Everything, everywhere all at once : motherhood and game development
Navigating Motherhood, Game Development Across Continents.
Creating a debut game while raising young children, moving across continents, and establishing a studio focused on traditional art is an immense challenge. Throughout this journey, I’ve faced self-doubts, societal pressures, and practical obstacles in game development. Borrowing the title from the movie “Everything, Everywhere All at Once,” I grappled with the feeling of needing multiple versions of myself to manage it all. I’m sharing some insights into navigating these challenges, balancing family and career, and finding fulfillment in the process.
I wanted to take you into a journey through the intersection of parenting and game development.. A journey that has led me across continents, grappling with self doubts, challenges yet finding profound fulfillment.
I believe sharing our experiences helps us support each other and build the gaming community that we want to be part of.
My husband and I co founded orangutan matter in Toronto studio driven by our shared passion for art, storytelling and nostalgic gaming.
I’m not originally from here — I was born and raised in Iraq, a land rich in culture and history. Yet later I faced displacement, trauma after war and dehumanization by media. These experiences instilled resilience and a curiosity that drives me to question the status quo and navigate daily decisions with a fresh perspective. Putting mundane assumptions into question.
Fast forward, In 2021 I found myself, I started unleaving game prototype, Relocating our studio from England to Canada while creating our debut game and raising children under age of five.
Creating a debut game alongside my husband while raising children under 5 was a roller coaster ride of emotions, challenges and joyful moments.
Balancing game development with parenting meant dealing with constant interruptions and demands.
One one hand, Independent Game developers wear so many different hats, they are artists, coders, musicians, marketers, and more. Sending cold emails to journalists, dealing with rejection, finding collaborators, writing code, in my case painting thousands of frames for the game, and handling marketing — all while on the other hand dealing with parenting duties like daycare, drop off and pickup, nap times, and bedtime stories — was overwhelming.
Painting 23k paintings
https://youtu.be/wyGeF4UYw6k?si=Vn5HLv2eHJm-LTK5
A typical day I’d have a clash of a level design meeting clashed with urgent school pickup, bed time stories, social pressure clashed with aspirations, sending newsletter clashed with dealing with daycare urgent pick up, nap time, diaper time, actively online as a game developer and interact with player clashed with cooking weaning and breastfeeding, making a painting for the game clashed with one of my children sketching on it a spiderman. and trying to be an active online presence while cooking and breastfeeding. I often found my calendar sketched over by my children, literally and metaphorically spiderman sketches.
