Robin Lawrence

What have the highlights been of your time at Abertay?

The main highlight would have to be Dare Academy. I was part of the winning team last year and it meant we got to go to big game shows like EGX in Birmingham and, because we won, the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.

The team was great and working on our game, Kinoko, was amazing.

How did it feel when you won Dare?

It was crazy, really overwhelming. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how people have reacted to Kinoko. Obviously we worked hard on the game and I think it’s a really nice experience, but because it’s very chill and relaxing I wasn’t sure what people would make of it. It’s really nice that people have engaged with it in the way we hoped that they would.

You were part of the Digital Graduate Show, what was that like?

Amazing! I was a student guide as well as a participant so it meant I got to show people around and bring people explicitly to my booth and explain my project to them, which was really cool.

My project was about themes of gender identity, and really personal stuff. I was a bit nervous about how people would receive it, but the reaction at the show was really nice. I got a lot of positive, supportive comments about my work.

You’re now working at Pocket Sized Hands, how have you enjoyed that so far?

It’s been really good. I started working there last year, as an intern at first and then they brought me in part time. I gained invaluable experience which was great, and now they’ve taken me on full-time. I’m a general artist there so I get to do every part of game art. It’s exciting because I come in every day and I don’t know what I could be doing. It’s a lot of fun.