(If you're looking for my professional bio, you can find it in my portfolio.)

I'm Amanda Farough, but if you know me as a game developer, you know me as Manda. Beyond my professional experiences in video games over the last 17 years, I've been a writer since I was old enough to understand what a story was. My parents have boxes and boxes of my old short stories, dating back to grade 1's debut short story: Yvonne and the Magic Lamp. (It was about my mom finding a magic lamp that cured her of all her illnesses.)

This Space

When I left game journalism in late 2020, I also left behind online writing for the most part. I refocused my efforts into building a game development career, instead. This space is intended to gently slough off that old skin, those old habits, and slip into something both new and familiar.

This space will grow and change with me. It's an exploration of the many intersections of my experiences in writing and design, while also pulling in the rest of the many facets of my life, like parenting, gardening, and analog journaling. The multidimensional nature of this space reflects the multiclasser (dare I say polymath) that I am.

If it's useful to you, wonderful! Please stay and engage and add your thoughts.

If you're looking for more concrete, less whimsical expressions of my multitudinal expertise and experiences, you might want to look towards my podcast, Virtual Economy, instead. It's funny, but down-to-earth.

Me, the Human

I try not to live my life as a mish mash of different identities, but they shape me and how I live, so I suppose they matter.

  • Canadian through and through (BC born and raised)
  • Currently resides in New Jersey
  • Suburban mama of four; one grown and in college, the rest are teenagers
  • Eldest daughter, proud sister to a slightly younger brother with the world's biggest heart
  • Queer and polyam; married for nearly 20 years, polycule for nearly 10 years
  • Neurosparkly (ADHD variety)
  • Indoor plant afficianado
  • Gardener and burgenoning herbalist
  • Always learning and/or researching something
  • Collects stationery
  • Fountain pen lover
  • Loves people, dogs, cats running dog firmware, pourover coffee, soft goth aesthetic, live music (especially Our Lady Peace), and embroidered clothes
  • Usually found spinning too many professional plates, under a stack of books and notebooks, and spreadsheets tracking it all