SonderingEmily on Career Highs, the Future, and Creator Advice

We’re really lucky to work with a growing roster of talented, thoughtful, and hard-working knowledge creators here at Smooth. Helping them to build their businesses is such fulfilling work—and seeing them thrive? Gives us the warm fuzzies every time.

That’s one of many reasons why we’re so proud to work with knowledge creator and game developer Emily Pitcher, aka SonderingEmily. She’s been on a tear lately, creating incredible content about the ins and outs of game development and securing major deals with household name brands.

The cherry on top this month: Emily was just named Best Gaming Creator at the Asian Creator Awards. 🏆

We caught up with Emily to hear more about this award, her creator career, and what’s next. Go Emily!

Can you tell us more about the Asian Creator Awards? What was the event like? Any highlights to share?

Emily: The Asian Creator Awards celebrate 15 Asian content creators across 13 categories such as family, comedy, and gaming. This year's awards were presented by Kajabi with financial support from mostly Asian owned businesses, an event planned and produced by an all-Asian team, at an Asian-owned venue. 

The biggest highlight was listening to the speeches of the award winners. Despite all of us being in different niches, we share the same values: to create content that inspires us and the next generation of artists, entrepreneurs, and creators.

Winning this award is a major achievement! What brought you to this moment? How does it fit into your creator journey?

Emily: I found out about the Asian Creator Awards after Ben (Creator Partnerships Lead at Smooth) forwarded the nomination site to me. A few weeks later, I got in and met so many of my favorite creators.

Growing up, there wasn't a lot of representation of Asian people in traditional media. I obsessed over YouTubers like KevJumba, Nigahiga, and Michelle Phan, and I dreamed of becoming like them one day. A decade later, I’m fulfilling that goal!

What are you excited about right now re: your creator journey?

Emily: A few months ago, I lost passion for the game I was working on for two years. I was frustrated with the state of the games industry, and I was tired of hearing nos for the project I poured my heart into. 

I left that game and started working on a new one as a solo developer. While I've previously made cozy, heartfelt games, I am making a psychological horror game for the first time: lily's world XD. I'm so excited to share my development journey with my audience and create a game I can be proud of.

What advice would you give other creators?

Emily: My biggest advice to creators is to ask yourself, “what can I do that others can't?” A year ago, I made a lot of gaming meme videos. While many would go viral, I felt a disconnect with my audience. My videos were entertaining, but they weren't unique. I'm never the funniest person in a room, but I am usually the only person in that room who can make video games. I leaned more into my expertise and passion as a game developer, and the following months were my greatest periods of growth for my account.

Be sure to give SonderingEmily a follow on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Watching her journey as a game dev is incredible stuff!

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