Susannah Emery
Hi! I’m Susannah, usually known as Susie!
AuDHD | She/they
I’m a game designer and a Senior Lecturer of Games Design & Digital Media at Adelaide University. My practice spans video games, tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), board and card games, as well as hybrid and non-game interactive experiences, including tools such as chatbots and participatory digital platforms.
My research explores how interactive media and technology can communicate complex ideas across cultural and social boundaries, with a focus on fostering learning, empathy, and social change. My work is grounded in participatory and radical co-design approaches, collaborating with communities to design technologies that reflect lived experience and support community-defined goals.
My work is particularly concerned with equity, diversity, and inclusion in technology and game cultures, including a focus on neurodivergence, disability, gender, and socio-economic inequality. As a neurodivergent designer and researcher, I bring lived experience into both my teaching and creative practice. Alongside academic work, I have contributed as a designer across a range of projects spanning digital, physical, and hybrid formats, including award-winning and nominated games.
I’m also an International Women in Games Ambassador and am committed to promoting diversity in the games industry. In 2022, I received the Women in Games Global Award for Games or Esports Educator.