Speakers

Hi! I'm Shay! I am an AuDHD, Environment Artist currently working for EA at Criterion Games. I always grew up playing video games, creating art, and inventing worlds so when I found out that I could pursue that as a career I ran at the opportunity! 

I mostly spend my day to day creating props and assets to help with set dressing and contextualising the space that our players explore.

My first ever title was NFS Unbound which holds a special place in my heart because of how unapologetically loud, bold, and expressive the development team wanted the game to be. My latest release I contributed to was Battlefield 6 which was a fun challenge to me as I had to change the way I created assets and player spaces to ensure our players had a balanced experience as an FPS. 

Outside of my daily tasks, I'm passionate about mentoring, participating in work shadowing opportunities for nearby schools and attending events such as Black Tech Fest with our work's employee resource group BEAT (Black EA Talent), talking with potential applicants about my job role and giving insights about the potential to work in the gaming industry as a career path as well as give advice about how to shine as a candidate for a role. 

One of the main reasons why I enjoy attending these talks is because as a POC, I feel deeply over the fact that the gaming industry could look to improve in terms of representation, both within a studio and with how we're portrayed in games. One of the reasons I'm proud to work at Criterion and EA is that our artists are open to educating and finding any opportunity to ensure everyone is represented in our games and that our games are accessible to everyone.

I've been working in games for over 4 years, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Over this time, I felt I've been given the space and time to be my most eccentric, confident, and creative and have grown to love the people I work with and the studio that I work at, creating games that I am proud of.