Maru Nihoniho

Maru Nihoniho is the founder and managing director of Metia Interactive,[1] she's also the designer and developer of several games, included the game Sparx.[2] Born in New Zealand in 1973, she's not a newcomer in currently booming tech scene.[1]

Education

In 2017, Maru Nihoniho finished her master's degree in Technological Futures[3] with the Tech Futures Lab.[4]

Career

Maru Nihoniho played games since the age of 11.[4]

After one year of multimedia course, in 2003, she found the Metia Interactive company, which produces games to help depressed young people and represents Māori culture all around the world.[4] Her company released the PlayStation Portable game, Cube in 2007.[5]

After Cube, she was approached by the University of Auckland to develop a self-help game for depression of Māori people and people of other ethnic groups in New Zealand. This game, Sparx, is based on cognitive behavioral therapy[4] and it's released in 2013.

In 2017, during her last year at Tech Futures Lab, she develops, as key project, Takaro, a game about education and focus for young people.[2]

She develops several games about Māori culture such as Guardian Maia, the last one, her goal was to introduce this culture to outsiders.[4]

Awards

She was named Innovator of the year in the 2017 MCV Pacific Women in Games Awards, presented by Xbox.[2]

She won the New Zealand Order of Merit 2016 for her work in gaming and mental health, and was 2018's Māori Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.[4]

She's in the top 50 women in Tech 2018 by Forbes.[6]

References
  1. "Maru Nihoniho". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  2. "Video game creator Maru Nihoniho helps educate the next generation". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  3. "Maru Nihoniho | Tākaro - Play | CreativeMornings/AKL". CreativeMornings. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  4. Newman, Heather. "How The Award-Winning Creator Of Cube And Tākaro Is Bringing Māori Culture To Video Games". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  5. "Cube for PSP (2007)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  6. "The Top 50 Women In Tech 2018". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
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