Our inaugural advisory board was formed in 2021 from a range of people that we have worked with across Grads In Games events in the past, many of whom have already been instrumental in improving the way we educate and support students, academics and the games industry. With a combination of people from industry and academia, as well as recent graduates, we trust that this advisory board will help us to shape Grads In Games in line with our mission and values.
Grads In Games Advisory Board
Lizi Attwood
Technical Director, Furious Bee
Lizi Attwood has been working in the games industry for over 18 years and in that time contributed to more than 20 published titles on multiple platforms. She has worked on console games, PC games and mobile games in areas as diverse as Gameplay, Networking, AI, Physics, Graphics and Presentation.
She also has a keen interest in helping graduates get into the industry and generally improving the diversity of the people making games.
Thad Frogley
Technical Director, nDreams
Thad has been helping people make games professionally since 1995. Some people might even say he’s sort of okay at it.
Phil Owen
Engineering Director, d3t
Phil started his career in the Games Industry in 1994. He worked for a number of companies including Juice Games and TT Fusion before joining d3t, where he now focusses on discovering new talented programmers as well as mentoring, expanding and leading the engineering team.
Marcia Deakin
Co-Founder, NextGen Skills Academy
With over 20 years experience in the UK games industry Marcia is Co-Founder at NextGen Skills Academy, an organisation dedicated to working with employers and education to address skills shortages in Games, Animation and VFX. She is a Trustee of the BGI and member of Screen Skills Games Council
Claire Boissiere
Studio Director, Jumpship Games
VP of Studios, Thunderful Games
Chair of the BGI
Claire has been at the forefront of games development for nearly 20 years, working across production, design and narrative to deliver innovative and award-winning games. She has worked at AAA development studios like PlayStation London and Media Molecule.
Claire is currently Studio Director of indie developer Jumpship working on their debut title Somerville, a hand-crafted narrative Sci-Fi adventure. She is also Chair of the BGI and National Videogame Museum.
Jacob Habgood
Director of Education Partnerships, Sumo Digital Group
Jake’s career straddles the games industry and education, having cut his development teeth as a PlayStation programmer for Gremlin Interactive in the 90’s. He spent ten years in academia, and was Reader in Game Development at Sheffield Hallam University where he was the founder and director of The Steel Minions Game Studio. He has a PhD in the psychology of learning, having published a range of academic papers in the field of serious games and has written two hobbyist books on game programming.
Jake is now back in the games industry applying his passion for the industry’s talent pipeline as Director of Education Partnerships for the Sumo Digital Group.
Nick Dixon
Narrative Director, Ubisoft
Nick Dixon is a games industry veteran with over 15 years’ experience in game design, creative direction and pitching. Nick has 11 published games across 12 different platforms and has written the screenplay for four of those titles.
Nick has created successful concepts for high profile franchises, including Star Wars, Stargate, Doctor Who and has worked with BBC Worldwide, Universal, Laika Studios, MGM and Warner Bros and these concepts have signed to generate over £30 million of development business for the studios that he has worked with. Nick was previously Senior Lecturer in Game Development at Falmouth University.
Matt Wilson
Global Learning & Development Manager, Cloud Imperium Games
I am Games Development Teacher and Program Lead with a track record of creating a dynamic and engaging learning environment for Games Development. Evolving teaching content to secure the necessary skills and knowledge to support a pathway to the Games Industry. I have established relationships with games Industry leads to provide paid internships at level 3 which has led to successful employment.
Sharon Tolaini-Sage
Research & Education Consultant, Women In Games
Sharon Tolaini-Sage was previously an Associate Professor in Games Art and Design at Norwich University of the Arts. She is actively engaged in efforts to bring about gender equality in the games sector, and her strong focus is to increase effective collaboration between the games industries and education.
Eilidh MacDonald
Industry Employability Champion, Goldsmiths University
Eilidh works in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, UoL as Industry Employability Champion. She builds relationships and collaborations with different sectors and employers to improve employability opportunities and outcomes for students. A key relationship for this work is the Games sector.
Moses Noxolo
Programmer, Well Played Games
After having an interest in games and coding from childhood, I went to study Games Programming at Goldsmiths University of London.
After graduating, with assistance from Grads in Games, I managed to get my current job at Well Played Games.
Madison Riley
Environment Artist, Build A Rocket Boy
SFAS 2020 Finalist
I’m Madison Riley, an environment artist [previously] at Lucid Games working on Destruction AllStars. I love creating stylized environments in my own time, and exploring different styles of texturing and lighting!