What does it take to build an award-winning indie studio at 25? If you ask Morrigan Pickford, the answer is stubbornness, a willingness to be a bit annoying, and the belief that if no one else is going to do it, you might as well.
Morrigan is the founder of The Vampires Mana (TVM Studios), a Norwich-based indie studio currently developing FOQUES, an oil-painted artistic adventure game, working in outreach at Hunter Moon Games, and a tutor at our Norwich campus. She’s a three-time award winner, including the 2024 Develop: Her Award for emerging talent, the 2025 UK Startup Awards East of England Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and a spot in MCV/Develop’s 30 Under 30 for 2025.
She joined us as part of our games industry speaker webinar at Access Creative College, and she had a lot to say.
From Lincolnshire to an indie studio founder
Morrigan didn’t grow up with an obvious route into games. She’s from Stamford in Lincolnshire, her words: “kind of a little bit of a nowhere area”, where she was actively bullied for liking video games, and where the idea of becoming a games artist was, as she puts it, “pretty much unheard of and very much discouraged.”
She did A Levels in media theory and combined English, with art as a hobby on the side. She’d planned to become a scientist, right up until the moment she submitted her UCAS application and changed her mind entirely.
“I thought, I don’t want to do that. I want to go into video games. I love video games. They’ve made me feel so much better and more confident in myself.”
She got accepted into Norwich University of the Arts, right as COVID hit.
Why she built the studio herself
The pandemic wiped out the internships and placements that previous years had taken for granted. Morrigan watched her friends miss out on opportunities that should have been there, and got frustrated enough to do something about it.
“I kept thinking: why couldn’t I, if I had a job higher up in the industry, I would just give that to them myself. I can just do it myself.”
So she made a company in her bedroom. She dragged her housemates in. Five people became fifteen. And The Vampires Mana was born.
TVM Studios is currently working on a very exciting project.
FOQUES is an artistic adventure game described as “Okami meets Resident Evil” – you play as a small Arctic fox named Kari, navigating the woods of Northern Canada while escaping an eldritch bio-horror. The entire game is rendered in a hand-painted oil painting art style, custom-made and bespoke from the ground up. The team has showcased it at events from Birmingham to Brighton over the past three years.
The work experience program that changed everything
While building TVM, Morrigan noticed another problem: the industry was closing its doors on juniors just as she’d managed to get in. Internship opportunities were drying up. Her friends who’d graduated after her were struggling.
She went back to the same instinct that started the studio, she realised: “I really wish someone could do something about this. Why is no one helping? Wait – I can do something about this.”
The TVM Work Experience Programme started with a single bootcamp for Access Creative College students, a live brief, and a walkthrough of what it’s actually like to work in a real studio. One student from the University of Sheffield heard about it and asked if they could join. And then it spiralled.
Year one: 30 students, a mix of college and university level. By the end of that year, a third of them had landed industry jobs.
“A third of them got an industry job by the end of the year, which is absolutely insane. And we were so proud of that.”
Year two: they aimed for 40. After Games Jobs Direct posted about the program, 47 applications came in within two days. They had to close early.
The program is running again, with a more careful approach this time, and a funding application is in progress to bring in guest speakers. Keep an eye on TVM’s socials for updates.
How to fund an indie game
Morrigan was honest that funding is one of the hardest parts of indie development, and that there’s currently a wider shortage of funding for games in the UK. But there are routes in:
- Grants – the UK government offers specific funding for games, a grant specifically for underrepresented and marginalised genders and races in games. Worth researching if you’re from an underrepresented background.
- Transfuzer – a UK boot camp program for recent graduates (zero to three years post-graduation). You receive a small investment, guidance on setting up your company, and a showcase at the end. Morrigan credits it as a key early step for TVM.
- Private investment – an individual investor takes an interest in your project and provides funding in exchange for a share of future profits.
- Publishers – similar to investors, but they also handle distribution and have their own stake in getting the game into the world.
- Crowdfunding – Kickstarter or similar platforms. Morrigan’s caution here: if crowdfunding fails, it can put off investors later, so approach this route carefully.
Her advice? Get started on the game first – then worry about the admin “I’d recommend getting into the fun of it first.”
Morrigan’s tips for putting yourself out there
1. To be cringe is to be free
“I don’t understand where cringe culture has come from. I think that to be passionate about anything is the absolute most beautiful thing a human being can do.”
Morrigan’s favourite trait about herself is being a bit annoying. She walks up to people at gaming events, says she runs an indie studio, and asks if there’s any way to work together. It’s gotten her friends and connections across the industry.
2. If no one’s doing it, start it yourself
There are real barriers in game development. Morrigan had a full-time job while trying to run a studio. Funding is hard to come by. But none of that stops you from making a start, writing the GDD, building the concept, and getting a team together.
“If you can get it started, somewhere along the way, it will pick up.”
3. Work to your strengths – but stay open
Morrigan was a concept artist who, by her own admission, you would not have caught dead touching Unreal Engine. Her developers changed that. Learning it improved communication across the team and turned out to be more freeing than she expected.
“If you open your mind to new ventures and new things to learn, you will go so much further in the industry.”
4. Use social media like a human being
For indie games, especially, social media is how you get discovered. Word of mouth is powerful. Morrigan used Poppy Playtime as an example of a horror game that spread entirely because one YouTuber found it and played it.
The key, she says, is to stay genuine: “If you’re going to be posting about your game, be as passionate as you would be talking about it to your best friend… Make memes about your game. As cringe as you might think they are, someone else will find them funny.”
5. Network – even if it scares you
Morrigan gets it. Especially for neurodivergent people or those with social anxiety, walking up to a stranger at an event is a real ask. But she points to her own experience: the connection that helped the work experience programme take off came from bumping into someone from Games Jobs Direct at a bar and just getting talking.
“You don’t have to talk to them as a business pitch. Just try to make friends with everyone in the games industry.”
Start your gaming journey with us
Morrigan started with a bedroom, her housemates, and a lot of stubbornness. If you’re studying games at Access Creative College right now, you’re already further along than you think.
Our Games Development and Games Art courses give you the skills, the projects, and the portfolio to take that first step – whatever direction it leads you in.
