- Wikipedia

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Meghna Jayanth
Jayanth at the 2019 Independent Games Festival
Born	(1987-02-06) 6 February 1987 (age 38)
Occupation	Writer
Known for	80 Days
Notable work	Sunless Sea Horizon Zero Dawn

Meghna Jayanth (born 6 February 1987) is a video game writer and narrative designer.^[1] She is known for her writing on 80 Days and Sunless Sea. Jayanth worked at the BBC before becoming a freelance writer,^[2] and has also written for The Guardian on women and video games.^[3]^[4]\n

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Early life

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Meghna Jayanth was born on 6 February 1987.^[5] While growing up, Jayanth lived in Bangalore, London, and Saudi Arabia, attending a total of 12 different schools.^[6] Her first gaming experiences included Disney's Aladdin, SimTower, and Civilization II.^[7] Jayanth studied English literature at the University of Oxford, where she directed The Oxford Revue, following which she worked at the BBC in the department responsible for commissioning video games.^[7]\n

Jayanth first became interested in writing for video games via online text-based roleplaying games in which she built worlds and characters.^[8] The first playable game she wrote was Samsara, a choice-based narrative game set in Bengal in 1757, which she has yet to finish.^[6]^[7] Jayanth is particularly interested in writing stories which explore \"unexpected perspectives and unheard voices\", including under-represented people and cultures.^[8]\n

Career

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Jayanth was the writer of 80 Days, for which she wrote a total of more than 750,000 words, contributed to the writing for Horizon Zero Dawn, and was a writer for Sunless Sea. In addition to other accolades, 80 Days was nominated for a BAFTA Game Award for Story in 2014, and Meg won the UK Writers' Guild Award for Best Writing in a Video Game.^[6]\n

In 2019 Jayanth hosted the Independent Games Festival awards, where she used her opening speech to encourage the video game industry to reject hatred and create a welcoming and safe environment.^[9] In May of that year, she announced the formation of a \"boutique narrative label\" called Red Queens alongside Leigh Alexander.^[10] \n

As of August 2019^[update] Jayanth was working on Boyfriend Dungeon and Sable.^[11]^[12]\n