On the origin of Wyrdren.

“Wyrd is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English weird.”

When starting Wyrdren I knew I wanted a name that would reflect the types of games we would be creating. I am super passionate about storytelling; I believe it is one of the quintessential factors that make us human. Stories have been an integral part of our survival as a species. At the dawn of the spoken word, we passed essential information to one another to share what we had learned. My favourite games have always had epic stories at the centre of them, I have often thought of games as utilising the best parts of books and movies and smashing them together, with the player at the centre of the action. I wanted to make games that I myself would love to play – narrative-focused, with choices to be made and multiple outcomes. Designing games where the player could oversee the outcome of the story was paramount to me when forming Wyrdren.

The wyrd has origins in Norse mythology, later Roman and Greek. It is one of the three ‘fates’ (Norn’s, weird sisters, valkyries), they are often represented as three weavers, weaving the threads of life: past, present and future. This concept was important to me as a woman starting a game studio in a male-dominated industry, the Norns are powerful female figures, and I found them inspiring. It also relates directly to the style of games we are making, games in which the player would follow the threads of the story, with multiple paths to take and choices to make. They would be the weavers of their own destiny.

The etymology of the word weird can be traced back to the word wyrd. This felt symbolic as the games I wanted to make were games that were missing when I was growing up playing games. I longed for games that had diverse representation and were LGBTQIA+ inclusive when I was younger. I often felt on the fringe and ‘weird’ for the games I enjoyed. I wanted games that really represented the people playing them. The wonderful communities that for too long had to play games with the default white, male characters. It felt poetic when choosing a name that we would get to include something that would represent the people we were creating for.

Finally, I settled on wyrd ∙ ren. Adding the ‘ren’ to the end to represent the family and community that I hoped to create with this company. ‘ren’ and ‘en’ are added to words to pluralise them, like brethren, children and women. My intention is to create a community of diverse gamers who enjoy inclusive narrative games with player-driven choices at the heart of them. I also hope to expand the team and create more games in the future – I hope that everyone who works with us can bring their own stories and experiences to the table and help make Wyrdren the best company it can be. I hope Wyrdren can eventually offer opportunities to those who have the same passion for storytelling and game design that are often overlooked by the industry.