Cara Ellison

Cara Ellison
Ellison in 2014
Born (1985-09-28) 28 September 1985 (age 39)
NationalityScottish
Occupation(s)Critic, developer

Cara Ellison (born 28 September 1985) is a Scottish video game writer and critic.[1][2][3][4]

Journalism

Ellison made regular contributions to publications PC Gamer, Unwinnable and Rock Paper Shotgun beginning in 2012.[5][6][7]

She has also written gaming related articles for New Statesman, Paste,[8] Edge magazine and Kotaku and is a regular contributor to The Guardian games blog.[9] From 2014 to 2015, Ellison wrote a bi-weekly column called S.EXE for Rock Paper Shotgun about the depiction of sex and romance in video games.[10] She also contributed video game related articles to VICE UK in 2014.[11]

In 2013, Ellison won the Games Media Award 'Rising Star' for her work writing about games, and The Guardian placed her number ten in the 'Top 30 Young People in Digital Media' list 2014.[12]

In 2014, Ellison successfully sought funding on Patreon for her "Embed with" series, in which she became an itinerant games journalist, travelling the world and writing about the lives and processes of games developers.[13][14]

From February 2021 to June 2022, Ellison co-hosted The Inspirational Quarterly with Davey Wreden, a podcast dedicated to reading, reviewing, and discussing Keith R. A. DeCandido's 2006 novel StarCraft: Ghost: Nova.[15]

Games development

Ellison worked for Rockstar North as a QA tester on Grand Theft Auto IV until 2008.[3][16] In 2013, Ellison wrote the text-based interactive fiction game Sacrilege, which The New York Times described as a "raw exploration of female sexuality that also includes some astute observations about male desire".[17] Ellison also has collaborated with artist Howard Hardiman on Badger's Day Out, funded by a combination of a successful Kickstarter, with backing from the Arts Council England.

She was contracted by Arkane Studios as an external narrative consultant for the 2016 title Dishonored 2.[18][19]

In August 2015, she gave a keynote at Dare to Be Digital.[20]

Ellison provided voice acting for the character of 'Peanut' in the 2015 game Assault Android Cactus. [21][22]

She worked as the writer of Void Bastards.

She was a senior narrative designer for the Hardsuit Labs project Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 until she left the project following the departure of Brian Mitsoda and Ka'ai Cluney.[4]

In June 2021, it was announced that she, alongside Brian Mitsoda, had joined The Fermi Paradox development team at Anomaly Games.[23]

Bibliography

  • The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture (October 2015, Seven Stories Press)[24]
  • Embed with Games: A Year on the Couch with Game Developers (November 2015, Polygon)[25]

References

  1. ^ "‘The Charnel House Trilogy’ Review: Pixelated Horror Game Gets Mixed Results". Game Rant. by Melissa Loomis
  2. ^ Greg Tito (17 March 2014). "Cara Ellison Kickstarts Games Critic Career with Patreon". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  3. ^ a b "The top 30 young people in digital media: Nos 10-1". The Guardian. 17 March 2014.
  4. ^ a b "'Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2' loses senior narrative designer". Bandlab Technologies. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  5. ^ Ellison, Cara (6 November 2012). "Old friends: an ode to Defence of the Ancients". PC Gamer.
  6. ^ Ellison, Cara (24 April 2012). "Don't Take Love Personally, Babe: Being Single In Public". Unwinnable.
  7. ^ Ellison, Cara (20 June 2012). "Choose Your Own Anna Anthropy Interview". Rock Paper Shotgun.
  8. ^ "The Charnel House Trilogy Review: Dangers on a Train". Paste. by Brian Taylor 23 April 2015
  9. ^ "Cara Ellison". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  10. ^ "The Complete S.EXE, Cara Ellison's Series About Games, Sex and Relationships". Rock Paper Shotgun. 1 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Latest from Cara Ellison". VICE UK.
  12. ^ "Games Media Awards toast new talent and top writers". MCV. 10 October 2013.
  13. ^ "Critical Distance: This Week in Videogame Blogging #6 '. New Statesman.
  14. ^ "Support Cara Ellison creating transmetropolitan games criticism". Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  15. ^ "The Inspirational Quarterly on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  16. ^ "Grand Theft Auto IV credits". Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  17. ^ Suellentrop, Chris (6 July 2014). "Text Games in a New Era of Stories". New York Times.
  18. ^ "Dishonored 2 Credits". MobyGames. MobyGames.
  19. ^ "Cara Ellison". Giant Bomb. Giant Bomb.
  20. ^ "Video game intimacy discussed at Dare ProtoPlay". NewBay Media. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  21. ^ O'Connor, Alice (24 September 2015). "Twin-Stick Shootyfun: Assault Android Cactus Released". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  22. ^ Fahey, Mike (28 September 2015). "So Many Robots Die In The First Five Minutes Of Assault Android Cactus". Kotaku. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  23. ^ Beckhelling, Imogen (10 June 2021). "Former Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 writers join a sci-fi strategy game". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  24. ^ "The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture". Seven Stories Press. Seven Stories Press. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  25. ^ "Embed with Games: A Year on the Couch with Game Developers". Birlinn Ltd. Polygon. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2016.