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Donna Williams Powell (born 10 December 1978) is a British game designer and businesswoman. She is the co-founder of Neopets and Meteor Games.

Biography

Williams-Powell grew up in Surrey where she met business partner and then-boyfriend Adam Powell while they were high school students. Williams-Powell attended the University of Nottingham and from September 1997 to July 1999 she ran marketing and web design for Powell's company Shout! Advertising, which operated the third largest click-through program on the Internet by mid-1999. From July 1999 to early 2000, she worked at Speedyclick.com, handling website development and Internet advertising services.

Neopets

In September 1999, Williams-Powell created Neopets with Powell. She led site management and operations, which included content planning and game design but later expanded to include managing product promotions and licensing. She expanded Neopets into previously-untapped offline markets, including console games, soft toys, fast-food promotions and collectible card games. In 2003, she helped establish the partnership with Beckett Media to publish the bi-monthly Neopets: The Official Magazine. Under Williams-Powell's management and product expansion, Neopets went from its initial launch to over 140 million accounts and 5 billion pageviews per month, and in 2005 was sold to Viacom for US$160 million.

Meteor Games

In 2008, she and Powell launched Meteor Games, an independent game studio in West Hollywood, California. Meteor Games' first project was Twin Skies, with the first public demo of the game being shown at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle. The game was originally planned to be in 3D, but was later changed to become a 2D Flash game. In December 2011, Meteor Games laid off 90% of its staff, shut down the Viacom-backed game Treasure Keepers, and subsequently wound down all operations.

Personal life

Williams-Powell married Adam Powell in 2008.

References

1. "The Neopets Addiction". Wired Magazine. 1 December 2005. Archived from the original on 10 December 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2005.
2. Neopets Press Kit Biography Archived 2 July 2007 at archive.today
3. ^ "Creators and Founders of Neopets Launch Meteor Games". IGN. 1 July 2008.
4. "An Interview With Donna Powell - 2008". Jellyneo.
5. "Neopets News". Neopets. 11 September 2003. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
6. "Viacom's MTV buys Neopets for $160m". The Boston Globe. 21 June 2005.
7. "New MMO games startup, Meteor Games, to target youth demographic". Venturebeat.com. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
8. Schuster, Shawn (3 September 2008). "Twin Skies at PAX08: What makes it different?". Engadget.
9. "Twin Skies to change from 3D to 2D Flash MMO". 31 May 2009.
10. "Neopets Founders Announce Innovative MMO Twin Skies". Kotaku. 5 August 2008. Archived from the original on 8 August 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2008.
11. "Meteor Games axes almost all staff, shutters social Neopets [Report]". blog.games.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012.

• 1978 births
• Living people
• Alumni of the University of Nottingham
• British video game designers
• Neopets
• British game designers
• Women video game designers
• 21st-century British inventors