DEANA GALBRAITH
Creative Director ● Producer
Hello! 👋 I'm a designer and producer working in games for the last 9 years. I’m currently a Producer on Neopets spearheading our annual events and features. I am passionate about bite-sized games and budding game studios! To help support game developers I share advice in my blogs, socials and support Kickstarter Campaigns. I've backed 60+ Kickstarter Campaigns so far!
I’ve worked on a variety of games and platforms, including Neopets games (Web Browser and Mobile), Path of Kami, Virtual Battlegrounds, and The Commission Series.
You can learn more about my work below! ❤️
Professional Pillars✨
Creative Direction
Craft creative vision; from initial pitch and pillar identification to release and live support
Process Development
Improve workflows + processes for cross-functional team collaboration
Leadership & Strategy
Build teams, product strategy, consultations, + biz dev
Awards🏆
AT&T Unlocked Games
Path of Kami honorable mention in the AT&T Unlocked Games Showcase
Girls Make Games
Star Counselor Staff Award
Indienomicon Indie Awards
Celestial Harmony won "Best Use of Game Mechanic"
Gameography 🎮
NEOPETS TALES OF DACARDIA
Simulation
DESCRIPTION: Neopets: Island Builders is a 3D construction simulation game where players have to rebuild the island nation of Dacardia. The game originally released in 2022, I had the opportunity to work with the team on the re-imagined version that's currently in development. My role involved leading the design team in establishing the game's vision and roadmap. I worked collaboratively with other team leads to meet deliverables, managing design sprint planning and delegating tasks. Kept stakeholders and product managers updated on design team progress and team challenges. Led design huddles, brainstorming and held design reviews. The mobile game is currently in Closed Beta.
PATH OF KAMI
Simulation, Exploration
DESCRIPTION: Path of Kami: Journey Begins was Captilight's Debut game where players can play as a spirit of a wolf on a journey to ascend to the spirit world. I founded Captilight in 2019 and acted as the Creative Director on the project. My role involved leading a team of (5-10) members through all phases of production on the project which spanned 10 language markets worldwide. I specifically worked on defining the project schedules, budget, scope, and planning while directing the overall game vision. I also acted as Head of Marketing, creating marketing plans and executing them. I ran standups, sprint planning, design meetings, reviews, and other meetings. I also worked with localization partners to ensure quality translations and facilitate processes and implementation. I was also in charge of hiring and onboarding team members while continuously iterating on team onboarding processes.
NEOPETS FAERIE'S HOPE
Puzzle
DESCRIPTION: Neopets: Faerie's Hope is a match-3 mobile game where players can match tiles in the form of Petpet's while collecting wocky jellies to unlock story content to rebuild Faerieland in the sky! I had the pleasure of leading a team of 5 people from the Jumpstart Games team to work in collaboration with our parent company's devoplement team. My role involved leading the team to tackle deliverables and any needs the development team needed along with consulting on the IP and ensuring IP accuracy.
UX Design Examples 📐
I worked closely with the Senior Narrative Designer on Neopets for the 2023 Festival of Neggs event, assisting with UX Flow and game design. View more in my article below.
While working for the Neopets team I had the pleasure of working with them to revamp one of the biggest and most popular yearly events on Neopets: The Altador Cup! This event was designed to be reused for many years to come and is still used today!
Creative Direction Examples🖌️
I worked on the (not so annual) 2023 Faerie Festival event with the Neopet's team. For this event the team wanted to try something new and I had the pleasure to work with them on this! Tap on the button below to view an article, where I break down some goals we had with this event and how it was designed.
