Meet the Devs: Sandi Gardiner

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:00

   so I got to ask about that ring like the full finger ring where did you where did I get that yeah I got it here in La it's by a designer called Gaia so I can actually I can bend a little bit but not a full you can't even bend no you can't you can bend a little bit there you go welcome back to meet the devs I'm James PE with me today is a very special guest our VP of marketing Sandy Gardner Sandy how you doing good how are you thanks for coming on thank you so you've been with the project since its Inception how did you how were you brought onto the process I was brought on to the process um Chris had talked about this project

2. 00:00:49

   for quite a while before 2012 and um he'd been going around interviewing people uh to do the marketing part of the campaign and i' said that I would put in a pitch I'm just really grateful for that opportunity that he gave me cuz I hadn't worked in the gaming industry before so where were you at before you came here I wasn't you didn't exist I didn't I didn't exist at all I did not exist at all now I actually um basically been doing a lot of modeling and acting and also working in other areas in marketing as marketing manager marketing director so I had had other marketing roles so you came from fashion and and that sort of Industry correct I did so yes marketing for um and the entertainment like nightclubs

3. 00:01:40

   and restaurants and stuff uh Marketing in fashion and then actually I just recently like looked at some work references that I just found and um I worked in commercial real estate doing marketing for them cool um so lots of stuff you know so are you excited to get into video games yeah I did I did a lot of homework cuz I I really didn't know a lot about it um at the time there was um double find and Tim Schaefer were doing their thing and also um project eternity I think launched right before we did so I was really uh doing a lot of research and also into well yeah it's this weird position where you have to learn how to Market a game you're used to marketing but not in this sphere and not only that you have to learn how to take this this

4. 00:02:27

   new way to fund something right and make that into a workable plan yeah I mean cuz the I took what I'd done from past experience and kind of put it all into the one thing so like I said I'm just really grateful that Chris gave me that opportunity because it's was a little different I think from what everybody else was suggesting um you know because the experience in say nightclubs and restaurants and stuff is kind of what we do on the event side MH yeah makesense like citizen con games the merchandising so because I'd done that whole production line in in fashion and I'd done the marketing for that um that's kind of what we do in merchandising um and we're getting there it's just you know we're working on it we're working on it I mean it's just

5. 00:03:16

   something that kind of snowballed yeah um well that's interesting so you were here when there was like what like maybe four people and you've seen it grown to grow to where we're at now like 270 or something yeah I mean we would do Skype calls um with everyone yeah with everyone it exactly it was uh Dave hadock Chris me Ben um David Swafford and our um web team we had a really small web team at that time so we would just get on these Skype calls and I would kind of take down all the notes and follow up with everybody and I think Ben was in DC at the time swaer was in Austin the web team were in Florida I think it was and it was just like this whole times was like all right um yeah and and then it just really snowballed so so

6. 00:04:07

   what are you most proud of that we've done so far I'm really proud of our team be it small but it's just it's a very I mean doing a campaign and I know not there weren't many of us in the beginning but just going through that whole experience together and then even like with bringing you on board and and um Tom and Jared Alexis um and our CS team in in the UK it's going through those experiences I'm just really proud of how our teams come together and we're all so passionate about doing that it's just that's just really cool and and and also proud of I mean our community is like unbelievable just like it's like tear jerking stuff they're so passionate and generous and

7. 00:04:57

   that's got to be a shift for you too coming from you know like the fashion and real estate sphere where you don't really interact generally with people to have to interact with the community so much like has that been was that easy for you at the beginning and how do you feel about it now um I remember right at the beginning it's total culture shock a little nerve-wracking because there can be really intense and it's it's you know it's like wow okay well I'm just trying to do my best to to uh do a campaign um and uh you know it's 24/7 I mean back then there was like uh no one else doing customer service except me and me and another girl called Cindy and Ben was helping out and so it was just such a getting all the forums and kind of like

8. 00:05:46

   a lot of questions like who are you you know Sandy Gardner who are you I'm like well uh you know this just I wasn't expecting people are that that interested in who I am it was more like hey I just want to give this to you guys and and make something cool yeah it that is quite the shock I don't give it as much as you do but the concept of I'm just you know we're just trying to we're trying to create this game and we're trying to make it for you guys and the concept that you guys care about us is flattering but it's it's it can be really overwhelming I mean it's surreal is what it is it is I mean you know five or six days at Gamescom and literally from start to finish there was somebody talking to me who knew me by my first

9. 00:06:34

   name and last name and and just a lot about me that I'm like ho uh hi you know it was just really intense because it's I didn't create the campaign to um kind of receive that attention it was like to I really want to give something to people to be able to share a passion together and create something together so where do We Go From Here in terms of our marketing strategy and what we want the project to be well the plan that I had from the beginning was probably a 2 to three year plan mhm now some of that plan um hasn't come to fruition as yet because I'm not in control of the development so it's you know it's it has to be like one of

10. 00:07:25

    the most challenging in fact the most challenging thing I've ever done because most things there's a date yeah like if I'm if I'm organizing like I've organized a party for 40,000 people on New Year's Eve it's New Year's Eve yeah you can't do it on a second exactly it's happening on New Year's Eve so we so I'm doing all of that work and everything and then there you go but with this it's like I can do all the work and then hey we can't there's bugs and we can't this is not happening and um having said all of that I'm really really looking forward to the next few months because I'm starting to see all of that hard work that the dev guys have have put in it's like it gets to it's kind of like getting to I don't know to the crest of

11. 00:08:13

    the wave or to the top of Mount Everest or something where it's that there's that real slog of hard work to get to a point where you can constantly deliver content and updates and everything and and I'm really excited for that because that me means my job exactly I can actually Implement my plan yeah so I'm really looking forward to like just these next few months like citizen con and Beyond I'm like yes finally feels like everything's falling in line yeah right exactly all right well we're going to let you out of here but before you go we have three rapid fire questions are you ready all right favorite movie Godfather I've never seen it are you serious oh my

12. 00:09:02

    gosh all right that just I mean there are other movies but that just the first one okay go favorite video game doom doom favorite ship and Star Citizen gosh I like a lot of them uh I'm going to go for the 890 jump 890 jump why why cuz it's a space yacht yeah yeah I mean it's because he saying the favorite that's not the one I would fly by myself but I just the whole concept of it it's like just you know hanging out with friends on a space yacht that is pretty awesome space Yachts for the win yeah there we go all right well thank you so much again for joining us thank you for taking the time uh once again I'm James Pew this is Sandy Garder and you just met a Dev thanks guys you got to point

13. 00:09:50

    the camera ah bye guys with my finger ring