Why I started a career in games

Like many of you, when I was growing up, video games were my life. I read gaming magazines from cover to cover; I came up with game ideas in my head; I eagerly awaited the next big release. Over time, I started to fall in love with indie games because they represented what games used to be: original, fun, and accessible to all.

I also loved writing, and that’s why I decided to combine the two and become a games journalist. From writing and freelancing for outlets large and small, I gained a staff writer position at Network N, where I truly learned what the games press are really looking for as hundreds of PR emails dropped into my inbox daily. Then, I became the Editor-in-Chief of Gfinity Esports, where I worked directly with large game publishers and PR companies to facilitate coverage and brand deals.

Over the years, I’ve done everything from writing up news stories about the latest indie games to interviewing developers, founders, CEOs, and it helped me to become an expert in how the games industry operates.

What I observed after years in games journalism

I found that a lot of PR companies and specialists pitching even the largest games weren’t really pitching angles for stories, they were simply sending press release announcements that quickly went in the trash folder. Games journalists and media are bombarded with hundreds of games per day, and many of them look or sound similar to one another. I quickly realized that most PR people had never experienced what it was like to be on the other end of the inbox; on the creation side that dictates whose games get covered and why. And if this was happening to big-budget AAA games, then imagine what that means for indie games.

As time went on and traditional journalism waned, I noticed a huge problem: games PR didn’t change with the times. They hadn’t been on the creator side and so they kept sending the same announcements to traditional press that had – and still has – ever decreasing influence. And that meant that indie games, a genre I’m passionate about, weren’t getting the best coverage.

Content creation and indie game PR

After reaching the most senior positions in traditional games media, I decided to start creating video game content on YouTube. I’d spent years snooping around the back-end website statistics in WordPress and hammering away at a keyboard, and I wanted to push myself to appear on camera, learn to edit videos, and find out what sets content creators and influencers apart from traditional games media.

What I found out was truly shocking. While traditional games media was fighting with Google over AI and search engine rankings, the likes of YouTube and TikTok were helping newer content creators grow. Even creators with a miniscule follower count were blowing up indie games because views matter more than subscribers.

In this new role, I started to once again work with PR companies representing video games, but this time on the influencer side of things as I took on paid sponsorships and collaborations. Again, one thing was clear: most PR professionals haven’t been on the creation side of things. They didn’t know what format to send files, how to make it easy for creators, or even pitch angles to build a narrative around the game they’re representing.

My PR journey

After gathering all of this experience, it was – and still is – frustrating to see the indie games I’m so passionate about miss out on visibility. That’s why I joined Pixel Perfect PR as a PR manager, where I helped everyone from solo developers to large publishers to launch their games. I got to see the full lifecycle of indie game campaigns from the inside — from early outreach to launch day coverage and creator activity. It was valuable experience, and I learned a lot about how structured PR campaigns are built and executed at scale.

But the more campaigns I worked on, the clearer it became that indie games don’t always benefit from a “standard” PR approach. The timelines are tighter, the budgets are smaller, and most importantly, the way games actually gain visibility has shifted far beyond traditional press coverage alone. I started to feel a gap between how PR was typically delivered, and what actually helps indie developers succeed at launch.

Tempest PR was built to close that gap.