Hello!

Welcome to Drowlife!

I’m Poornima Seetharaman, (also known as Purnima Iyer and as Artemis / @arty_mis in the gamer zone). 

I have been part of the gaming industry since 2006 and have worked with some of the best names in the Indian gaming industry.  I was the lead game designer for Bioshock mobile, (which now has a tiny cult following), NBC’s The Office 3D Mobile, Predator Mobile,  as well as some of the top Cricket games including IPL, during my stint at Indiagames (now Disney India). Game design happened by chance at the beginning of my career and after a short stint in South Korea, I had the opportunity to translate that into my entrepreneurial venture, Pinaka Interactive, along with a dear friend. I also got to work with Square Enix where I helped them set up a game development contest in India. 

I was also one of the lead game designers for educational MMOs like How to Train Your Dragons and worked with the Neopets franchise at Knowledge Adventure (JumpStart, now NetDragons), following which I led the game design for GSN (Game Show Network) Games which allowed me to explore the Social Casino scene. I eventually went on to head the gaming studio at an Augmented Reality based company, following which, I co-founded Namma Lore Entertainment.

I have had the privilege to work on a wide variety of genres, including casual games, free to play games, FPS, RPG, MMO, social casino and augmented reality. I believe in using the power of gaming to create a meaningful and impactful change in thinking. I’ve worked on a few projects as a design consultant including one where I partnered with the Election Commission of India and National Institute of Design, Bangalore to create a game on the Electoral Process called Mx. Democracy.

I have also been working on a few of my own games with a small team of like-minded folks.  One of my dream projects is to create ‘Madhuram‘ (Sweetness) , a Carnatic  music (classical music form originated in South India) inspired puzzle adventure game as a homage to my late aunt, T.R. Balamani.

I’m currently part of the Zynga family leading franchises like Farmville 2: Country Escape & looking forward to craft new experiences!

I’m an Ambassador of Women in Games (WIGJ) and founder of the Women in Games India (WIGIN) Community.

When I get the time, I also teach at  National Institute of Design, Bangalore, as a guest lecturer and conduct workshops for other institutes like Srishti, Christ (Deemed to be University), Backstage Pass, Amity University, Jain University etc. I’ve curated, judged and spoken at various design festivals, summits and conferences like TEDx, Pocket Gamer Connects, India GDC, Talents in Games etc to name a few. I’m also one of the mentors at Google’s Indie Game Accelerator.  

I’ve been inducted into the Global Women in Games Hall of Fame at the virtually held Women in Games – Global Games Awards 2020 and it’s an absolute honour to be one among these amazing women and to be the first Indian Game Developer to receive such an honour.

I am also one of the winners of the Special Recognition Award at WomenTech Network’s Global Awards 2020 as well as a runner-up for the Mentor of The Year Category.

I also won the Outstanding Woman in Game Development award at GISR’s IIWA 2021. I was also honoured with the BusinessWorld Gaming’s Women Leading Gaming award. I’m also a finalist for Game Designer of the Year 2021 at the global gameHERs awards.

My little Hall of Fame can be found here & here

P.S: The ‘Drow‘ is a dark elf subrace in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, and Drow Ranger is my favourite character from Dota2!