Meet our board
Stephanie Salter
Stephanie is the Executive Producer & Chief Operations Officer at Hojo Studio. She joined the team in 2022 & leads daily operations and business development.
She has over 20 years experience identifying innovative creative projects in both public and private sector and extensive experience creating Multiplatform content for games and television.
At the ABC, she commissioned and was Executive Producer for several Games, Mobile Apps and digital technology innovations including:
The “Good Game” Game
Q&A Twitter Live TV design, development & Implementation
Poe’s Kitchen / Gardening Australia Website & Mobile App
Enough Rope, Beached Az & The Chaser digital content development
As a consultant, she has also led business transformation and change management programs in addition to designing and developing deep customer insights to inform strategic business decisions.
Luella Moore
Luella is the Games Festival Manager at SXSW Sydney. Each year she produces a showcase of over 120 international indie games, networking events and an investment summit for game developers. As a passionate gamer and cultural event producer, she aims to platform indie game devs and their work through festivals and curated events.
She started as a science communicator and program producer at the Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Observatory and quickly found her passion lies in games, music, tech and arts activations that highlight the achievements of emerging artists and developers. Through her work, Luella has focused on showcasing Australian games to international audiences, providing developers the opportunity to pitch to publishers and elevating the local games industry.
Emre Deniz
Emre Deniz is a multi-award winning games, interactive media and technology developer based in New Zealand. In the past 13+ years, Emre has been involved as a Project Manager, Game Designer and Business Analyst in various projects with clients and collaborators ranging from NASA, Boeing, United States Air Force, HTC Vive, Epic Games, Microsoft, Google and the Australian Defence Force. In addition, he holds a Master in Business Analytics, with several research publications in Artificial Intelligence, and has held numerous consulting roles on AI development and design across a variety of industries.
In 2020, he joined the newly founded GYLD Agency and was named CEO in 2023, overseeing its expansion from boutique consulting in video-games to becoming one of the leading global agencies for independent developers, and opening its internal research & development units in AI, analytics and software engineering.
GYLD currently represents +35 game studios around the world, providing support across business development, game design analytics, market alignment and representation for publishing. To date, GYLD has secured +$50m AUD in funding for its clients despite turbulent market conditions, and regularly works with major gaming partners on project evaluation, decision support and market research.
Margaret Anderson
With an innate love of film and the shared experience of story-telling in the cinema, and a later discovery of computer gaming, mixed with a passion for, and intellectual interest in, creative arts-media content being fairly and consistently classified so that viewers, players, listeners, and readers can interact with that content in an informed manner, it is no surprise that Margaret Anderson enjoyed her full term at Australia’s Classification Board.
While Director of the Board, Margaret fostered relationships and explored issues with industry bodies and creatives, overseas classification agencies, communication and media academics, and the federal Parliament. She instigated the release of media statements about classification decisions to inform the public.
Nico King
Nico King is a Co-Founder and Director at Chaos Theory Games, a prominent and multi-award-winning Australian game development studio. In his role, Nico has delivered forward-thinking Mobile, PC and Console games for organisations such as the United Nations World Food Programme, Google, and Samsung.
Nico has over a decade of experience creating immersive digital experiences and has witnessed a transformation in the way games are used for purposes outside of entertainment. With an impressive track record of driving success for international brands, Nico continues to explore how games intersect with marketing, communications, and behaviour change.
Josh Hallaran
Josh is the Founder of Critical Games, and has been working as an independent developer in NSW since 2011. In that time, he has directed, written, designed, self-funded, and launched 10 commercial games across PC, Mobile, and Console. Most notably, Josh is the creator of the 8-Bit Adventures series of RPGs, which has sold over 48,000 copies.
Outside of work, Josh is engaged with the industry both locally and globally, taking an active role in the Central Coast Game Devs group, and assisting the development and success of international projects like My Familiar and Eternal Remnant. Josh also organised his region’s first ever Indie Game Showcase at Central Coast Comicon 2024, highlighting local talent and helping to raise money for youth charity RYSS. Josh continues to support this event, while also creating new story-rich experiences through his game development work.
Ben Armstrong
Ben Armstrong (Wiradjuri) has worked in the technology and creative industries for over 24 years. During his career, Ben has had a number of roles including engineering, solution architecture, management, bizdev, CEO and Head of Gaming. Passionate about authentic partnerships and the participation of Indigenous people in STEAM careers, Ben works to break down systemic barriers so that Indigenous people can thrive and have a future powered by choice.
Ben has a published short story based on characters and stories from his forever Dungeon Mastering and is one of the 2024 recipients for the AGDAs Rising Star Award which honours people who have made significant contributions to the Australian Games Industry in the past five years.
Tegan Jones
Secretary
Tegan Jones is a multi-award-winning journalist reporting on games, technology and telecommunications for over 10 years. She is a regular tech commentator for mainstream media channels. She is also the co-host for one of Australia’s top technology podcasts, Weird Tech.