Cari, a young Caucasian woman with blonde hair, standing on a hill with Dundee city and Law visible behind her. She smiles at the camera and wears a black leather jacket.
A cartoon dodechohedron with a cute watermelon design. The eyes are teardrop and it is smiling.

About Me

I am an indie games developer with a background in UX (user experience) design and a passion for creating games for everyone, with intuitive experiences and player-centred design at the core. I am currently Senior Accessibility Designer at Rebellion where I have been able to enhance the accessibility of Sniper Elite 5 and direct the accessibility initiative at Rebellion; from internal education and accessibility testing to external advocacy and knowledge sharing. I am a BAFTA Games and Develop Star Nominee, two-time DARE finalist and one of GDC 2023’s top rated speakers.

Game Credits

Skye Tales key art featuring Skye, a friendly blue and purple dragon flying across a quaint countryside vista.
Sniper Elite 5 key art featuring Karl Fairburne, the Sniper Elite, kneeling and aiming a sniper rifle to the right of the image.

Skye Tales, 2023

Puny Astronaut (UX Designer)

Sniper Elite 5, 2022

Rebellion Developments (Accessibility Designer)

Experience

2022-Present – Senior Accessibility Designer, Rebellion

Leading the Accessibility initiative at Rebellion, starting as a one-person department that covers accessibility consultation on designs, developing educational resources, delivering accessibility training, growing a champs network, building an accessibility community for our players, and supporting public advocacy through talks, articles and resources.

2019-2022 – UX Designer, Puny Astronaut

Leading the UX Design and UI Art & Programming in a typical jack-of-all trades indie developer role. This covered everything from wireframing to testing, concepts to high-fidelity UI assets, and implementation to maintenance in Unreal Engine through widgets and visual scripting. This is where I first implemented accessibility in a games role, leading the work and testing of our accessibility features including a highly customisable series of visual filters.

2016-2019 – Graphic Designer, Abertay Students Association / Freelance (part-time)

Alongside my studies I was able to grow my skills and experience through a graphic design role at Abertay Students Association which also led to freelance opportunities. I produced assets for web and print including logos, social media assets, infographics, posters, brochures and merchandise. I was the graphic designer for Abertay’s “Securi-Tay” conference, which was the largest student-led Ethical Hacking conference in Europe, for five years.

Awards & Nominations

Eight headshots of the nominees on a black and gold background, with the develop star awards logo and "Diversity Star" title above.
A table at the MCV develop awards show with Rebellion employees dressed in black tie and looking at the camera, smiling and celebrating.

Personal:

2024 - Game Dev Heroes Nominee, Design

2023 – Develop Star Nominee, Diversity Star

2023 – Game Dev Heroes Nominee, Design

2018 – DARE Academy Finalist

2016 – BAFTA Games Nominee, Ones to Watch

2016 – DARE To Be Digital Winner, Runner Up & Audience Award

Games:

Skye Tales: Nominee, Innovation in Accessibility, MCV Develop 2024

Sniper Elite Winter Warrior: Nominee, Innovation in Accessibility, MCV Develop 2024

Blind Bake, ReadSpeaker Accessibility Award, Global Game Jam 2024

Sniper Elite 5: Nominee, Innovation in Accessibility, MCV Develop 2023

Sniper Elite 5: Nominee, Accessibility in Games, PlayStation Blog 2022

Speaking Experience

Cari stands at a pedestal with Develop: Brighton branding on it. She is mid-presentation, gesturing to the right of the image.

Develop: Brighton 2019 "Successful Crowdfunding: A Kickstarter Post-Mortem"

SGDA Micro Talks in May 2021 “10 Reasons Why You Should Make a Board Game at Your Next Game Jam”

Develop: Brighton 2021 "Skye Tales: Creating a UI that couldn't be happier to see you"

Games UX Summit 2021 (Panellist) "Doing More With Less"

GAConf EU 2022 "An Indie Approach to Accessibility"

Develop: Brighton 2022 "Accessible Accessibility"

EGX London 2022 (Panellist) “Accessibility and Games”

IGDA Webinar 2022 (Panellist) “Leveraging Text to Speech as a Game Dev”

GDC 2023 “Implementing Accessibility Across a Studio: Year One”

GAConf EU 2023 “Project Black Kat: A Sightless Stealth System“

UKGE 2023 (Panellist & Moderator) “Accessibility in Tabletop Gaming“

EGX London 2023 (Panellist & Moderator) “Accessibility at Rebellion: Including Everyone”

GAConf EU 2024 “Weaving Accessibility into Workflows“

GAConf EU 2024 “Baking Audio Navigation into Level Design“

Life, The Universe & Everything

Beyond my job, I am a human who enjoys other things, some related to games and some not so much.

Three hand painted succulent miniatures for tabletop, shown from the front and back. One is a mexican snowball, then a carnivorous plant, then a spikey cactus. There is a text belt in the middle reading "custom minis made with fimo".
A small dice tray decorated to look like a blue stone dungeon, with tiny candles, skulls and chain detail.

I’m a Theme park enthusiast and I’ve visited more than 20 theme parks worldwide and my favourite coasters are Icon at Blackpool and Flug der Damonen in Heide Park, Germany.

A stone and gold double door with a rollercoaster track above it. A sign above the door reads "Icon". It looks Asian-inspired with a curved wooden roof decoration. A rollercoaster zooms past on the track above.
Cari and two friends screaming at the camera in front of a grey background. At the top is a title: Psychopath's Den, Aim Escape, Villainous Trio, 40'0" "
Frosmoth, a pokemon that resembles a snowy-white moth.
8 polyhedral dice in red resin with gold leaf flaked through them, giving them the appearance of fire. The numbers are in black. There are two d20s, one of them has a yellow and orange slitted eye cast into it, and this replaces the 20.
Cari wears a ram skull headpiece made from clay and painted in tones of sepia.
A cream coloured macaroon with torched sugar on the top, reminiscent of a creme brulee.

I really enjoy baking and in high school I had a cupcake business!

The corner of a building with a lit up sign which reads "Savoy Theatre, Pretty Woman The Musical."

When not at a desk you will usually find me in a forest, at a graveyard or in the ocean. I love escape rooms, and will go see at least one theatre show every time I visit London.

A scene from planet zoo of a small lake surrounded by pine and fir trees. A deer stands at the far edge of the water.
Cari kneeling on the floor wearing a viking costume that resembles bone armour, and a large white and grey fur cloak. There are metal details and a skirt that is made of plaited white hair. She has graphic tribal make up on and is looking down.

I have a black cat called Toothless, named after my favourite film series How To Train Your Dragon.

My biggest hobby is crafting, usually around tabletop rpgs like making and painting minis, crafting dice from resin, creating terrain and dice trays, or making Halloween costumes.

A giant serpent tabletop figure, it curls around a sandstone pillar and bears it's fangs at the camera. It has been painted green.
A black cat curled up on a white blanket. It has one eye more open than the other and looks at the camera drowsily.
A field of lilac lupine flowers leads up to a large mountain in the distance. In the mid-ground is a group of icelandic ponies with riders. It is sunny and the sky is blue.

As for video games, three of my favourites include Planet Zoo (my most played game, overtaking Skyrim), Pokemon - my favourites are Skitty and Frosmoth, and Jedi: Fallen Order. Among friends I famously don’t like Star Wars or Dark Souls, but Fallen Order made me feel good at the game and didn’t overwhelm me with too much content.

I enjoy “stealth exercise”; things like horse riding or kayaking; something where you can go on an adventure and there’s a chance of getting lost.

An overcast loch with two kayakers heading towards the left.
Concept art from Jedi: Fallen Order showing Cal and BD-1 stood in a dark and ancient temple, light streaming towards them through a door at the end of a long corridor.