Leanne Fenton-Orchard

Tell us about your career journey so far…

I’ve had a bit of a varied career history; I organised promotional parties for a major drinks brand whilst at university, taught English in Japan and came back to the UK to work across customer care and Business Development roles. Across everything I’ve found it’s people and dealing with their needs, quirks and goals that interests me the most. That’s why I decided to try out working with the quirkiest bunch of them all in a role that lets me connect with new people every day.

What is your job title at Peek & Poke and what does it mean?

As an Account Manager I am involved in all sorts of activities here at Peek & Poke. I support the team looking after current clients, making sure everyone is happy. I also reach out to people who may not have heard about us and the great work we do, letting them know how branded games can support their campaigns and projects. I also support Cari on our marketing, writing blogs, posting to social media and generally making sure to spread the word about what Peek & Poke is up to!

Why did you apply for the role and what are you looking forward to?

Before Peek & Poke I worked at a very large, global company with team members dotted all over the world. It was great experience and I travelled a lot but I wanted to try stepping into a more close-knit, ‘community’ setting. I’ve always been involved in promoting products and services to clients and what a wonderful opportunity to promote something I have a personal passion for – games! Outside of work we’re all people with interests and hobbies. For many of us, these interests aren’t as relevant to our core working responsibilities as we would like, but at Peek & Poke I feel like I can surround myself with my personal interests whilst also injecting a little fun into the days of our clients, end users and new contacts; after all, who doesn’t enjoy playing games? (Weirdos, that’s who!)

Tell us about you? What keeps you busy when you’re not engaging customers?

I love getting creative. I’ll sketch, paint and make little critters out of fabric and clay to fill my spare time. Thanks to being surrounded by graphics and great game content I’m getting inspired to dabble with digital art a little more and teaching myself as I go along. I’m also a big fan of food so will bake given any opportunity – I recently made a friend a batch of ‘I’m glad to hear you weren’t seriously injured in your recent car crash’ cupcakes.

Whilst I am content to sit at home wrapped in blankets doing doodles or playing video games, I do try to keep fit by training at my local Muay Thai gym. I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to exercise so running on a treadmill isn’t for me! I’d much rather be running around throwing kicks and collecting bruises.

What is your current / all-time favourite game?

This is a tricky one! Growing up I played platformers and adventure games like Crash, Mario, Legend of Zelda and Spyro with my brother and will always have a soft spot for them. Into my teens I dove deeply into the RPG world, spending an ungodly amount of time on things like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Elder Scrolls and the Fable series. I even lost a few of my informative teenage years to exploring Azeroth in WoW (My life for the Horde!)

Nowadays I flit between Rangering about on Neverwinter and shorter games or indie titles available on Steam or the PS4 store that I can easily dip in and out of. Current favourites are Undertale for its nostalgic play style and surprisingly gut-punching moral undertones, Bastion for its killer soundtrack and Child of Light for its whimsical, Ghibli-esque art style. Also pretty much anything by Double Fine, their games carry a consistent light-hearted and comic tone that really appeals to me. TellTale also do an incredible prequel adaptation of one of my favourite comic series ‘Fables’ called ‘The Wolf Among Us’ which is well worth checking out. Wait . . . what was the question again?

Most importantly, what is your zombie apocalypse plan?

Having read the Zombie Survival Guide cover-to-cover I know I would need to:

1) Own a patch of land somewhere remote to start my own sustainable agricultural enterprise

2) Be a master of at least two martial arts specialising in breaking holds and disabling enemies
and

3) be armed to the teeth with weapons and resources.

I have none of the above, so the chances are I’d bunker down with my loved ones and my cats, weep quietly into packets of Doritos and read Terry Pratchett books until I felt better. Failing that, my partner has a surprisingly in-depth plan hinging on turning our local B&M store into a zombie-proof stronghold that I could probably get on-board with!