Leading competitions onstage at Dreamhack Summer 2007

Born in Sweden, Marie got her first console, a FAMICOM, at the age of 5. When she read her first PC Gamer at the age of 7, she knew she wanted to work with games – but not how.

As a teenager,  she started taking her first steps in 2001 when she started to play Counter-Strike and registered her first clan on Clanbase ladder system. This is when her life-long passion for esports began. In 2003, she became a writer for the worlds biggest female gaming community, Femina Gaming (later merged into Femina United) and soon grew internally to be one of its leaders as the org. The org was the first of it’s kind, combining a newssite with a forum with online leagues, a ladder system and even LAN tournaments, effectively driving female esports at its time.

From 2004 until 2010, Marie and her crew started organizing twice annual Counter-Strike tournaments at Dreamhack – first the male ones under ESWC banner and then their own within female CS. Marie wanted to work with it full-time, but only a few people could at the time and she had to look elsewhere to find sustainable income.

Stars in TV show Metro Teknik. Photographer: Patrik Thalén/TV8.

As esports were not yet possible to sustain her as a career, Marie tried out different ways of working with games. In 2005, she was a game reviewer for Nordic Gamers online magazine and in 2007, she was starring weekly talking about games in tech show Metro Teknik, broadcasted on Swedish TV.

In parallel, Marie studied Computer Science, hoping to work with cool tech as a plan B. She met an employee from EA DICE who inspired her to pursue game development. She ideally wanted to become a game designer, but no educations existed at the time, so the set her sights on gameplay programmer instead, hoping to later transition.

Marie with a coworker at legendary IBM Almaden Research Center, where she was an intern

In 2008, Marie took her first steps as a game developer when she moved to Silicon Valley for an internship at IBM, working on Second life and researching what was later dubbed as the metaverse. This was a defining experience for Marie and planted the seed for her international career.

When she returned, she joined a student group to develop Snow Hard, her very first game that she competed with in Swedish Game Awards 2009. There was a lot of hype around the game, but upon completion, her new merit still could not lead her to a job in game development. Sadly, the local industry in Stockholm at the time was in a slump, with several studios closing their doors, laying off staff and freezing their recruitment.

Determined to still get there, Marie took the long route by doing her university thesis in online poker at bwin in 2010 and then continued to build her experience as a developer with casino games at Net Entertainment in 2011.

Meanwhile, she was very active in the Stockholm BarCraft (StarCraft 2) scene. She also countinued speaking about games in TV morning shows every now and then.

Demoing Batman Arkham Origins at Tokyo Game Show 2013

In 2013, Marie got her first job in AAA as she started as associate gameplay programmer at WB Games Montréal, where she worked on Batman Arkham Origins. The game was built on the source code from previous installment Batman Arkham City (GOTY 2011) and Marie was hands-on in almost all parts of the game’s core combat and gameplay. She also got to work on the game’s first boss – Killer Croc – which introduced Game AI in her life, an area that quickly became one of her specialties.

Attending BlizzCon 2016 with several StarCraft 2 professionals

Marie’s game dev career continued as gameplay programmer at Eidos working on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and then at Funcom (soon acquired and rebranded as Nvizzio), working on RollerCoaster Tycoon World. At the end of said project, she finally got the role transition she had dreamed of when her talent was recognized by Marc Albinet – industry legend and one of the first employees at Ubisoft back in the 1980’s. Marc opened up a position for Marie on his new project, and she was taken under his wings where she quickly learned the ropes of game design.

At the same time, she was involved in the North American StarCraft scene and helped out as admin at Dreamhack Montreal.

Marie streaming her series ‘Diamond Duos’ on Twitch

During this time, Marie started getting involved with SMITE esports, alongside her career as gamedev. Every week, she would show off SMITE gameplay from the duo lane in her series streaming ‘Diamond Duos’. As she developed her concept, she took it offline to increase production quality and made it an YouTube exclusive.

Organizing a SMITE tournament at Meltdown Montreal

Alongside her YouTube show, Marie was also building a SMITE community. She transitioned it from Curse Voice to Discord, where she arranged frequent game nights for more than a hundred elite and semi-elite players.

Later on, she expanded on her concept and organized LAN tournaments at Meltdown Montreal esports bar.

Casting SMITE live at Meltdown Montreal esports bar

As Marie was no longer in Sweden, she was no longer starring as game expert and missed being live on camera entertaining an audience. To pursue her passion once more, she started doing live esports commentary and made her name as amateur caster, mentored by esports caster legend Kaelaris. Her talent was recognized and she started casting for SMITE Central and ESL’s weekly community tournaments.

Attending SMITE World Championships at Hi-Rez Expo 2017 with both her team and community in SMITE

Being a game designer alongside her esports career, Marie had a deep understanding of gameplay. The more Marie’s game understanding of SMITE grew, she transitioned from play-by-play caster to become an analyst, providing expert commentary on tactics, meta and strategy.

Having proven her sharp mind and eye for the game, Marie was approached by several high-caliber teams to be their coach. During this stint of her career, she coached three teams. One was a semi-professional org – BOT Empire – and another climbed from amateur league to North American League rank #12 under her leadership.

The game design team on Dead Rising 5

In 2017, Marie moved to Vancouver to work at Capcom as a game designer on zombie AAA title Dead Rising 5. She proved her abilities and quickly grew her responsibilities from working on the basic zombies to be the dedicated boss fight designer, leading a cross-disciplinary team of 17. This was also much thanks to her previous experience making bosses in Batman Arkham Origins.

Sadly, the studio shut down, and the jobs quickly dried up in the local scene, forcing Marie to look beyond to continue her career as game designer.

Teaching a workshop in game development to female students from Newnham College

Marie’s next position there triggered a return to Europe when she joined Jagex in the UK and rose to Senior Systems Designer. Her relocation meant the end for her involvement in SMITE, as her team and community operated in the North American timezone and on North American servers.

At Jagex, she spearheaded the AI team on a new AAA action game in the RuneScape universe. Being one of the most senior devs on the project, Marie shared her knowledge, fostered her team and had a profound impact on the game. Her responsibilities grew once more and she became the lead for the whole combat team.

She also co-led the Women’s group, that soon expanded to be the Diversity group. The group made lives better both inside and outside the studio:

• Make it easier to transition by improving HR documentation
• Hosted townhall meetings at the annual Runefest for the LGBT community
• Arranged an AMA that covered the frontpage of Reddit
• Held well-being activities during Pride
• Introduced a gender-neutral bathroom
• Weekly meetings to support women & minority employees
• Joined Women in Games as ambassador
• Boosted representation by speaking at studio updates

Eventually, Marie received media training and became an official spokesperson for D&I at the studio, and started starring in interviews.

Streaming The Cycle and doing Q & A with the community

As Brexit hit, Marie moved on to Berlin, and here, a new era started – one where she started combining her passions into one by being a game developer on esports games. She started out as Lead Designer on The Cycle where she nurtured a small esports community who passionately held tournaments.

As the game pivoted away from esports, she moved on to take a temporary contract as Associate Design Director at Ubisoft Stockholm, overseeing all of gameplay on a new AAA game. When her contract reached completion, Marie joined mobile startup Legendary Play where she was director over her own esports game, building her team, designing and leading the project in its entirety.

Leading Nordic Game Awards 2023 onstage

In 2021, Marie decided to step out of working at a game studio, and instead open her own boutique advisory. This also enabled her to focus more on esports, and to really explore a side-career as a hostess and stage personality.

This meant Marie finally came full circle got to do esports professionally, whilst also exercising her talent, experience, passion and understanding of game design. The result was overwhelming – 29 speaker and hosts bookings in 2022, across both gamedev and esports conferences. She now does both as part of her business, and it complements her advisory well as she is able to show off her knowledge and meet new clients.

Interviewing SNK on the Devcom 2023 stage

In 2023, Marie grew her business and profile further, and started getting major clients such as Supercell and Canadian Media Fund. She also started ‘selling out’ big conference rooms with her talks, such as Devcom, Nordic Game and Reboot. In the fall, she successfully launched and ran her own Masterclass in Bossfight design. Her growing profile and persona within games and esports also awarded her with a position as Brand Ambassador for Flashe Gaming, maker of esports gear.

Marie also evolved her consultancy by becoming a digital nomad, and is currently trailblazing her way forward, inspiring many in her steps.