Eloise Singer Announced as Speaker at GDC, the World’s Largest Games Conference
Eloise Singer, Founder & CEO of Singer Studios, has been announced as a speaker at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world’s largest and most influential gathering for the global games industry.
Singer will appear in conversation with Executive Producer Dave Ranyard as part of the GDC Festival of Gaming, reflecting on the more than ten-year journey behind The Pirate Queen — from its earliest conception as an independent VR project to its emergence as a globally recognised, Emmy and PGA-nominated storyworld.
Created, owned, and developed by Singer Studios, The Pirate Queen premiered to critical acclaim at Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Storyscapes Award, before going on to receive major international recognition and platform success. The project stars Lucy Liu, who also serves as an executive producer, and has become a cornerstone example of creator-led IP built outside traditional studio systems.
The GDC talk offers a candid examination of what it takes to build original IP over the long term — not just to launch, but to endure. Singer and Ranyard will discuss the realities of sustaining a story world across formats: the early creative risk, the years of iteration, the strategic decisions around expansion, and the discipline required to protect authorship as a property scales.
Drawing on Singer Studios’ experience, the session explores how The Pirate Queen has expanded deliberately across media — from immersive games into publishing, with a forthcoming graphic novel series being released by Simon & Schuster, co-written by Singer and Lucy Liu, alongside ongoing development for television and live experiences. Each expansion has been approached as part of a single, authored universe, shaped with long-term intent.
The conversation positions worldbuilding as a decade-long practice — one that requires patience, ownership, and a willingness to resist premature scale — and offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how an independent studio can grow a global franchise without relinquishing creative control.
The session will take place on Thursday, March 12, from 3:50–4:20pm, on the International Stage, South Hall, as part of the GDC Festival of Gaming programme.
Singer’s appearance at GDC underscores Singer Studios’ role in a wider industry shift toward creator-owned, format-agnostic IP — story worlds built carefully over time, designed to travel across media, and structured to last.
