The below recommendations were provided via LinkedIn by colleagues I had worked with for years.
Melissa has been shaping how we tell stories within rich & vibrant worlds at Mighty Kingdom for years now, and leads the studio’s efforts in pushing the frontiers of narrative technologies and processes. Under Melissa’s leadership, the award-winning narrative team at Mighty Kingdom has been supported to develop increasingly complex and nuanced stories for world-class IP, driving to represent these iconic & beloved franchises with genuine authenticity.
Mark Riley – Previous Design Director at Mighty Kingdom
In my long development history in games, I haven’t worked with any individual more driven, professional and skilled. As a developer, Melissa is incredibly smart and able to adapt to new technologies and ideas quickly, showing great proficiency in Unity and other storytelling tools. She has a fantastic writing style that’s capable of quickly shifting between different genres, themes and across a range of niche IP. She has a great mind for the “bigger picture” when storytelling, planning narrative beats sometimes seasons in advance that presents a rich tapestry of possibilities to guide her team.
As a leader, Melissa has a very rare and valuable skillset. She comes across as egoless in her approach to leading people, and has the highly-desired ability to develop a deep sense of trust from those within her team, capable of getting the best out of them through leading by example and building strong, positive relationships. Melissa doesn’t shy away from getting hands-on and doing the hard work, and is always looking for opportunities to empower her team through their professional development, narrative technologies and building robust process to hit challenging content delivery cadences.
Melissa is the kind of developer that is consistently finding ways to add value to the organisation. As a developer and as a leader, she has been battle-tested and always rises to the challenge. She carries my highest recommendation.
Melissa is one of my all-time role models of female leadership in a creative environment.
Lucie Migne – Previous Senior QA Analyst at Mighty Kingdom
She stands out to me for her resilience in the face of unrelenting change and respectful communication with all stakeholders involved. She never missed a beat. I dearly remember a piece of feedback I received from her that moved me deeply. It made me seen and valued as it was very thoughtful and specific to my involvement in a common project.
Melissa also displayed her care for her colleagues and dedication to the company culture by creating and enlivening a Slack channel dedicated to mindfulness.
I couldn’t think of a more empathetic, professional and capable leader for any team looking to bring her into their midst.
Working with Melissa has been one of the highlights of my time in game development. In her role as the discipline lead of Mighty Kingdom’s award-winning narrative department, Melissa has been an extremely reliable and caring leader, one who has set an ideal example to follow for everyone else on the team. I have always known that I can come to Melissa to brainstorm solutions, to sanity check my work, and for guidance in all forms. It is clear in all of her interactions that Melissa prioritizes the wellbeing and growth of the team – it has flourished under her guidance, and she empowers everyone around her to do their best work.
James O’Connor – Previous Project Narrative Lead at Mighty Kingdom
Beyond that, Melissa is also an excellent writer and editor in her own right, crafting compelling character dialogue and maintaining consistency across our games. She provides useful suggestions and always justifies them well, and she’s always open to conversation and continued iteration. You can tell from her briefs and scripts that she loves a good creative challenge, and thinks deeply about how to convey the themes of a game through dialogue. She is also extremely open to edits on her own work, and thrives in a collaborative environment.
Melissa is amazing at thorough documentation, and going the extra mile to ensure that processes are made clear for others. Often I would mention that a certain document might be a useful thing to have, and before the day is out she’d message me with the exact write-up I had in mind. Melissa always leads by example, and sets the standard for what good practice looks like in narrative game development.
Melissa is also always pushing herself to learn new things. She has expanded her game design skills outside of her job description, and she is always gracious in passing on her learnings and leading presentations. She completed a Master’s degree in Data Science while also leading the team, which is a true feat. Over the last few years she has come to me with numerous opportunities for further learning and growth, all of which I have been very grateful for.
Put simply, Melissa is one of the best and hardest-working people I have ever worked with, and represents the absolute gold standard for a leader in narrative. I would strongly recommend working with her if you have the opportunity.