Cara Ellison (born 28 September 1985) is a Scottish video game writer and critic.

Journalism

Ellison made regular contributions to publications

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

, Unwinnable and

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

beginning in 2012. She has also written gaming related articles for

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

, Paste,

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

magazine and

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

and is a regular contributor to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gamesblog. From 2014 to 2015, Ellison wrote a bi-weekly column called S.EXE for Rock Paper Shotgun about the depiction of sex and romance in video games. She also contributed video game related articles to VICE UK in 2014. In 2013, Ellison won the Games Media Award 'Rising Star' for her work writing about games, and ''The Guardian'' placed her number ten in the 'Top 30 Young People in Digital Media' list 2014. In 2014, Ellison successfully sought funding on Patreon for her "Embed with" series, in which she became an itinerant games journalist, travelling the world and writing about the lives and processes of games developers.

Games development

Ellison worked for

Rockstar North Rockstar North Limited (formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones (video game developer), D ...

as a QA tester on ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the ...

'' until 2008. In 2013, Ellison wrote the text-based interactive fiction game ''Sacrilege'', which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described as a "raw exploration of female sexuality that also includes some astute observations about male desire". Ellison also has collaborated with artist Howard Hardiman on ''Badger's Day Out'', funded by a combination of a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

, with backing from the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

. She was contracted by

Arkane Studios Arkane Studios SASU is a French video game developer based in Lyon. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, ''Arx Fatalis'', in 2002. Besides the Lyon studio, Arkane Lyon, Arkane Studios operates Arkane Studios LLC (trade name, tra ...

as an external narrative consultant for the 2016 title ''

Dishonored 2 ''Dishonored 2'' is a 2016 Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2012's ''Dishonored''. After ...

''. In August 2015, she gave a keynote at

Dare to Be Digital Dare to be Digital is a video games design competition targeted at university students and recent graduates, started by and held at Abertay University, Scotland since 2000. Teams (typically of 5 university undergraduates or fresh graduates) work t ...

. She worked as the writer of

Void Bastards ''Void Bastards'' is a science-fiction first-person shooter and roguelike video game developed by Australian studio Blue Manchu and published by Humble Bundle. It was released on May 28, 2019, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. Ports of the game ...

. She was a senior narrative designer for the Hardsuit Labs project '' Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2'' until she left the project after Brian Mitsoda and Ka'ai Cluney left. In June 2021, it was announced that she, alongside Brian Mitsoda, had joined ''The Fermi Paradox'' development team at Anomaly Games.

Bibliography

* ''The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture'' (October 2015, Seven Stories Press) * ''Embed with Games: A Year on the Couch with Game Developers'' (November 2015, Polygon)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellison, Cara Living people Scottish journalists Scottish women journalists Video game critics Women video game designers Women video game critics 1985 births