TL;DR
nDreams - Brand Manager
Mediatonic / Epic Games - Marketing Manager
Code Kingdoms - Senior Content Writer
Zappar - Community Marketing Executive
MUNDIAL Magazine and Studio - Associate Editor X Agency Creative X Columnist
Lost Shrine - Co-Founder and Marketing Lead
WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?
Hello. My name is James, I love working with video games, tech and nice coats. I would love to do more of it.
Most recently spotted at leading VR gaming studio nDreams, I was responsible for taking fresh gaming IP on their full brand journey - from audience research and positioning, to briefing gorgeous visual assets and crafting a tone of voice players will love (or at least, like). Playing leading roles in the release of VENDETTA FOREVER and Little Cities, my copywriting was front and centre across store fronts, press and social. There were both opportunities to work super-closely with talented indie devs, while managing the marketing relationships with Meta and PlayStation.
Two years were spent wrangling the Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout beans at Mediatonic. Taking the lead for much of the longer form studio and Fall Guys game copywriting, I’ve been instrumental in crafting strategic and player-facing messaging across Steam, PlayStation, owned web channels and press releases. I had the pleasure of playing a key role in communicating a myriad of colourful collaborations, working closely with marketing folks at SEGA, Konami, Devolver Digital, Yacht Club, Disney, Prime Gaming and loads more. From a studio brand perspective, I also took on Mediatonic’s social channels and have worked closely on wholesome activities with Gayming Mag and Special Effect.
I was previously Associate Editor and an agency creative at MUNDIAL Magazine and Studio. As a bit of caffeine-fuelled Swiss Army Knife, I did all sorts; regular feature writer, a columnist on video games and beer, co-ordinator of our international stockist and subscriber community and curator of much of the social media sales content. I was lucky enough to work on major projects for football and fashion brands, including Napapijri, EA Sports, Lost Art, adidas SPZL and New Balance. This work spanned the creation of decks, copywriting, idea generation, organising live events and shouting about Les Ferdinand.
Before that you could find me at edutech content creators and game developers Code Kingdoms. As Senior Content Writer, I worked on all sorts of creative copy to engage young learners on their journey from ‘Player to Creator’, predominantly for the massively popular Roblox platform. This work focused on crafting long-form VO scripts for game development courses, with forays into social media content, podcasts, pitch documents and developer relations.
Prior to that, I was drinking a lot of coffee at AR agency and mobile gaming developers, Zappar, looking after their wonderful ZapWorks creative community and working to highlight their exciting brand partnerships. As well as creating and curating all blog and social media content, I organised community events and contributed to major PR campaigns for the likes of Detective Pikachu and Deadpool 2.
I co-founded Lost Shrine as a portfolio vehicle to combine my experience in communications with my love of gaming. Through collaboration with talented solo developers, I produced cost-free marketing campaigns for indie games, heavily weighted on social media and community building strategies that were sensitive to the development lifecycle. My work in establishing a strong product tone of voice, crafting bespoke press packs and building relationships with the gaming press saw games secure coverage in outlets such as Kotaku, PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun and Game*Spark Japan.
