Shanna Germain
First Post
Hi Shanna,
Lots of questions, but feel free to answer as many as you can/like:
How did you get into RPGs? Writing? Game design? What were the major breakthroughs you had into the industry? How did you come to be a part of MCG?
And what social media marketing advice do you have for indie game developers?
You're one of the more visible woman game developers in the industry right now, so thank you for being a role model for more of us to make our own games and be active in the games community!
-I got into playing RPGs when my babysitter introduced me to Bunnies & Burrows (I was about 6, I think?). I didn’t grasp the rules so much, except that I got to be a bunny and thump my feet on the floor a lot. Which was pretty awesome for me at that age. I started playing D&D in high school, and it’s been a part of my life in some way ever sense.
My first foray into game writing was actually articles. I started writing about computer games for the World of Warcraft Official Magazine, Curve magazine and some other places. When Monte first started talking about making this new game called Numenera, I started getting really excited because it sounded amazing. I came on as the editor pretty early on. Once we did the Kickstarter, we realized that we needed more than just the two of us, so we started Monte Cook Games.
-My brand of social media is mostly just to be myself—talk about the things that I love, support other writers and creative people as much as I can, and try not to be boring. The more that people see you as a real person, the more likely they are to engage with you and be excited about what you’re working on.
-Thank you so much for saying that! I feel so lucky to work in an industry that I love making games that I’m passionate about. I hope that everyone who wants to be part of the gaming community in any way feels like it’s a good place for them.