Spyridoula Potamopoulou

Artist, Narrative Designer, Game Maker

Γειά σου! I’m Spyri, a game designer, artist, and writer based in New York City. I specialize in constructing living worlds with expansive histories and compelling casts, and using them to craft harrowing, emotional experiences that platform the grief, melancholy, absurdity, and mundanity of life.
Check out some samples of my work below!

Current Project:
MetaSoma

About Me

I was born and raised in New York to Greek immigrants, and grew up with my mother reciting Greek myths to me for bedtime stories. Her love of classic fiction lit the flames of my own passion from youth, and I’ve spent all my life honing my skills as a storyteller and artist so I could one day invoke in others the same overwhelming emotions that my own favorite works brought out in me.I studied Film & Media, Japanese Culture, and Studio Art for my undergraduate degree at Tufts, and am currently pursuing my masters in Game Design at NYU. Over the course of my academic career, I’ve created works across mediums, from short films to children’s books, and have loved nothing more than making games.As a creator, I strive to make works that showcase experiences that are less acknowledged, drawing inspiration from the cultures and communities that shaped me as a Queer Greek person. When not working on my own projects, I enjoy contributing to fanzines, reading queer manga, collecting ball joint dolls, and (obsessively) playing JRPGs, fighting games, and rhythm games.

Multi-Media Projects

Where the Heart Is

A treatment for a Ranch Simulator with a majority-queer cast and focus on character development and interaction, supplemented by academic research that informed the creative process. Where the Heart Is as a project sets out to give shape to a game that I wished existed as a young gamer, and to explore the potential of depicting queerness in one of the most historically heteronormative game genres.The complete project includes extensive research, a full story summary, plans for complex game mechanics (such as the romance system), concepts for the setting and greater world, 45 character biographies, 43 pages of in-game item cataloguing, and an 11 page project rationale that brings each disparate part together.

The Nothingness Tarot

A tarot set designed with the theme of the philosophical/Buddhist concepts of a full/meaningful Nothingness. Features illustrations for each of the major arcana alongside explanations of their meanings, as well as a breakdown of the artistic choices made for each visual element of the deck.

Games

Click the icons below to learn more about each game!

Director, Writer, Character Artist, UI Artist, Animator
For Windows
Download Prototype HereSummary
      A side-scrolling narrative game where you play as a caterpillar jester attempting to sate their hunger, regain their memories, and escape the hive where they’ve been trapped after a failed metamorphosis.Artist's Statement
      MetaSoma is a game about the pain, discomfort, and violence of moving through the world with an identity that others don’t understand or accept and a changing body that makes it impossible to hide. You play as Imeris, a caterpillar servant in a kingdom of bees who has managed to trigger a metamorphosis to gain the wings they long for.      At the start of the game, they awaken to find it failed, leaving them with a foggy mind, an empty stomach, and half-formed wings that can’t carry them. Now, they must search the palace for sustenance so they can try again, trying to keep their heart intact as they face the rejection, disgust, and hostility of people who they used to consider family.

Director, Writer, Editor, Character Artist, Sound
For Windows
Download HereSummary
      A visual novel where you play a lonely soul seeking companionship and belonging in a post-apocalyptic world overtaken by nature. Official selection for the Game Devs of Color Expo Showcase 2024.Artist's Statement
      Mend, at its core, is about community; the painful desire for it, the suffering wrought by the lack of it, and the power of having it. The player character is a queer person who has found themself alone in a frightening world, facing the threat of danger and loneliness both. They meet someone like themself, who is also isolated and struggling, but whose unique circumstances have made them a pariah in their small community. To befriend them would be to invite being ostracized— but is shallow, conditional acceptance worth turning your back on someone who needs you?      The central conflict of the game revolves around that question: will you compromise your morals to assimilate with those in power, or risk getting hurt to forge true relationships with fellow outcasts?

Solo Project
Playable in Browser
Play HereSummary
      A mouse game where you feed your child a dish your mother used to feed to you.Artist's Statement
      Trahana is the simplest, cleanest encapsulation of the kind of games I love to make: ones which highlight difficult emotions like melancholy and grief, and the seemingly mundane things that can trigger them. Here, I wanted to depict the bittersweet feeling of cooking a well-loved childhood dish as an adult. I used my own experiences to solidify the shape I wanted the game to take, and worked to give those memories a playable form. In a way, I was essentially walking others through a fictionalized version of my own life, though the game diverges from reality quite a bit.      The process of making Trahana, beyond being cathartic, imparted to me the knowledge of how much simplicity serves a narrative. The only gameplay is moving a spoon back and forth between a bowl and a mouth with your mouse, but that was more than enough to carry the feeling of the story, and those who have played it have found themselves carried along right with it.