Debbie kickstarted her career in games back in the late 1980s working in independent games retail, before co-founding Team17 in 1990. Her life-long passion for games, and the people who make them, continues today as she supports developers to realise their creative vision.
Becoming CEO of Team17 in 2010, Debbie has since accelerated the company’s goal of encapsulating the spirit of independent games, with the launch of the Team17 independent games label in 2014. Over the past seven years, the label has seen Team17 launch nearly 50 titles released from external development studios of all sizes, from sole developers to studios of 40-person and more, with many becoming multi-award-winning along the way including the Overcooked! franchise, Yoku’s Island Express, Blasphemous, and Moving Out.
Debbie was awarded with an MBE in 2016 for her services to the video games industry.
Debbie continues to work closely with external studios and internally at Team17 as the company strives to encapsulate the spirit of independent games. She is a proactive mentor and role model for women across the games industry, and was recognised by the European Women in Games Conference in 2015 with an induction into the Hall of Fame.
After 30+ years in the games industry and with over 120 games created and launched, how do you manage the ups and downs of that journey? By signing amazing games, building franchises, transforming a business, helping build the studios of tomorrow - to taking the UK stock market by storm by quadrupling share prices within 2 years and winning entrepreneur of the year of the UK AIM stock market in 2020. And as one of the only female founders of a games listed company in the world today - by putting gaming first!
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Kate Edwards
Geogrify
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Grace Carroll
Creative Assembly
It’s fantastic to have such an event that provides this opportunity for all the game devs, indie devs and other organisations to get together to showcase what they do, meet and interact.
Rebecca Sampson
Hangar 13
Develop is the must-attend event for the games industry in the UK. It’s where we all come together and learn from each other. It’s the best way into the industry and it’s the best place to learn from your colleagues.
Hannah Flynn
Failbetter Games
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Ian Livingstone, CBE
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Maria Sayans
ustwo
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Haden Blackman
Hangar 13
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Kish Hirani
Terra Virtua
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Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Enhance Games
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David Amor
Mag Interactive
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