Najmah Salam
Project management extraordinaire and creative powerhouse in narrative and visual design
With over 15 years of experience in marketing and design, I crossed over into game development and have never looked back! Since then, I’ve been able to take my hefty bag of transferrable people and communication skills to complement a utility belt of creative expertise in design and narrative.
I love to empower people to do their best creative work, either as a highly collaborative team player or as an empathetic yet firm lead.
I am also a big believer in constantly learning, whether through taking courses or undergoing projects and have a wide set of skills that I can draw on for any project.
If you need help in producing, narrative or visual design for games, please feel free to get in touch!
Awards and certifications
🏆 IG50 Winner 2024 in Production 2024
The Narrative Department - Game Design for Writers
Into Games - Setting Up An Indie Studio with Rami Ismail
ELVTR - Distinction in UI/UX for Games
The Narrative Department - Masterclass I & II in Game Writing
Portfolio
Games
Commercial and personal projects, including ones I have led or contributed to in marketing and creative production.
Narrative Design
Writing samples including scripts and various exercises.
Visual Design
In-game, marketing and miscellaneous assets.
Recommendations
Such a joy to have had Najmah as our video game Creative Director. We had great synergy the time I was Lead Writer reporting to her in our game release, The Ouroboros Express. In addition, we have already worked together in a diversity of projects in Small Loan Studio and as students.
Najmah is a flexible lead who listened to the input of all creative areas regardless of hierarchy. Not only that, but quickly came with ways to turn everyone’s ideas into actionable tasks, from the beginning to the end of our constrained development window. Relevant to this success, I thank how easy it is to have a conversation with Najmah. She encouraged us when we were right, and she knew when to axe down the content when it slowed the team. This leading experience doesn’t come alone, and it shows.
With the game released, I would be really happy if we had the chance to work in a similar dynamic again. With Naj, I had the creative time of the year. As always, leave it to our Marketing Alchemist and now Creative Director!
Najmah's marketing acumen, creativity, and expertise have been a pivotal force for our team. She has been incredibly generous with her time by upskilling our marketing team with copyrighting and brand development workshops. Her work has helped us develop the foundational marketing practices at Small Loan Studio.
I admire Najmah's leadership and the high-level of professionalism she brings to any project. Her enthusiasm was not only refreshing and inspiring but also motivated me to take on additional responsibilities for the sake of my team.
Najmah's kindness, ingenuity, and expertise would make her a wonderful addition to any team.
Naj is simply multi-talented. As a co-founder at Small Loan Studio, she has contributed in numerous ways, not limited to production, marketing, narrative, and art, and she excels at all of them. Our first project, “Santa’s Secret: A Chrome Steele Mystery,” would never have succeeded without her production and project management skills. When it was time to select our second project, Naj’s vision for “The Ouroboros Express” was so strong that it was the obvious choice. As Creative Director on that project, her communication and organization skills were truly impeccable. Everyone on the team enjoys collaborating with Naj, and I have no doubt that the expertise, commitment, and compassion that she brings would be a great fit in any studio.
Naj is a joy to work for. Since her leadership is so clear and precise, everyone on the team knows what our upcoming sprint and overall patch build goals are. In addition to her efficiency in running meetings, she empathetically resolves questions and delegates work. Sign me up for any project with Naj as creative director!
Najmah has many strengths- her skills in marketing and relationship building alone make her fit to work in any industry she chooses to- but her dedication and excitement in leading the team at Small Loan Studios to execute her vision for the Ouroboros Express was exceptional. As a game director, she is empathetic, kind, and curious, driven and exacting in precisely the way that helps things get done when they need to get done with an incredible degree of specificity. For this project, she was able to articulate her vision perfectly and help me bring her world to life by drawing out details for several main characters.
It was a joy to work with her; her positivity and work ethic made the project feel exciting and uplifting all throughout development. Her interpersonal skills ensured no one ever felt left behind, and that concerns felt heard and were acted upon with alacrity. I felt like I did some of my best dialogue writing work under her direction.
Having been with Small Loan Studio since its inception, Naj has always been an active presence in spearheading productive meetings between various creative departments through her immense knowledge and advocacy for team organization avenues such as Notion. Her vibrant personality also brings life to any discussion by creating a welcoming environment for others to engage with and she has encouraged her collaborators to uplift each other to ensure everyone is becoming the best creative they can be.
Naj led ‘The Ouroboros Express’ project as its Creative Director and while I was working as a writer on the narrative team, she provided definitive direction on the game she envisioned for the project by breaking down her ideas for every aspect of the game development process. She leaned heavily into team collaboration as she was open to discussing her direction while allowing the numerous creatives on the team individual freedom with the execution of their work. If there were any issues with the project, she would actively answer questions and provide clarity to the situations which helped immensely when I was writing for one of the romanceable NPCs, Susu’Rha.
In short, Naj is a star when it comes to team collaboration and productive leadership that any team would be honored to have. I appreciate the opportunity to have met and worked with her, and I look forward to seeing what other creative projects her passion for the process will bring into existence.
Naj is an excellent director! She made the team onboarding experience very swift and easy. She introduced me to the team leads and gave us our product roadmap, along with explaining the lore of the game and the teams vision.
She provided guidance with art direction along with regular check-ins to keep us on time and within scope.
She’s an excellent project manager, game director, artist, and all around creative! She’s kind, easy to work with, makes a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment to work in and I know without a doubt that any team should be so lucky to have her onboard!
