Leah Muwanga-Magoye is a Senior Narrative Designer for Fusebox, a leading developer of popular story-driven games including Love Island: The Game. Leah has written and edited drama scripts across a variety of different formats (comic books, animation, radio, theatre,
TV and mobile) and has worked in writers’ rooms and story conference environments, both as lead writer and as part of the writing teams.
Born in the UK, raised in Kenya and later returning to the UK, Leah was an avid gamer. She decided to pursue a career as a games writer and, following an introduction made by a friend, Leah secured her first job in the industry.
As a Black woman and single parent, Leah has endured some difficult and discriminatory experiences in her career. She talks about stereotypical expectations of her as a ‘strong, single Black mother’.
Leah’s observations of the institutional behaviour of one company led to her making a formal complaint. Soon after, she started to notice she was excluded from meetings and then gradually relieved of her responsibilities. Her job performance was then called into question,
which led to her no longer having a job.
So how should things change? A big step would be driving greater awareness and interest in the possibilities offered by games, and another would be the promotion of people from diverse backgrounds. For any meaningful change to occur, there first has to be a fundamental change in the demographic makeup of decision makers and people with the power to determine the direction of creative output as well as the work environment.
