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Nina Freeman

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American video game designer

Nina Marie Freeman
Speaking at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born (1990-03-15) March 15, 1990 (age 34)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew York University Tandon School of Engineering
OccupationVideo game designer
Years active2012–present
EmployerFullbright
OrganizationThe Code Liberation Foundation
Notable creditCibele
Websitehttp://ninasays.so

Nina Marie Freeman (born March 15, 1990) is an American video game designer known for her games with themes of sexuality and self-reflection. A former game designer at Fullbright, she developed and published numerous video games and is a co-founder of the Code Liberation Foundation, a non-for-profit organization that makes an effort to diversify employment within STEAM fields.

Academic career and personal life

While a student at Pace University in Lower Manhattan, New York, Freeman was drawn to the work of Frank O’Hara and other poets of the New York School. She admired how they documented their lives through verses that were witty, conversational, and confessional all at once.

As a teenager, Freeman was a devoted player of Final Fantasy Online, an MMORPG.

Freeman regularly streams on Twitch.

Freeman resides in Maine with her husband, Jake Jefferies. The couple has two dogs, Auron and Kimahri.

Works, awards, and accomplishments

Freeman developed her first game in 2012 based on a science fiction poem she wrote, though it remains unreleased.

In 2013, Freeman co-founded the Code Liberation Foundation on International Women's Day, a program offering free development workshops in order to facilitate more women to create video games.

Her game Bum Rush (2016) debuted at NYU Game Center 2015 No Quarter event and was released for free on July 6, 2016, for OS X and Windows.

She was included in Forbes 30 Under 30 2016 list of influential video game industry figures.

Her autobiographical game How Do You Do It? deals with the discovery of sexuality through toy dolls after viewing the movie Titanic. It was developed during the 2014 Global Game Jam and was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival and Indiecade.

In 2015, Freeman released Cibele. The game tells the story of a teenage girl, engaged in a whirlwind online romance with a fellow gamer, and is based on a personal experience she had during her college years. The game gained praise for its characters and intimate stories and received the Nuovo Award at the 2016 Independent Games Festival.

At Fullbright, she worked as a game and level designer for their second release, Tacoma. The game sold fewer copies than the studio's previous game Gone Home, but made enough sales to allow them to continue developing games.

In January 2020, Freeman resigned from Fullbright to focus on her own projects, working on a narrative domestic horror game with her partner, Jake Jefferies.

In 2021, Freeman released Last Call, which was nominated for the Excellence in Narrative award at the 2022 Independent Games Festival.

As of 2022, Freeman has expressed the desire to make personal games about sex and human relationships. Her ultimate goal for each game is to elicit what she calls “player-character embodiment,” as in Cibele. The game is partially inspired by Freeman's experience of finding a real-life partner through an MMORPG, and exploring how these relationships manifest. The gameplay is said to alternate between exploring files on a simulated version of a desktop and controlling an avatar in a fictional MMORPG. A release date is yet to be announced.

Notable works

  • Kimmy, 2017 indie video game
  • Lost Memories Dot Net, 2017 indie video game
  • Beach Date, 2018 indie video game
  • We Met in May, 2019 indie video game.
  • Last Call, 2021 indie video game.
  • Holy moly Houseplant, 2023 indie video game.

References

  1. Freeman, Nina (March 12, 2015). "it's my birthday on sunday ahhhhh~".
  2. Hudson, Laura (November 4, 2015). "Cibele Is a Crazy-Real Game About Falling in Love Online". Wired. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  3. ^ "Nina Freeman Has Been Called "the Punk Poet of Gaming." But That Doesn't Mean She Doesn't Like to Shoot Things". Willamette Week. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
  4. "About us". The Code Liberation Foundation. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  5. Kurutz, Steven (July 4, 2022). "No Guns, No Dragons: Her Video Games Capture Private Moments". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  6. "ninasays.so". ninasays.so. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  7. Wallace, Kimberley (February 2016). Making Games Personal. Gameinformer Issue 274. pp. 22–23.
  8. Smith, Graham (November 8, 2013). "Interview: Code Liberation On Game Workshops For Women". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  9. Biery, Thomas (July 1, 2016). "Car combat dating game Bum Rush launches for free July 6". Polygon.
  10. "30 Under 30 2016: Games". Forbes. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  11. Stuart, Keith (November 16, 2015). "Meet Nina Freeman, the punk poet of gaming". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  12. Starkey, Daniel. "If Sex Videogames Make You Feel Weird, That's the Point". WIRED. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  13. "Dyson Alumna Nina Freeman '12". www.pace.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  14. "2022 IGF Award Nominations". igf.com. January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  15. Favis, Elise (February 2017). "Digital Intimacy". Game Informer. pp. 18–19. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  16. "Cibele". cibelegame.com. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  17. "Kimmy". starmaidgames.itch.io. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  18. "lostmemoriesdotnet". starmaidgames.itch.io. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  19. "Tacoma - Fullbright". tacoma.game. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  20. Freenan, Nina. "nina says so". ninasays.so. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  21. "Beach Date". starmaidgames.itch.io. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  22. "We Met in May". ninasays.so. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  23. "We Met in May on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  24. "Last Call". starmaidgames.itch.io. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  25. "5 videogiochi gratis che arrivano dalla Triennale Game Collection". Wired Italia (in Italian). June 30, 2022. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  26. "holymolyhouseplant". aef.itch.io. Retrieved October 21, 2023.

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