Mobile developer and publisher Exient Entertainment has appointed Christa Agius to the role of COO.

Prior to assuming her current role, Agius held the role of product director within the company, assisting with the delivery of several key releases. Previously, she held the role of commercial product lead at Finixio and product manager at Catena Media.

As COO, Agius will take responsibility for building Exient’s capabilities as it supports both first-party games and third-party collaborations with other platforms and publishers. She will also oversee recruitment for the programmers required to deliver on projects scheduled for 2023 and beyond.

Additionally, Agius will continue to promote diversity and equality, both within the studio and in the wider games industry, as part of her responsibilities as a Women in Games ambassador.

“We’re delighted to promote Christa to the position of COO,” said Exient chief executive officer Julian Jones. “Christa has been instrumental to the success of Exient since joining the team and will play a hugely important role as we expand our development and content pipeline capabilities further, both for our own titles and as we support our partners in their own mobile games success.”

Exience in design

Exient initially made a name for itself in the games space by porting console and PC games to handheld platforms, with titles ranging from SSX 3 to The Sims 3. The company also has also partnered with mobile gaming giant Rovio to co-develop numerous games in the Angry Birds franchise, including the console and handheld ports of its numerous mobile entries, as well as the now discontinued racing game Angry Birds Go. However, the company has focused entirely on mobile games since 2014, releasing mobile games based on established IPs such as Lemmings and Strictly Come Dancing.

In February, Exient released its latest title, Ultimate Sackboy, a mobile spin-off of Sony’s bestselling LittleBigPlanet franchise.