A 30+ year veteran of the games industry, Patricia has a lifelong love of games. Most childhood family memories revolve around card games and board games. On her own, she devoured puzzles and games with her friends.
About the same time she encountered video games, she became deeply interested in animal intelligence, particularly language and communication, a field of study which was starting to gain momentum in scientific circles.
Twenty-eight years ago, she met her life companion, Buster Keaton, a 6 week old Goffin’s Cockatoo. At that time, there was not a lot of information about cockatoos of any kind. A Cockatoo book dedicated a single page to each featured species. The Goffin’s, described as a “mischievous clown,” sounded very charming, especially when pertaining to this busakawa (ugly/cute) creature who gazed lovingly with huge eyes.
Nearly three decades later, Patricia finally succeeded in marrying these two interesting passions. Why not make video games for parrots? The more she researched, the more sense it made, despite the seemingly quixotic nature of the idea. She is now Director of Game Research and Fun at Parrot Concepts, a company creating mobile games for parrots to help enrich their experiences and share them with their human companions.
“Shared experiences are
compelling experiences.”
— Walt Disney