Meet Google’s Resident Video Game Artist
As an entrepreneur, Kellee Santiago developed legendary games that challenged design norms. Now, she’s leading product development for Google’s mobile VR platform.
So much goes into creating a video game — programming, creative direction, music curation — that it’s easy for designers to forget about factoring in the emotions a good game inspires in its players. Kellee Santiago, however, has distinguished herself in the gaming community by eliciting feelings like joy, wonder, and curiosity in players, rather than focusing on game features alone. As the co-founder of the independent studio thatgamecompany and a product development lead for entertainment on Google’s Daydream virtual reality device, her goal has been to elevate game design to an art form.
Her opinion, delivered at a 2010 TEDxUSC talk, that games can — and should — be considered art launched her into a public sparring match with film critic Roger Ebert. Regardless of whether they’re art, thatgamecompany’s trio of games — flOw, Flower, and Journey — are masterpieces of the genre.
These days, Santiago works at Google, helping to shape VR experiences for users of Daydream, Google’s platform for mobile VR (released after Cardboard), and building Daydream-compatible apps for the likes of the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, Porsche, and the American Heart Association in creating Daydream-compatible apps. But she’s more than a producer and product lead; she’s a woman, a parent, and Latina in an industry that can be biased against all three identities.
Here, Santiago explains her unconventional path to game design, her trick for ruthless prioritizing, and how she keeps an even keel at a fast-paced tech company.
Roots in experimental theater
I went to NYU and got my BFA in theater, where I gravitated towards original, more experimental works. One show that I found formative was [walking-tour show] The Angel Project, which was a production mounted at Lincoln Center. The concept was what if angels were real? What would that feel like? I was a site manager on that for one of the locations.
Your ticket took you first to a location on Roosevelt Island. Then the show would take you to different locations around Manhattan, and you’d see certain evidence of angels through environmental storytelling. In some locations there were actors. Even taking the subway in between locations, you were looking at everything through this totally different lens.
I was attracted to experimental theater because there was a lot of work, especially in New York City, in collaboratively created theater. I really enjoyed that process of creating based on the group of people you had assembled. That’s very similar to game development.
Video games as storytelling
I’d played games my whole life, but I’d never thought about who was making them. My first semester as a grad student at USC’s Interactive Media and Games Division, I took a course on game design throughout human history taught by Tracy Fullerton. It opened my eyes to game design as a method of storytelling, as an approach to game-making and design rooted in how you want your audience to feel. That same year, the whole class went to Game Developers’ Conference (GDC), and I felt like I’d found my tribe. It was thousands of people, some of whom made the games I’d grown up on or was playing at that moment. And those people are renaissance thinkers passionate about art and technology. That hooked me.
To get out of a rut, get outside
Two things about getting out of a creative slump: One, talk to people. I’ll pick someone in the office and tell them what I’m thinking about. That usually sets off a chain of conversations, because a takeaway might be, “Let me connect you to this other person. They might be able to help.” I’m always amazed that a series of enlightening and driving conversations can give me clarity into what my next steps should be.
Two, sometimes I need to get out of the office, spend a day visiting another studio or going to an art exhibit that’s really compelling. That helps in fueling my inspiration. It gets my head out of a rut, but it’s hard when you know what your task list is. Even at thatgamecompany, to say, “We’re going to the beach for a few days,” I’d have to justify it. Like, “We’re going to walk on dunes. We’re doing sand research! But we’re also getting out.”It always felt like terrible timing. But every time, we’d come back and be way more productive and focused.
Brand-new tech at Google
At Google, I’m working in a space that’s not just creative tech but innovative tech. I make that differentiation because there’s no obvious product market fit when it comes to brand-new technologies. I don’t just find partners who are already interested in coming to Google’s Daydream platform; I also work with tech leads on their roadmaps for features and technology that they’re working on. I understand what they think is going to be an interesting use of the tech, and then I talk to partners about it. Essentially, I close the loop between what it is we’re building and the people who will ultimately be using the technology.
Re-experiencing Nintendo with a kid
I realized about a year and a half ago that I would need to play video games while my toddler son was awake. I just did not have enough time after he went to sleep. I prefer games to watching something passively, and I much prefer playing something together. Video games can be great for teaching basic concepts of reading, math, and strategy. And playing together is such a great way to have new, shared experiences. I do feel lucky in that my video game literacy is really high — I’m proactive in pointing my kids to games I think are positive experiences overall.
Gorogoa is a puzzle game in which you move around panels of a sketch in order to navigate through different environments. I normally would have played it once, but because of my son, we’ve played it multiple times. I see something different every time I play it.
The Nintendo Switch has been fantastic because many games have some form of assist mode. It makes games easier to play. My son and I have been playing Super Mario Odyssey where we each hold one side of the controller. I do the walking around, and then he does the jumping. It’s been awesome to re-experience Nintendo games through his eyes. You see how fantastical and delightful they are.
Ruthless prioritization
Being a mother has certainly focused me in my work. I had to get a lot better at diving into a task quickly, then coming out of it, because the slack in my schedule had been taken in. It’s tough because when you do a creative activity, it can take a little while to get warmed up.
I like the phrase “ruthless prioritization.” That’s been key. In times when there’s too much to do, I think, What are all the things I need to do? Then I prioritize and talk about those priorities with both my manager and the people on my team, to make sure there’s alignment.
Using the Pomodoro method
In order to concentrate, I use the Pomodoro method, which involves breaking a task down into much smaller tasks that you can execute in 25-minute chunks, followed by a short break. So you say, “For the next 25 minutes, I’m not going to check my email, I’m not reading anything else, I’m not going to be distracted by people coming up to my desk. I’m going to crank on this for 25 minutes and then take a break.” Even before the end of that first chunk, I’m in the flow.
Also, I’ve always liked having some background noise. That can be something on Netflix that’s just running in the background. It aligns to the idea that people work better with a coffee-shop-style ambience.
Spaghetti-on-the-wall people
In protecting myself as a woman and Latina in this industry, what’s been instrumental is keeping a core list of people I can talk to. Talking about these [gender and ethnicity] issues, in and of itself, can be really tricky. There are some people that are good at dealing with a spaghetti-on-the-wall kind of conversation if I need to just throw out my words and sort through things. Those kinds of people are really great to have. Identifying them and keeping them in my network is important.
Magenta is a publication of Huge.
