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People

This information is out of date from the 26th February 2024, but we're leaving it up so that people can still reference the information.

Between late 2018 and 2024 Die Gute Fabrik's studio leadership was formed of 3 co-owners (Nils Deneken, Douglas Wilson and Christoffer Holmgard), and was led by Hannah Nicklin. As an indie studio we have often had to scale down and re-build around new projects and funding, so do check the credits on the games themselves to see who worked on them.

We built an exciting team for Saltsea Chronicles, and are delighted to share a little bit about everyone here.

Core Team:

Hannah Nicklin - CEO and Studio Lead, Creative Director

Hannah joined Die Gute Fabrik as a Writer and eventually Narrative Designer and Lead Writer on Mutazione. Towards the final year of the project, she was invited to take up a project lead role, and was offered CEO and Creative Lead thereafter. Hannah trained as a theatre-writer, and has been working in interactive practices (theatre, games, installation, etc.) for over a decade. You can follow her on Twitter @hannahnicklin, and read more about her personal practice on hannahnicklin.com


Nils Deneken - Co-owner and Artistic Director

Nils Deneken founded Die Gute Fabrik in 2008, after a student IGF nomination for Rückblende. He worked as the studio lead and art director and is the originator and Creative Director of the studio’s latest output: Mutazione. Now that Mutazione is released, Nils focuses on family life and Art Direction for the upcoming project. He currently lives and works remotely on the island of Bornholm. You can occasionally follow him on Twitter @NilsDeneken.


Katrin-Anna Zibuschka - Lead Programmer

After years of ordinary software development, Katrin decided to turn her passions for computer science, social engagement and games into profession. She joined Die Gute Fabrik in 2017 as a programming intern on Mutazione. These days Katrin works from Austria and focuses on all the leftover programming tasks. You can find her on Twitter @colorfulKati and her portfolio at colorfulkati.com.


Roxanne van Dam - Deputy Lead Programmer

Roxanne is a programmer from the Netherlands where they worked at a few indie game studios, before moving to Denmark to pursue a master’s degree in Games. As a programmer they focus on prototyping and gameplay. You can find their portfolio at ravandam.com, and follow them on Twitter for bird pictures.


Bryan DePuy - Programmer

Bryan DePuy (they/them) is a software developer and artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. From a background of audio engineering, community activism, and weird creative tangents, they somehow arrived at video games, where they now spend a good deal of time. They are excited and grateful to be collaborating with DGF as a programmer! You can also find them online at or in the wreckage of Twitter as @bryinlyin


Angus Dick - Art Lead

Angus is an Animator and Illustrator based in the UK, who has been working on projects for Film, TV, print and games since 2011. He has provided animation for Frobisher Says, Hohokum, Over the Alps and I am Dead, as well as created Pool Panic with Rekim Ltd for Adult Swim Games. Say hi on twitter @angusdick, and check out his previous work on his website.


Ben Wilson - Creative Producer

Ben Wilson is a game maker from the UK who started his games journey as a solo indie developer, made the leap to large scale AAA, then moved back to indie. He has been involved in games as a designer, a programmer, and a creative producer over a wide range of projects. Ben is currently based in Nottingham, and you can find him on Twitter @zerofiftyone_.


Zea Wolfe - Project Manager

Zea joined Die Gute Fabrik in 2021 as a Project Manager. Based in Australia, she has over a decade of experience working in creative industries, production roles and in QA between AAA games as well as Indie titles. Leading teams, empowering people and creating Jira friends is her forte! She's not big on social media, but she's always happy to connect with other developers on Twitter @zea_wolfe or through her website zeawolfe.com


Úna-Minh Kavanagh - Assistant Producer

Úna-Minh is an author, gamer and journalist from the southwest of Ireland. An Irish language speaker, she managed the team that brought the official Irish translation to Among Us. She is an award-winning activist and aside from work, is an enthusiastic D&D Dungeon Master that adores story-driven, RPG games as well as descriptive, witty dialogue. You can find her on Twitter @unaminhkavanagh or on TikTok.


Mikaël Bourget - QA Manager

Mikaël has over a decade of experience in video games management, marketing, business, localization and QA. Besides his work with Die Gute Fabrik, he leads the publishing label Nakana.io, focused on bringing to consoles indie games that carry an important message or experimental features. They offer special DLCs which profits are donated to charities connected with the game's cause.



Writers Room:

The making of Saltsea Chronicles encompassed a lot of story professionals, who worked with us on different aspects, over different periods of time. You can read more about them all here.

Char Putney - Story Lead

Charlene Putney is an award-winning writer and teacher from Ireland. After working at Google and Facebook in management positions, she turned to the more creative side of tech and began writing for videogames in 2013. Most recently, she worked on Divinity: Original Sin 2 and story for the upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3. She also teaches interactive fiction at university level and yoga on the weekends. Say hi to @alphachar!


Sharna Jackson - Story, Writing, & Deputy Story Lead

Sharna Jackson is a writer specialising in fiction and non-fiction for young audiences. She is also a curator and Artistic Director. You can find her online at sharnajackson.com, or @sharnajackson (twitter) and @sharnajackson (instagram)


Harry Josephine Giles - Writer, additional Narrative Design, Story

Harry Josephine Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney who lives in Leith; their latest book is The Games (Out-Spoken Press, 2018). Harryjosephine.com @harryjosiegiles on Twitter, Facebook and Insta. Profile photo by Rich Dyson.


Florence Smith Nicholls - Story Tech, Additional Writing

Florence is an IGGI PhD student in games AI, working as a Story Tech with Die Gute Fabrik. Prior to their doctoral studies they worked as a field archaeologist and heritage consultant. They are also a member of the Knives & Paintbrushes research collective and a board member of the non-profit VALUE Foundation. Find them on Twitter @florencesn.


Clara Fernández-Vara - Worldbuilding, Additional Writing

Clara Fernández-Vara teaches game studies and narrative design at the NYU Game Center, and works as a narrative designer through her company Fiction Control. She has contributed to commercial games for Big Fish Games, Warner Bros. and the Spanish National Ballet, amongst others. Website: Clarafv.net Twitter: @clarafv 


Tanuja Amarasuriya - Story & World building

Tanuja Amarasuriya is a director, dramaturg and sound designer based in Bristol, UK. She is co-Artistic Director of Sleepdogs, and a resident at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio. Find her online via Sleepdogs.org and on Twitter @tanuja_a


Krishna Istha - Writing

Krishna Istha is a screenwriter, comedian and performance artist based in London. Currently, they are a Barbican Centre Open Lab Artist (2022), and writing on Sex Education (Season 4) Netflix. @krishnaistha on Twitter and Instagram.


Halima Hassan - 2022 Game Writing Intern

Halima is interested in all things speculative and most of her fiction writing falls into this realm. She is currently working on a collection of short stories which involves a lot of thinking and, if she’s lucky, a little writing. Some of her non-fiction writing can be found on The Platform. Though a creature of habit, Halima is trying her best to explore all the brunch spots in her city. Occasionally, she will tweet into the void @halomedes.


Ida Hartmann - 2021 Writing and Narrative Design Intern

Ida is a comic artist and game writer from Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2020 she made her debut as a game writer and artist with the autobiographic interactive graphic novel, Stilstand, made in collaboration with Niila Games.
See more art, comics, and sad jokes from Ida on her Instagram @idamahara, or visit her slow brewing twitter account @idahrtmnn.



Recent collaborators - Art, Audio & Art Tech:

These excellent folks helped us bring the visuals of Saltsea Chronicles to life:

Eli Rainsberry - Composer & Sound Designer

Eli Rainsberry is an IGF-nominated composer and sound artist from the UK. They have been making music and sounds for games, animation and interaction since 2015; their most recent soundtrack and audio work was for No Longer Home. Is sometimes perceived over on Twitter. Find out about more of their work on their website and you can support them on Bandcamp.


Camille Soual - Console Specialist Programmer

Camille Soual is a Game Designer and Programmer who started as an indie mobile dev in Paris. She went on to hone her craft on console game porting at Seaven Studio for a few years. Her specialties are UX and gameplay programming, and she has a deep love for game systems and storytelling. You can find more about her work on her website.


Daria Radu - Programmer

Daria studied Game Development at ITU in Copenhagen, Denmark, after realising that pure software development became a little bit of a boring task. She spent years working in Web Development with companies like Tradeshift and Zendesk, and is now trying to fuel her creativity by working with Die Gute Fabrik. Outside work hours, you can find her dancing around to whatever song is currently stuck in her head. Say hi at @sparklesdaria!


Rosanna Wan - Animator

Rosanna is an animation director from London. Over the last decade, she has worked on projects for broadcast, web and live events. During this time, she has cultivated a particular niche in scientific explainers since a residency at the Royal Institution. Find her at rosanna-wan.com and sporadically at @rosannawanstuff (instagram)


Emma Kelly - Animator

Emma is an Animator and Illustrator based in London. Throughout the past five years she has worked on projects for TV, Film and Games. During this time she has developed a specialism for frame by frame animation. Say hi on Instagram @emmakelly_animation or check out her website: emmakellydesign.com .


Ronja Böhringer - Shader/Tech Art Programmer

Ronja is a curious force, always happy to try, to experiment, to tweak. Well known for teaching via shader tutorials, she's been a graphics programmer, tech artist and has a range of experience in games. At Die Gute Fabrik she's helping out with graphics programming and making the look of the game possible from the technical side. Apart from that she's also part of Studio Any Percent where she works on Luxe Engine. She communicates with the world on twitter @totallyronja and on the fediverse @ronja@cybre.space.


Rudi Kolenc - 3D Artist and Animator

Rudi is a 3D Artist and Animator based in the UK, who has been working on projects for Film, TV, print and games since 2009. He has worked for LEGO, Ubisoft, several indie games, Goldsmiths University, and is also an Art Director at Bismuth Works. Say hi on twitter @rudikolenc, and check out his previous work on his website.



Recent Collaborators:

We also worked with the following excellent folks throughout the development of Saltsea Chronicles.

Morten Mygind - Programmer

Morten joined Die Gute Fabrik back in 2016 as lead programmer on Mutazione. He is a veteran game developer with around ten years of experience. He is an expert in game programming, audio design and music composition, and he has worked in a wide range of genres and platforms. He holds a MSc in Information Technology, focused on Audio Design, Games and Programming. You cannot find him on social media: he abandoned his accounts, and is now living blissfully in his cave.


Moo Yu - Programmer

Moo Yu is a gameplay programmer with almost two decades of experience. He worked on games like LittleBigPlanet, the Ratchet and Clank series, and Moshi Monsters. Recently, he has focused on indie games programming Knights and Bikes and Subsurface Circular.


Leah Muwanga-Magoye - Interim Story Lead

Leah is a writer and narrative designer based in London. Currently, she is working as an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, and as Narrative Designer for interactive scripted projects in development at Netflix. Find her on LinkedIn and @theinvisibleart on Instagram.



Alexandra Labusová - Game Design

Alexandra studied a masters degree in Game Design, and worked on a master thesis collaboration with Die Gute Fabrik. She is from Slovakia and holds a bachelor degree in Multimedia Design and Web Development. As a designer, she is interested in UX/UI, testing and interdisciplinary communication. When not working, she is probably relaxing in some weird yoga pose while learning Danish on Duolingo.



Co-Owners

We have an advisory and consulting board of Co-owners, which is led by Christoffer Holmgård (Finance and Governance) with Douglas Wilson (Game Design) and Nils Deneken. Nils also founded the company and is a Co-owner, but as he's also Art Lead, you can read about Nils above.

Douglas Wilson is a co-owner of Die Gute Fabrik. Douglas is best known for his motion control game, Johann Sebastian Joust, winner of the Innovation Award at the 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards. He was also Lead Producer on the local multiplayer compendium Sportsfriends, and a designer and audio programmer on the narrative adventure game Mutazione. Douglas now lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is a Lecturer at RMIT University, teaching and researching game design. You can follow him on Twitter @doougle.


Christoffer Holmgård is a Co-Owner and Financial Officer of Die Gute Fabrik, and also a co-founder and the CEO of Modl.ai. Before starting up Modl.ai, Christoffer was director Die Gute Fabrik and did extensive research as an assistant professor in AI and Machine Learning for Games at Northeastern University. You can follow him on Twitter @holmgard, and read more about his other company at Modl.ai


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