Who makes games? People make games! Acorn is a varied team of incredible individuals all working together to help amplify indie games and bring unique and exciting experiences to new gamers.
We put together a few simple ‘trading cards’ with fun facts from our Acorn marketing team to help you learn a little more about the people behind the posts.
George
What do you do in your work?
Content and community are the two focuses of my work. Relationships with partner brands and other developers are hugely important so I take a lot of time here to make sure that our friends in the wider industry are supported. I am a huge spreadsheet nerd and I always have my head buried in our social analytics, looking to build out new concepts for social strategies.
What are your favourite games or genres? And where do you play your games?
They say to do what you love, so it comes as no surprise that half of the team at Acorn are huge point and click adventure game fans! Aside from this incredible genre, I love strategy, puzzle and narrative titles. I also have a soft-spot for simulation games, especially racing, something that ties well into our work with Tobii Gaming. My favourite place to play is actually the Nintendo Switch. I wrote a short piece as to why, here.
What else do you work on outside of Acorn?
I have a couple of smaller creative projects on the go! They're behind closed doors for now, but when they are ready, I'm hoping to share them with the team and our clients. I believe strongly in getting as much third-party input as possible, as diverse opinions help ideas to grow.
Alex
How did you first join the team?
One of my clients actually told me a small agency was looking for a writer (I believe it was via Reddit), and I just couldn’t resist. I’d been playing games all my life, but I never had the chance to write about them. Needless to say, I was thrilled when George messaged me back!
What are your favourite games or genres? And where do you play your games?
Definitely RPGs and MMORPGs. There’s something about vast game worlds that keeps me glued to my seat for hours on end. I mostly game on my PC, but occasionally, you might catch me mindlessly tapping away tiny pixels on my phone.
What do you do in your spare time? What hobbies do you have?
I’m a huge language and linguistics nerd, so I’m always looking up words and trying to find links between the languages I already speak (Greek, English, Swedish, and some Spanish). I also love baking, and I’ve been making my own sourdough bread since 2017!
Saskia
How did you first join the team?
I first started working for acorn as a community manager on instagram with Luna and Mutropolis. I then went on to managing twitter and instagram before moving into the content creation side of things.
What else do you do outside of Acorn?
Outside of Acorn I am currently studying interior design which is a huge passion of mine.
What do you do in your spare time?
I love to go hiking and enjoy the outdoor life as it’s refreshing and there is so much to explore. I also have a passion for architecture and end up spending a lot of my time wandering around taking in inspiration and finding new buildings that I fall in love with! I also love to read, game and bake cakes!
Jordan
What is your background?
My design experience was originally based in contract work for the music industry, creating branding and promotional graphics for other artists. You could say my design “internship” was travelling around the US and helping friends figure out a more impactful look for their music!
What do you do in your work?
I bring the extra visual “oomph” to wherever it’s needed at Acorn! That of course includes a variety of regular graphics and images, but the real excitement is in the growing need for animation and video work. Finding the most exciting way to communicate visually will always be my passion, and motion opens up loads more opportunities to do so even better!
What has been your favourite project at Acorn?
It’s been a blast getting the opportunity to help with brands like Tobii, Lenovo, and Ubisoft, but the real joy comes in working with the indie titles. Putting together a pitch video for Hovering Hannah, providing a sneak peek behind the scenes of Lord Winklebottom Investigates, and helping develop key art for Over the Alps were just a few moments of many at Acorn where my passion for visuals and love of community really lit a fire in me to go above and beyond!
Pauline
When did you first join the team?
I met George when he was looking for an English-French translator for Alienware back in 2013. We met online and haven’t stopped working together since.
What do you do in your work?
For now, I work with Acorn for Alienware Arena. I deal with the website customer service and community building.
What are your favourite games or genres? And where do you play your games?
I am huge fan of the Pokémon franchise, and I’ve played all the games. I mostly enjoy playing on the Nintendo Switch since I don’t have a very powerful computer anymore. Outside of Pokémon, those past years I spent tremendous hours playing at Zelda Breath of the Wild and The Witcher III.
Priscilla
How did you first join the team?
I got to know Sarah Johana from Toge Productions at the end of 2020 as Twitter mutuals. Around this time, I got really interested in indie gaming and decided I would need to broaden my knowledge and connection by getting to know the players of the indie community. Sarah then introduced me to George in June 2021.
What are your favourite games or genres? And where do you play your games?
Farming sims and resource management games! I love Stardew Valley and Spiritfarer, they're very dear to me. I also like point&click like Backbone and story rich games like Coffee Talk. I play mostly on PC. Though I find myself very particular with art style, so even if the game sounds fun, but I don't like the art style, I probably won't be interested in playing it.
What do you do in your spare time? What hobbies do you have?
I take care of uncommon indoor plants, I love visiting the local parks/gardens for a mindful stroll or finding great cafes in the city laneways. I recently adopted a cat, so cuddle session with my fluffy cat Elli!
Michael
What is your background? What were you working on before?
I ran my own used bookshop, which was also a music venue and café and ran that for almost ten years before I was forced to close due to the pandemic. It never really recovered.
What else do you work on outside of Acorn?
I run an adventure game site called YakWaxLips where I talk about adventure games all day on the internet. I also have a few different side businesses like book publishing.
Do you have any standout work memories, funny stories or anecdotes?
On my 2nd ever meeting with George after I was hired, I misread the time of the meeting, and of course with a 9 hour time difference, time is of the essence, people get up early, stay up late etc, and so I missed the meeting. I thought I’d shot myself in the foot and lost the job before it began. Thankfully George was understanding and I’ve made sure Google Calendar is my first port of call, and haven’t missed a meeting since!