Meet Hannah Guerin | Game Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Guerin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, why did you pursue a creative career?
Coming from a gaming and artistic background, it was to no one’s surprise when I stepped into the Illustration program in undergrad. The difficult part was choosing what I wanted to do with it later. I was interested in the movie and game industries, so I started making plans to become an illustrator/concept artist. However, that did not last long after I took on my first production art job after school. Switching to a digital platform instead of working on paper was exciting, and led me to become a graphic designer in the same company.

While I enjoyed my job, I realized it is easy to become caught up in routine, and when you stay in one place for so long, your world starts to get so much smaller. But the great thing about being in a creative field, is you have the skills and flexibility to change directions. I started my master’s degree in Graphic Design at Ohio University in 2022, and with their resources, I finally brought my love of gaming and design together.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am focusing on my thesis to finish my master’s degree, so my work is made up of Adobe, Unity, and Blender files. My current project, “I Am Alone”, is a third-person platformer I am developing to conceptualize the idea of the unattainable in video games and simulate the feeling of loneliness and frustration a solo player experiences. By illustrating harmful interactions in online games, I set out to make players and non-players recognize the many faces of social exclusion in today’s video game community. Those poor experiences with others online not only impact our emotions in the moment but can predict our behavior and influence how we treat others in the future.

Coming from a fine art and design background, this has been my most difficult challenge yet. Games are largely built by teams of talented people, so learning and performing every job on my own in a year’s worth of time is tough. It helps that Ohio University excels in giving their master’s students a rich interdisciplinary experience, and it will be rewarding to see it played during my show on April 4th of this year.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Athens, OH is best in the spring with the cherry blossoms and the fall with the color-changing forests. Either way, I always take my friends for a hike at Conkles Hollow in Hocking Hills, then visit the antique strip mall in Logan. Afterward, we would stop at the Hocking Hills Winery on the way back to town for a sip or two of the local wines and pet the cats that call it home.

In town, I would take my friends to my studio in the Ridges, or Ohio University’s repurposed mental hospital. It feels spooky at first, but the architecture is beautiful and it houses the local Kennedy Museum of Art among other school departments. Dinner would be at Salam, a Mediterranean restaurant that is one of my favorite spots to eat. If you like beer, I recommend Jackie O’s Taproom. If you prefer cider as your drink of choice, West End Ciderhouse is the place to finish your day.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I can’t imagine how my life would look today if not for the friends I have made throughout the years. Great friends support you when you are going through tough times, but when they push you forward to your dreams no matter the outcome, that is when they are truly on your side.

There have been so many moments in my career when I was stuck and needed the nudge to move on to better things, so I want to dedicate this shoutout to Todd Jones, Summer Fisher, and Tillis Smith. I would not be where I am today without your encouragement and faith in me.

Website: https://www.hguerin.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/h.guerin/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-guerin-5601b6117/