+Meet The Team

Surprise Attack was founded by Chris Wright, a veteran of video games marketing with more than 100 campaigns executed under his care for publishers including THQ, Microsoft, Sega, Capcom, Disney Interactive Studios and many more. Chris also spent two years as a member of Film Victoria’s Digital Media Assessment Panel, which assesses applications in respect of its Digital Media funding programs, providing recommendations to the Board for final approval.

Travis brings 20 years of advertising and marketing experience across a range of technology and youth oriented categories. Travis’ passion for video games has led him to head up marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, THQ Asia Pacific and then globally for THQ based in LA.Family brought him home to Australia and he joins Surprise Attack based in Sydney. Apart from his family, his proudest moment was purchasing a Neo Geo AES over 20 years ago. He’s even prouder to say he still has it in perfect working order.

Christina’s first game experience was Command & Conquer and she’s never looked back. Having a background in software engineering, she brought the advances in software development to gaming and found her happy place in free-to-play games. She was the producer on Zuma Blitz in the highly competitive Chinese market and worked on a number of other social and mobile games at PopCap. As our free-to-play expert, Christina helps clients navigate this increasingly important business model, from initial strategy all the way through to launch, operation and management.

One day, Jessica’s uncle brought her an Atari Pong and that’s how it all began… A few years later, she started her marketing career in the very performance oriented media buying team of the Bigpoint GmbH. After more than 4 years of service and hundreds of campaigns, she finally decided to leave «die schönste Stadt der Welt»  to bring her skills to Melbourne. When she is not managing campaigns for Surprise Attack, Jess likes travelling, enjoying some great concerts  and playing capoeira. She also loves observing people, discovering new cultures and making impossible possible.

Starting with Duck Hunt for the NES, Lex was always fascinated by video-games. Having a background in economics, marketing and law, he joined the industry when it was heavily shifting towards digital distribution. Whilst working at Iceberg Interactive, he was Product Manager on PC game’s including Endless Space, Killing Floor, APB Reloaded and the Wings of Prey series. Taking the lead on PC projects, Lex helps clients with marketing and promotional campaigns, strategy and distribution.

Drew Taylor is features writer and reviewer, with a background in PR, games marketing and consultancy, kids media and graphic design. He also serves as Publisher/editor for indie experimental art/gaming magazine Jumpbutton. He has a passion for games culture, interactive fiction and accessibility gaming.

Before he could talk, Stephen was intent on being better at Super Mario Bros. than his father, which led to a life long obsession with video games. After dabbling with music journalism, he joined the editorial team at MMGN, and fell in love with indie game development. When he had an opportunity to join Surprise Attack, he grabbed it with both hands. Stephen specialises in press releases, promotional material and social media campaigns. He also claims to have liked Half-Life “before it was cool.”

Games have been Fiona’s favourite thing in the whole world since she was seven years old. So after spending many years working in medical practice management, she jumped at the chance to apply her admin skills to Surprise Attack and help indie developers promote their awesome games. Fiona specialises in administrative and moral support, data wrangling and once finished The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in a single sitting.

Dan is a passionate games industry veteran of 17 years. Starting as a journalist in 1995 Dan went on to edit numerous games publications in Australia including Hyper, PC Games Addict, Edge Australia and Official PlayStation Magazine as well as writing for many more.  In 2005 Dan transitioned into development, accepting a design position at Creative Assembly to work on Medieval II: Total War. After nearly seven years at the developer, Dan left in early 2012 and joined Surprise Attack shortly after. Dan provides design evaluation and consultation for our clients.