Meg Jayanth
While growing up Jayanth lived in Bangalore, London, and Saudi Arabia, attending a total of 12 different schools. Her first gaming experiences included Disney’s Aladdin, SimTower, and Civilization II. Jayanth studied English literature at the University of Oxford, where she directed The Oxford Revue, following which she worked at the BBC in the department responsible for commissioning video games.
She is known for her writing on 80 Days and Sunless Sea. Jayanth worked at the BBC before becoming a freelance writer, and has also written for The Guardian on women and video games.
Jayanth first became interested in writing for video games via online text-based roleplaying games in which she built worlds and characters. The first playable game she wrote was Samsara, a choice-based narrative game set in Bengal in 1757, which she has yet to finish in full. Jayanth is particularly interested in writing stories which explore “unexpected perspectives and unheard voices”, including under-represented people and cultures.
Career
Jayanth was the writer of 80 Days, for which she wrote a total of more than 750,000 words, contributed to the writing for Horizon Zero Dawn, and was a writer for Sunless Sea. In addition to other accolades, 80 Days was nominated for a BAFTA Game Award for Story in 2014, and Meg won the UK Writers’ Guild Award for Best Writing in a Video Game.
In 2019 Jayanth hosted the Independent Games Festival awards, where she used her opening speech to encourage the video game industry to reject hatred and create a welcoming and safe environment. In May, she announced the formation of a “boutique narrative label” called Red Queens alongside Leigh Alexander.
Jayanth is currently working on Boyfriend Dungeon and Sable.
