What’s your role at FlatPonies?

I’m the writer and communications manager here at FlatPonies – with the latter being a role I unlocked more recently.

As a writer, I craft cutscenes, dialogue, and help develop the storyline for Scratch the Cat.

What makes a great work environment?

Communication, communication, and some more communication – and no, I’m not just saying that because I work with it. That’s what I love about working at FlatPonies, is that we start off everyday with a morning meeting where everyone gets to present what they’re working on. It sets a nice foundation for the day – you know where people are at, and if you’re working from home, it’s a nice way to start the day, hearing people chatter.

Besides being beyond blessed to work with such amazing, silly, calm, and cool people, I really appreciate how openly everyone takes accountability for their work – and how we talk about mistakes without shame. It’s super refreshing. Also, we’re great at celebrating each other’s wins!

What excites you most about our current project?

The nostalgia! It brings back that exact feeling of sitting in my childhood basement with my sisters and cousin Mads, playing Pandemonium! for hours. 

Scratch the Cat just hits that perfect itch of classic 3D platformer nostalgia for me. Aside from that, I absolutely love the character designs. In fact, I apparently love Scratch’s design so much that my boyfriend and I unknowingly painted our whole apartment the exact same color as Scratch’s fur. It wasn’t until I came back to work and saw the pull-up banners that I realized: “Wait… that’s the same color!” I stand by the choice – it looks amazing. But of course, Scratch rocks it best.

What’s been the biggest ‘aha’ moment in development so far?

It actually happened early on, right after I was hired. I was playing different games as part of onboarding and starting to write cutscenes.

I come from film and TV – and have mostly written short scripts, pilots, and features during my Film and Media Studies degree. My game experience was limited to university courses, a brief time studying Medialogy (where I only managed to code a mediocre Snake game I baptized Coral Reef Snake), some Twine projects, and a heavy case of Baldur’s Gate 3 feverish obsession.

I felt a bit insecure, thinking my knowledge and experience in video game development were too limited – like, should I be fluent in Unity? Was I missing something?

Then I attended a talk at The National Film School of Denmark, where Soni Jørgensen – the writer behind It Takes Two – was part of the panel. Afterwards, I got the chance to ask her how she prepared to write for that specific game and told her about my own background. She said, “You have way more experience in that field than I do.” She explained that she didn’t play any video games in preparation for her work and that she focuses purely on writing. She let me know that there’s no right or wrong way to approach writing for video games.

That conversation gave me so much confidence. She was kind, insightful, and she’s written an incredible story for a game I ended up playing (and loving) with my boyfriend.

What’s a fun or unexpected fact about you that your teammates might not know about you? 

I lived in Los Angeles for six months, interning for Randal Kleiser – the director of Grease. I was thrilled, but the job laid out for all of us interns mostly involved email and office organization. Then he walked into the office (which was actually his private home with a view of all of L.A. – so crazy and amazing!) and asked, “Does anyone know Premiere Pro?”

I raised my hand: “Yes!” – which was a lie. I only knew Final Cut Pro from my time at Station Next (Danish film school for youth).
I don’t condone lying, but the idea of organizing documents all day made me take a chance. I thought, Premiere Pro can’t be that different, right?

He brought me up to his amazing loft office and showed me some promotional material for a documentary he was helping with and needed edited. Then he gave me another task – starting off by showing me his old student short film, made at 17, which had been digitized. He needed the sound cleaned and some minor editing tweaks. He pointed out scenes in the short, telling me how they had inspired some very specific iconic moments in Grease. That was a pinch-me moment.

Oh, and to my relief – Premiere Pro turned out to be very similar to Final Cut Pro – if not actually nicer to edit in.

If you could jump back in time, and play your favorite childhood video game, which one would it be and why? OR What’s a gaming moment from your childhood that you’ll never forget?

Definitely Zoo Tycoon. That game was everything to me. I was so into it I had this intense (and annoying, I imagine) energy about it – like: “Oh, Mom and Dad, you’re stressed about work? Okay cool – well, I just ran an entire zoo to perfection… until one ungrateful customer ruined it, so I fed him to the lions. Everyone saw. The zoo shut down. I had to start over… so yeah.”

Another unforgettable moment was finally beating the Tarzan (1999) game on the family computer – one that none of my older cousins or sisters could finish. I got obsessed, played non-stop, and eventually defeated the final boss, Clayton. That win taught me one of the most valuable lessons games have to offer: don’t give up, learn from your mistakes, and keep going.

Tell us about your pony—why is it designed this way?

Our amazing 2D artist, Laura, did a mini-interview, asking for photos, outfit ideas, and interests so she could create my pony avatar.

Besides the writer part of me (hence the pen and paper), there are the rollerblades. At the time of my pony avatar’s creation, Laura asked for reference photos and hobby interests – and I had just started rollerblading. I was really bad but having a blast! Then my boyfriend got me into inliners instead, and suddenly I felt way more stable. He even encouraged me to try a ramp – a small one – but still a ramp! And I did it! Rolling down, excited and scared, I then proceeded to ram right into him!