30
under 30 2024
SPOTLIGHT
Mario Kroll: Slow down a bit and smell the roses. Drive and ambition can be rocket fuel, but they can also rob you of joy and cause you to overshoot your most meaningful goals, often without realising you’ve done so until later. You’re working in video games, it’s not open-heart surgery. If you’re not having fun in this industry, something is wrong and requires a change. I’m not sure how I would have responded. It’s often difficult to slow down when you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder and want to do bigger and better things.
Gina Jackson: My advice would be to work in a different sector where women have greater opportunities, and you’ll find greater support for your values around diversity, fairness and new audiences. My response would have been to ignore it and to do it anyway because I always believe I can change things and take people with me, because I genuinely love the people who I work with in games and love making games and support those who are in their dream jobs.
Mario Kroll: I also hope I would have learned to explore better balance much earlier in life and never forget the importance of loved ones who also need your time and attention.
Simon Byron, aged 53: “Hello Simon. It’s Simon, from the future. Yeah, I’m sorry about the hairline – it really does only get worse. It’s space year 2024 and remarkably you/we are still working in games. Some things to watch out for: Try and remember these times. Your little hobby and fledgling career is about to go mainstream, thanks to Sony’s advertising agency suggesting that everyone playing Wipeout is doing drugs. Take that job as editor of PC Zone when you’re offered it. And when you see that weird machine selling Bitcoin in Loading Bar around 2011 or so, stick a few quid in it.
Simon Byron, aged 22: “What do you mean my hairline gets worse?”
32
What’s the secret to surviving in the games industry for as long as you have?
Gina Jackson: Curiosity for new technology, new process, learning new things every day and working with a group of inspiring, caring and brilliant people who can see the genius and the flaws in making games the way we do today.
Catherine Channon: Be positive, be proactive, lean in, help out and create the space for others to be the best they can.
Tony Warriner: Never stand still. Remember our values from the 1980s but with a willingness to be constantly learning new stuff while ditching bad ideas. Also, regular, but mostly moderate, wine red consumption. Just look at Charles Cecil for proof of that.
Mario Kroll: Some days you simply have to put one foot in front of the other and do the best you can at that moment. Failure and setbacks are valuable teachers rather than signals to stop trying. Some of the most crucial things I’ve learned were based on painful mistakes I made earlier in life.
Simon Byron: Don’t be a dick.
Slow down a bit and smell the roses. Drive and ambition can be rocket fuel, but they can also rob you of joy...
30 under 30 2024
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
