Meet Venita Pereira – South African game designer and Sonic Dash creator

Venita Pereira is a veteran game designer who is currently living and working in the United Kingdom, although she is originally from South Africa.

Pereira has worked on 13 triple-A games and has 8 years of experience in the world of game development.

She has worked with some of the biggest developers and publishers in the industry, including Sega, Jagex, Team17, EA, Square Enix, Activision and Hasbro.

Pereira was also the Team Lead and Sole Designer of Sonic Dash – the iOS endless runner success that has over 150 million downloads.

Other notable projects include Agent Dash, Sonic Jump, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light, and all three Alien Breed games.

Pereira has written a book aimed at aspiring game developers, titled “Learning Unity 2D Game Development by Example”, which teaches readers the basics of game design by letting them create their own 2D games in the highly-accessible Unity game engine.

MyGaming caught up with Venita Pereira to learn more about her and find out about the world of game development.

When did you first become interested in game design?

During my first year at high school they introduced Computer Science as part of the curriculum for the first time, and ever since then it got me really thinking about how games are designed.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on an exciting Virtual Reality game, and since VR is still at its nascence and 2016 is the year for VR, it is a very exciting time to be one of the pioneers working on VR as a Technical Game Designer.

Did you study game design at university?

Yes, I was very privileged to be able to study game design at a South African University given that Game Development wasn’t as widely recognized back then. I studied at the University of Pretoria – Tukkies.

Was it difficult to find a job as a South African game developer?

When I graduated, it was nearly impossible to find a job as a South African game developer due to the lack of established game companies in South Africa at the time, which is why I moved over to England to pursue my career.

Which of the games that you have worked on is your favourite?

It is difficult to choose between them as I enjoyed working on all of them and each have their own merits, however, my favourite would have to be the mobile game Sonic Dash because I loved Sonic as a child and I had practically full creative freedom on the entire design of the game.

Are you a gamer? What are your favourite games?

I eat, sleep, and breathe games, and enjoy playing all types of games of all genres, platforms and media.

To mention a few of my favourite games off the top of my head – Minecraft, The Sims, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 7, and Banner Saga 2.

Do you have any advice for South Africans interested in game development?

My advice would be to immerse yourself in games because to succeed in game development you must be passionate about it and understand what makes a good or bad game.

Keep learning, whether it is through higher education, online, or self-teaching, as in game development we are always having to learn.