Girls in the Video Game Industry #5: Amanda Fitch

July 23, 2010 at 8:09 pm | Posted in Girls in the Video Game Industry interview series | 10 Comments
Tags: Amanda Fitch, Aveyond, girl gamers, rpg maker, video games

I can’t believe there’s only 4 more days until Starcraft II is released. I feel like I’ve waited forever to find out what happens next in the story… will Kerrigan become human again? Will Mengsk ever get his comeuppance? I’m so excited! Tod has a bunch of Starcraft novels from when he worked at Blizzard, and I’ve already gone through all of them. I think I might replay the campaigns from the original Starcraft in order to refresh my memory of the story again, too… So many good games, so little time! I’m really hoping Ni no Kuni will be released in the states… and there’s the new Donkey Kong Country, Pokemon Silver, the WoW expansion, Spirit Tracks, the 2nd and 3rd Professor Layton… now is a great time to be a gamer.

Girls in the Video Game Industry #5: Amanda Fitch
Game Designer and founder of Amaranth Games

After spending 2.5 years working on an rpg of my own, I think I can better appreciate the sheer amount of dedication Amanda has for creating video games. In the past 5 years alone, Amanda has independently developed over 5 games (3 of which are rpgs… and for those of you who are familiar with the immense amount of work that goes into crafting an rpg, you’re probably just as amazed as I am). She also runs a small but successful video game portal at amaranthia.com. An active member of the community, Amanda has donated several free art and programming resources to the rpg community and has been a source of guidance for many budding game developers out there.

1.) Can you tell us a bit about your job?

I manage the financial and creative direction for Amaranth Games.

2.) How did you get into the video game industry?

It was an accident. I used to create freeware games for the fun of it. One of them did very well. I realized that I might be able to turn my hobby into my job. It was exciting when I finally took the leap and I’m glad I did. I love my job.

3.) What are some of your favorite games?

Fable 2 and Dire Grove are the two most recent games that I loved enough to finish. I’m also a big fan of the Zelda DS games.

4.) What were some of your favorite projects to work on and why?

In general, the Aveyond games are my favorite. Working with RPG Maker makes the whole game development process fun and I love RUBY scripting language. The part I love the best about Aveyond is making maps.

5.) What are your thoughts on being a female in the video game industry?

I wish we had more female game designers and programmers. The number of women in the games industry is growing, but in general, it seems like most women are choosing to take supporting roles in marketing and testing.