Alongside my nomination, a nomination letter was written, and this was really sweet, thank you Sumo for writing it for me!

Amy is everything the games industry needs more of; a passionate and talented woman who loves coding! She is a valuable part of our team, bringing her drive and enthusiasm to our project while dedicating her spare time to advocating for games careers and being a fantastic role model for young women considering joining the games industry. She has taken part in everything from mentorship to Women in Games livestreams, actively raising the profile of women in a male-dominated sphere. 

Amy joined us in September 2021 as a Placement Programmer during her gap year studying Computer Games Technology at Portsmouth University. We were immediately struck by her exceptional initiative and drive, demonstrated by already having self-published her own game on Android, Captain Says. 

Beyond her day-to-day role as a full-time member of our programming team, Amy also dedicates her free time to sharing her knowledge and encouraging young people to consider a career in games. Amy volunteers her free time to mentor aspiring games creators and visits schools and colleges to talk to students about pursuing a career in games.  
 
She is also a freelance game development mentor, teaching students as young as 11 all about game development, from making initial design documents all the way up to finishing games they’ve designed! She shares her knowledge of everything from programming to greyboxing, and uses familiar platforms such as Minecraft to initiate discussions about mechanics. On top of this, Amy also regularly shares her experiences and insights over on her blog, Gamedev Amy.  

In the short time since joining us, Amy has already become a valued member of the team, and her passion for games development shines through everything she does. She is always ready and willing to contribute ideas in meetings and build reviews, and it’s great to see her learning so much so quickly. 

Currently, Amy is working on an unannounced game using Unity. Amy has contributed a significant amount of code to several key areas, including AI and gameplay. As the main AI programmer on the project, the caliber of Amy’s work directly influences how enjoyable the game is —  she has been instrumental in making our game fun to play! 

Amy is responsible for an important feature of the game which is usually assigned to far more experienced programmers. She has risen to the challenge by demonstrating a strong ability to learn fast and grow her technical skills, as well as a great attitude and willingness to be involved in areas of development that are new to her. 

Amy’s personal growth as a coder has been a joy to see. In her short time since joining Sumo Leamington, she has vastly improved her Unity and C# programming skills. She has gained a great deal of experience learning about the process of collaborating with other developers on the team, and her C# programming has notably improved thanks to her eagerness to take on constructive feedback from others during code reviews.  

Amy has also grown a great deal in confidence, and she now feels empowered to contribute to meetings and IM discussions. She has also extended her knowledge and proficiency in using version control software, learning how to use GitHub to fix merge conflicts and use branches. She is also now able to contribute to identifying issues and suggesting changes when reviewing other people’s code. 
 

Overall, we’ve been honoured to welcome Amy into our team and be part of her journey as she grows into a fantastic games developer. We believe that her unique combination of drive, ability, and desire to inspire others sets her apart as a rising talent, and we can’t wait to see how far she goes!