked on a total of 5 games, that will never see the light of day (some of which were REALLY GOOD). Months and years of passion thrown down the drain because a ceo said, “eh I don’t get it” or something new and shiny came along that caught an investors attention or poor management spent up all of our funds. It feels like the people with the most control, are the ones who should be the last to have it. And at the end of the day its the artists and workers who suffer, the people who make the game, not the people calling the shots.
On the side with my own company, Real Fake Games, we were suffering the same with projects not getting the help/funding needed to be finished. Things would be clicking and going well, but then we didn’t have the time or money to finish it, (we both have had full time jobs while doing our company projects after work hours).
It felt like being stuck in quicksand that we were warned about in cartoons. The more you fight the faster you sink. It felt like there was nothing I could do, and even though I was overflowing with passion and ideas, none of them had what they needed to see the light of day. Time was flying by, and you watch the years tick away thinking, we could have had so much more accomplished by now if X happened or if we just had X amount of dollars. But the one thing Richard and I never did, was give up. We had been knocked down over and over and over to the point we were tired and destroyed, but we clung on and said no, we won’t give in. Why does making something you love, like a good game have to be so political and complicated? Even if you land funding, the investors want to change the game in their image, with their ideas or conditions, and at that point, its lost it’s soul. There are so many things along the way that can throw a wrench in your plans, including personal life complications.
I was working a full time job, working on Quest Snakes after hours and Vee Lee art as well. I was running myself into the ground, but it finally paid off.
Finally at the age of 30, Quest Snakes happened without any other involvement. A project made only by us, funded by Kickstarter, staying true to its soul. It took years of failure and experiences to finish something. It brought tears to our eyes, finally, something was going to be finished and the world would get to see something that brought us joy. We got a community of snake lovers who we get to interact with and share mutual love with, I got to leave my industry job and go full time for our company Real Fake Games.
And now we can say the beginning is here. Now we plan to keep the ball rolling, use everything we have learned, to simply just make games that we hope mean something to people, the way games impacted us growing up. We will not give up.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/v_lee_z/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-ferguson-405b96103/
- Twitter: https://x.com/QuestSnakes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@QuestSnakes
- Other: Follow us at @QuestSnakes on ALL platforms. I had make animations, memes, and content with our silly snakes!
