As a video games industry veteran, Brenda Romero does not do false modesty. Instead of hiding her Bafta in the loo or using it as a doorstop, her British Academy of Film and Television Arts golden gong takes centre stage in the conference room of Romero Games, the firm she runs with her husband in Galway.
The prize is flanked by a vintage Remington typewriter, a repicla vintage speaker, and dozens of board games. The designer, artist and Fulbright scholar may be rightly proud of her achievement, but for Romero and her spouse — celebrated games director, designer, developer and programmer John Romero — their work is all about play.
This month, Romero was given the Bafta Games Awards’ special prize for her lifelong contribution to the industry, her passion for training the next generation of game-makers, and her advocacy of an often derided medium as an art form. She has attended countless award ceremonies in her 36-year career, but there was something special about being recognised by her peers.
“When I got the email I checked to see if it was fake,” she admits. “The only reason that I believed it was legit was because I had been to a previous Bafta event and recognised the font on the letter.
Romero, who in additon to creating games is also director of the University of Limerick’s MSc course in game design and development, has worked on 49 video games, including the Wizardry series and titles in the Def Jam, Ghost Recon and Dungeons and Dragons franchises.
Her six-part physical board game series The Mechanic is the Message has won acclaim for its handling of sensitive subjects such as slavery and the Holocaust.
Romero began working in games in 1981, aged 15. The role as a tester at Sir-tech Software was her dream job, playing games around the clock so she could memorise every level and pass on tips to callers via a hotline. Spurning highly paid jobs to remain in the industry, she graduated to product development, and writing and designing games.
A passionate advocate of gaming as a boundary-pushing art form, Romero’s work has blurred the lines between genres. Her Mechanic is the Message board game series — including The New World, about the slave trade; Síochán Leat, a chronicle of Irish history which is exhibited in the National Museum of Play in New York; and Train, in which players load pawns into model carriages and transport them to concentration camps — challenges gamers to question their actions.
“Every other art form can cover difficult topics, so why not games? Some of the best photographs you’ll ever see have to deal with difficult subject matter — it’s part of their power — but, for some reason, we got stuck with this idea that games have to be fun.
Romero, whose great-grandfather William left Skibbereen as a stowaway aged 12, was given the chance to trace her roots when awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2014. What began as a three-month road trip in Ireland became a permanent move.
Last year, the Romeros teamed up with their 12-year-old son Donovan to make Gunman Taco Truck, a comedy action game. The title was such a success that it will fund Donovan’s college fees.
Not taking her lifetime achievement award too literally, she has no plans to hang up her joystick and instead is working on a secret project she says will fulfil a long-time ambition.