Maru Nihoniho: CEO and Games Designer & Producer

Maru is the founder of Metia Interactive and leads a team of developers that include artists and programmers. As a games designer and producer her focus is on meaningful, indigenous storytelling as culture-based games can be hugely influential and are a powerful outlet for engagement and learning. She has published several Māori games: Sparx, to teach rangatahi how to manage depression, Māori Pa Wars, a strategic tower defence game, Tākaro to teach rangatahi about coding concepts and Guardian Maia, interactive fiction that follows the journey of a Māori woman through a dystopian New Zealand.Maru has won numerous awards and received international recognition for her work. She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 for services to gaming and mental health. In 2017, she was awarded the MCV Pacific Women in Games - The Gamechangers Award for Innovator of the year presented by Microsoft Xbox. In 2018, she was named as one of the Forbes Top 50 Women in Technology."Don't be scared to fail. It's okay, I failed heaps. Sometimes, I think back to all those little failures that I had, which have led me right to where I am right now. So, the little fails or even the big fails can help shape your path. Unless you take that step forward, you just won't know. And if you don't know, it's going to bug you for the rest of your life."