It sounds a bit unusual for a girl to be in love with videogames but Jennifer Pinto will tell you things are changing fast. In a worldwhere the video game industry is considered to predominantly male, Jenniferbelongs to the rare breed of girls who enjoys a career in this field. Afterhaving worked on various video games for Nokia, iPhone and android, shecontinues to juggle designing and managing her team of designers andprogrammers as the Art Director at RZ2 Games in Panjim.
For Jennifer, whose only relevance to the gaming industrywas ‘Super Mario’ when in school, a career in gaming industry was not a part ofher plan. After acquiring her Bachelors in Fine Arts (Applied Art) in Goa,Jennifer moved to Mumbai for a Graphic and Animation course at MET (Mumbai EducationalTrust). She adds, “There, along with 3D, web designing, advertising, I wasexposed to career avenues available in the gaming industry. Through on-campusplacements, I got selected in a gaming company called ‘Kreeda Games, Mumbai’,and I joined as a Game User Interface Designer. I developed a further interestand now my life is surrounded with game developers and gamers.”
According to Jennifer, her strong foundation in art and herexperience spread across various aspects of creating video games, gives her anedge over people who specialise in one particular aspect. Apart fromflexibility, this also ensures security during rough times like recession.Although technical skills are helpful in the video game industry ” and femaleprogrammers are needed ” one need not know how to code to work in video gamesbut it is best to learn it anyway. She adds, “If one can design and knowsprogramming, you can create your own video games “ similar to people in Chinaand US, as young as 15 and 16 who are making their own games. If you want tocreate video games, start doing it now by teaching yourself about the videogame industry.
Jennifer’s beaming face gives a testimony to the fact thatshe is enjoying being where she currently is. She adds before signing off, “Idon’t think there are any negative sides to this industry. However, even when Iplay games for the fun of it, I end up comparing other games and finding scopesof improvement. After all, I get paid to play during work hours and that’s apart of my job. I couldn’t have asked for a more fun career!”
