The girlypop journey does not always run smooth, which is why we have a producer to keep us on track! In this month’s… ✨Dev Storytime✨ …we’re going to be meeting with our incredible producer Caitlin ♥️
Caitlin and her plumbob at the fashion parade for the Sims 3 launch party.
Hey there! My name is Caitlin and I’m going to be chatting today about what it’s been like working as a producer in the gaming industry, leading right up to my current work on Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
It all started when I was 13 years old, I had a really bad addiction to The Sims and used to do a lot of modding for The Sims, like making different textures for the clothes in Paint! Back then, you could still access the code for the game, since the whole source code was available on the disc. I guess I was really lucky because, instead of banning me from the computer, my dad recognised the value in what I was doing and thought it was a really useful skill to have. He gave me a book called Game Programming for Teens. After that, I locked myself up in my room and taught myself programming. I even made my own game, which was called Mr Wormy!
I grew up in a place called Bunbury, which is in regional Western Australia, so there was nowhere locally where I could learn about games programming. After I taught myself all that I could, I didn’t feel as though I could really continue down that path. Instead, I ended up getting scouted as a model. For many years, I lived between New York and Paris, working as a model! It was an amazing time but, in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to work in games.
Caitlin with noted fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
During my modeling career, I ended up in 7 issues of Vogue in 5 different countries and even got to meet Karl Langerfeld! Even though I was in Vogue and walked for Chanel and Prada, the actual highlight of my modelling career was in 2009. I got hired for the fashion parade at the Sims 3 launch Party and got to be an actual Sim - plumbob and everything. They had computers with the Sims 3 loaded onto it backstage and I got to play it before it was released. They had to do my hair and makeup with me sitting on the computer. I played games a lot during this time of my life! I used to take my Playstation with me wherever I could. Gaming kept me sane.
Caitlin playing some games to decompress while her hair and make-up are being done for a show.
Then, when I was about 21 years old, I found out that I could get into a University without finishing high school. There weren’t any gaming-related degrees I could do while studying remotely, which is why I opted to do a degree in IT. As so often does though, life got in the way and I had to drop out of that degree, but I ended up getting a job at a popular electronics store in Australia called JB High-Fi. I was working there while teaching myself a bunch of games stuff on the side.
I was looking at jobs in the games industry all of the time while living in Sydney, but I never really had the required experience. Then a job came up at a VR studio in production as a production co-ordinator. I was obsessed with VR at the time, so much so that one of my ex-boyfriend’s had even given me his VR headset after the break-up because he knew how much it meant to me!
I applied for the job, but I had no idea if I would get it or not, since I didn’t have the required industry experience. I did have experience in management, art, and development though, so I was hoping that would sway their decision. In the end, it did! They gave me a shot and that was my door into the industry. After that, I worked in a variety of freelance producer roles in gaming, media, experiential productions, and live virtual performances. Then COVID happened, so I decided to move back to Western Australia to be closer to my parents. In the end, I was really happy with my decision!
Once I’d moved back to Western Australia, I made the totally insane decision to build my own house! To put it into perspective, it cost me about as much money to build a 4-bedroom 2-bathroom house in Western Australia as it was to rent one bedroom in a sharehouse in Sydney. I really wanted to continue making games and there still weren’t a lot of job opportunities locally, so I had to make my own, which is why I also decided to open my own studio.
My husband moved over here from Queensland and joined the studio earlier this year, since he’s also a producer. Now we’re both helping a bunch of studios make sure they ship their games and we’re also starting our own IP at the moment, which is very exciting!
Caitlin with lead developer Jane at Pixel Expo.
When I got back to Western Australia, the games scene was small and mostly hobbyist, with no people really doing it professionally or shipping commercially viable games. I ended up getting involved with a local group called Let’s Make Games and ran a Women Game Jam in my hometown, where I got a bunch of people that I’d met throughout my career to come help the local people to learn more about games development. It was at that point that I realised I could do a lot with the publisher contacts I had from East Australia. Along with a few other people, I started running WA Games Week. It was 4 days of workshops that we also livestreamed to make it available to everyone. We also ran a 1-day immersive conference and a 1-day games expo, where over 1,000 people came to see locally made games.
In terms of my career more recently, I went back to University and got a degree in Software Engineering. I graduated last December! My life now still revolves around gaming and I’m still obsessed with The Sims! I’m also really into Sea of Thieves at the moment and, if anyone ever gives me access to a PS1, I’ll somehow find a way to play Bust-a-Move.
The Don't Stop, Girlypop! dream team at Pixel Expo.
So how did I end up working on Don’t Stop, Girlypop!?
That all began when I first met Jane, the lead developer at Funny Fintan Softworks! She was only 17 years old at the time and still in school, but I just got this really great vibe from her. You know when you meet someone and you just know they’re going to do cool stuff, so you want to do what you can to help them and get involved in any way? That was what it was like with Jane. We did a lot of stuff for WAGIC together, which is what Let’s Make Games became.
I’ve played a lot of Destiny so, when I first saw Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, it gave me these pink Destiny vibes and I absolutely fell in love with it. As she mentioned in a previous dev diary, Jane is also a massive fan of Destiny, so that’s another thing that we bonded over. After Jane signed with Kwalee as the publisher for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, she asked me to come be the producer on the project and I signed up immediately! Now I’m the official producer, but I’ve been involved in the project in an unofficial capacity pretty much since Jane left school.
A fun but exhausting day at Pixel Expo.
The most challenging part of working on Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is that this is Funny Fintan Softworks’ first shippable project, so there have been a lot of learning curves, such as figuring out how to do version control, how to write a milestone report, etc. The team have picked it up so quickly though and they’ve levelled up a lot in the last 6 months. It’s been so wonderful to see everyone grow!
My greatest achievement so far as the producer has definitely been…
Getting the team to use version control! Just kidding. On a serious note, the greatest achievement for me has been watching it all come together, going from the demo to seeing something that’s playable the whole way through. That was a really special moment for the whole team.
I feel like Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is absolutely something that the world needs right now. It’s girl power. It’s not the typical girly game either. It’s the team’s journey, especially Jane’s journey to get it to this point, that has been so inspiring for me.
Watching Jane take this game from a school project, to teaching herself how to pitch and get funding, to navigating her way through publisher contract negotiations, to signing with a publisher, and to having employees has been incredible. Watching her grow as a game developer and as a leader has been so wonderful! Not to mention, it’s a Western Australian game dev success story! A game that was born here, built here, and shipped from here. Everything about this game just feels so good and I’m so honoured to be a part of it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610650/Dont_Stop_Girlypop/
I hope you’ve enjoyed our latest dev storytime, girlypops! Tune in next month for another installment. For now, don’t forget to wishlist Don’t Stop, Girlypop! and click the buttons below to join our Discord or follow us on social media for more updates 💗
