On games as a universe where "we can be who we want to be, regardless of gender or disability"

• Our shortlisted winners of Pocket Gamer Connects’ Aurora UK awards share their industry views.
• Jane Whittaker talks about her journey into games, views on leadership, and motivations for making games accessible to everyone.

At Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 we highlighted the women and non-binary people shortlisted for the Aurora awards - based on nominations received by the industry - live on stage, giving recognition and visibility to the leading names significantly impacting the UK games industry.

Following the event, we caught up with some of them to gain deeper insight into their work and visions. In this edition, we spoke to Athena Worlds' Jane Whittaker.

PocketGamer: What inspired you to pursue a career in games?

Jane Whittaker: I spent a very long time in hospital as a child, with over 60 surgeries. To keep myself sane, my uncle, who was an electronics engineer, gave me a kit to build the Sinclair ZX80 computer.

I fell in love with programming the machine and learning Z80 machine code, plugged into a black and white portable TV at the hospital bedside. The Sinclair ZX81 came along in 1981 and I decided to make my own game.

There was no games industry to speak of in the UK at the time. You wrote your own games. I created a space game purely to take me out in the stars rather than the reality of being attached to a drip and wires on a hospital bed - a universe of my imagination.

This led me to create more games, which my parents suggested I could sell by mail order. I found that I loved creating universes away from the real world and decided at around 13 that this was going to be my life. I was very lucky to be talent spotted and I left school at 16. I went straight into games with companies such as Atari and Microprose.

What leadership principles have most shaped your career in games?

Lead from the front. Despite reaching boardroom levels with fancy titles, my key guiding tenet has always been to stay current and keep making games. Keep expanding my skillset. 

I still write code for projects. Despite being an executive VP, I wrote the official expansion packs for Microsoft Flight Simulator, for example. I work long hours in the trenches with teams, alongside the dev teams, and I would have it no other way. I believe that to lead teams making games, you must understand games and be part of the process. Involve yourself in the studio and the product.

The single most important assets in the video games industry are not technologies or IP, but the people who are making the games. Value your teams. Be part of the team rather than leading from an ivory tower. 

What systemic barriers still exist for women and non-binary professionals in games, and how can they be addressed?

To say there are no barriers for women and non-binary professionals in the video games industry would unfortunately be untrue. Personally, I have faced significant abuse over the years.

The industry started as something of a boys' club and that mindset has prevailed for far too long. I had to release my early games as “Andrew Whittaker” rather than “Jane Whittaker” as I was told a game with a girl’s name on the box would not be taken seriously. I was too young to stand up for myself.

The good news is that there is progress and I do see a will to change. We must all keep steering this industry with regular nudges in the right direction. The Aurora awards are fantastic in raising awareness that women are indeed talented.

We need to keep flying the flag for women and diversity in games, in front of the whole industry.

What one piece of advice would you give to women entering the industry today?

Find your niche in the industry as to where you want to be and then fulfil your role with passion and commitment. Keep learning about what you do. Learn about your role intimately. Set out a roadmap of your career goals. Love what you do.

Most of all, completely ignore the naysayers and prejudices you may encounter. If somebody says “no” to you because you are a woman and “what do women know about games”, treat that as a holding position until you educate that person to say “yes”. Never, ever give up!

Which projects or achievements best reflect your vision for the future of games?

I strongly believe that all games should be made for everyone, not games for boys or girls. Where non-binary sits in that mindset, I have no idea. 

I see a future for games being worlds of the imagination where we can explore and immerse ourselves. Games where we shape the outcome of events. The finest current example of this is Baldur's Gate 3, with its myriad of options and over 700 recorded endings.

Our current project at Athena Worlds, Codename Xeno, takes this exact approach. It uses a whole new behavioural AI algorithm that allows the world to evolve with emergent properties based on how you want to live there.

We have worked hard to make that world accessible. My wife, Claire, has no arms and no legs, yet is a keen gamer. We have disabled team members. We have created a control system, interface, and approach to make the game available to all.

It breaks my heart when Claire buys a game only to find there is a control mechanism that keeps her from playing the game as an amputee of both hands. She plays World of Warcraft, which has nailed accessible control options. In that world, she plays alongside able-bodied players who have no idea that the character on the raid with them is actually a limbless lady.

This ties back into what got me into this business in the first place, creating a universe away from our own without the limitations and daily pressures we face here. Somewhere we can explore and be who we want to be, regardless of gender or disability.