My name is Amanda Goldsmith. Some basic facts about me are that I was born in Connecticut and raised in Austin, Texas. I went to the University of Washington for my undergraduate degree in Applied Physics with a Minor in Climate Science and graduated a year early in 2021. I continued my education at UW to pursue my Masters of Information Management with specializations in Business Intelligence and User Experience, graduating in the spring of 2023. I now spend my time in Seattle working in the gaming industry and expanding my knowledge and passion in this field through various avenues. I love exploring this industry while incorporating the skills I gained from my degrees. It allows me to be creative and curious about something that truly brings me joy every day. Currently, I am working on enhancing my player research and analytics capabilities. Using data-driven decisions by analyzing player behavioral and sentiment data can help influence a game's direction. I also stay up-to-date on current industry trends and conduct market research for various types of games and player bases to see how certain games can tailor themselves to achieve a strong product-market fit. In addition to these insights that help drive game decisions, I have also been exploring my other skill, which is UX design. I enjoy the information management techniques and interface design involved in more technical UX design work within a game, such as menu screens, skill trees, HUD layouts, and inventory management systems. I am eager to explore this type of UX and am learning how to turn Figma wireframes into game assets. Most recently, I have been learning a bit about the Unreal Engine to further explore this interest. My experience in two different startup environments has led me to be very self-sufficient and advocate for myself in my work. These Scrum/Agile environments have also provided me with hands-on product management experience. I can envision myself growing into a producer role at some point in my gaming journey!
I am passionate about gaming, climate change mitigation, earth, science, rainy days, nature, data and Topo Chico. In my free time you can find me doing some sort of workout as I love being active! My favorite activities include snowboarding, hiking, climbing, running, weightlifting and pilates! I ran 2 half marathons in 2023 with a PB of 1:49:22 overall time and it was an amazing experience! I love challenging myself, and seeing what I am capable of accomplishing physically and mentally! I have an 8 year old Pomeranian who is my best friend and we love to explore Seattle and go for long walks to cute coffee shops on the weekends together. I love to travel, and did a study abroad in Paris during my undergrad which really showcased the importance of experiencing different cultures and ways of life past just a week long vacation. I see myself living abroad some day, and hopefully in a few different countries to really experience all the world has to offer!
I also am a huge gamer and have been my whole life. I grew up on Nintendo consoles playing any-and-all Zelda or Mario games. As I got older, I continued gaming, and came into other consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation, and gamed on those for my pre-teen - mid teenage years. During that time, I tried my hand at games such as: COD, GTA, The Witcher 3, WatchDogs, most of the LEGO series and many more. I also enjoyed some computer games during that time such as Sims 2 & 3 and Zoo & Roller Coaster Tycoon. As I got older, I became interested in PC gaming, and luckily had some friends at the time who were already PC gamers. They told me the best route to get into PC gaming would be for me to build my own PC from scratch. As a 16-year-old cheerleader this seemed a bit daunting, but I figured it would be a cool project to undertake! That lead me to building my own PC from scratch at 16 and started my PC gaming journey where I played all sorts of games over those years. Anything from FPS such as Counter Strike or PUBG, to action-adventure games such as Red Dead Redemption, Dying Light, Mass Effect, DOOM. I also enjoy single player story games such as the Little Nightmare series, INSIDE, Hollow Knight and the Walking Dead and Life is Strange series. Fast-forward to now, I rebuilt my PC in 2021 as a graduation gift to myself and also got a Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5! Over the past few years some of my favorite games include:
Switch Games: Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8
PlayStation Games: The Last of Us Series, Uncharted Series, God of War Series, Persona 5 and Spiderman Series
Gaming has and always will be an integral part of my life. I cannot express in words what gaming has given to me over the years, and I will always try and incorporate it into different aspects of my life if I am able: such as in school projects, conversations or in my future work. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to recommend a game or chat about anything gaming related!