Ouya has announced that Kellee Santiago has joined the company as DBF (Developer’s Best Friend). She’ll be heading up the company’s developer outreach. Santiago is best known as cofounder of thatgamecompany, the creators of Flower and Journey. In the official announcement, she said:
Oouya gets it. This is the first console company that really understands how important it is to remove the barriers to development. By freeing up the development process, Ouya is opening up new doors in console gaming.
This is a big score for Ouya. Santiago has a great reputation within the gaming business. Ouya will be leaning on independent and small developers to make games optimized for the system. Those kinds of companies will feel like they have a sympathetic ally in Santiago. Journalists view her as an “indie darling,” so it’s additional press for the company too.
What do you think of Ouya hiring Kellee Santiago? Will she help differentiate the company from others that are trying to console-ify Android?
