Jessica Curry is "sort of" leaving The Chinese Room

Published: October 10, 2015 12:36 PM /

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The Chinese Room

Jessica Curry, Director and Composer for game developer The Chinese Room is "sort of" leaving the company according to a post made on the company's official blog.

The post opens with Jessica Curry explaining that she suffers from an unnamed degenerative illness. "Having a progressive illness is not like cancer, or a stroke or a heart attack.  People are left at a loss because they can’t proclaim, 'you’ll beat this thing' or 'you will get better' and they can’t tell you to just 'whoop its ass.' I am going to get worse- that’s a simple fact and no amount of medication, wheatgrass, mindfulness, positive thinking or acupuncture is going to change that."

She then moves on to talk about her experiences as a developer working with publishers. "Working with a publisher made me extremely unhappy and very ill. In the end I didn’t even recognize myself anymore- I had turned from a joyful, fun-loving, creative, silly, funny person into a short-tempered, paranoid, unhappy, negative heap."

Everyone's Gone to the Rapture was published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the Playstation 4. It was originally slated to be a PC-exclusive title but was snapped up by Sony to flesh out their indie offerings for the PS4.

Lastly, she talks about sexism she faced in the industry such as people assuming that her husband (Dan Pinchbeck, Creative Director for The Chinese Room) was responsible for work that she did. "On a personal level I look back at my huge contribution to the games that we’ve made and I have had to watch Dan get the credit time and time again.  I’ve had journalists assuming I’m Dan’s PA, I have been referenced as 'Dan Pinchbeck’s wife' in articles, publishers on first meeting have automatically assumed that my producer is my boss just because he’s a man, one magazine would only feature Dan as Studio Head and wouldn’t include me. When Dan has said 'Jess is the brains of the operation' people have knowingly chuckled and cooed that it’s nice of a husband to be so kind about his wife.  I don’t have enough paper to write down all of the indignities that I’ve faced."

The Chinese Room has developed Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, and Everyone's Gone to the Rapture. They are noted for developing a style of game called "walking simulators" by some, a subject that was tackled by TechRaptor's Kindra Pring.

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