A developer's year: Anna Marsh

2013 felt like a big year to be a gamer, with new consoles, new business models settling in and old school studios getting lost along the way. But what was it like from the inside? We spoke to a few high profile developers to find out what the stand out moments were for them.

It's the turn of Lady Shotgun's Anna Marsh, design director and company founder of the indie studio that brought you Buddha Finger in 2012 and is currently working on a narrative lead transmedia project. Marsh had a big year appearing at major conferences and working on Sing it, Laurie! a musical game for small children.

"High Points - Being awarded the Abertay Prototype Grant for our antiques themed project Relic Restorer. We've been able to put together a prototype which has opened up some great potential opportunities for us.

Speaking at GDC and Develop this year were both fantastic, I felt like my experience in the industry actually meant something. Being flown out to Montreal to speak there and going to the BAFTA awards were both unexpectedly glamorous perks!

DEVICE 6 is definitely my game of 2013 - I've had so little time this year big console experiences have been out of the question, but I don't mind when there's mobile games like DEVICE 6 - a perfect match of platform and game. The song 'Anna' off the soundtrack was also a bit of a highlight in itself :)

"Speaking at GDC and Develop this year were both fantastic, I felt like my experience in the industry actually meant something"

Low Points - the realities of running a business have hit home this year - the 'difficult second album' stage I guess! I went into Lady Shotgun knowing a lot about games but very little about business so I've had a tough learning curve. That can be a downer, particularly having been in the industry for a while, suddenly feeling like you've gone back to square one. Its hard work reminding myself 'Failure is Success in progress' sometimes!"