Why Outerloop Studios founder Chandana Ekanayake still has hope for the games industry

When discussing Outerloop Studios’ latest release, last April’s Dosa Divas, I asked co-founder Chandana “Eka” Ekanayake if there was a thematic emotional anchor that kept his team going throughout development. “The exploration of reconciliation,” he answered. “That there are flawed humans and they’re not necessarily good or evil. They just don’t always make the smart choices.”

That very same idea of reconciling, this deliberate choice to look the hard thing in the eyes and believe that it can be overcome, is something I saw all throughout Eka’s life story, which he told Mothership about during a two-hour video call.

In the same breath he uses to discuss the horrors of the current games industry, he muses about its future with such optimism that it’s hard to remember what he was complaining about in the first place. There’s a clear resilience found in Eka’s perspective, one which could easily be chalked up to delusion or ill-placed hope. Instead, his sanguine outlook is one fueled in the very thing our conversation kept coming back to: his abundance of love for it. 

As Eka celebrates 30 years in game development this month, it also feels like a bit of an ironic love, too — considering he never meant to end up in games in the first place.