Dead Static Drive is Grand Theft Cthulhu. An indie survival-horror game following a nightmarish road trip across a 1980s Americana, Dead Static Drive blends weird fiction and uncanny Eldritch themes with a spooky unease underlying this small-town life.
Heavily influenced by the work of weird fiction authors T. E. D. Klein, Gene Wolfe, & Ramsey Campbell, filmmaker David Lynch, and photographer William Eggleston, Dead Static Drive hopes to invoke images of an America now lost, where with the right car and enough gas, anything felt possible.
Leena fulfilled multiple roles on this game, namely as Creative Producer and Writer, along with supplemental work on sound implementation and game design.
Advisory & industry
Board Director - Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation - Massachusetts USA - 2024-present
Narrative Jury - Independent Games Festival awards (IGFs) - 2019-2024
Deputy Chair, Inaugural Games and Interactive Advisory Committee - Australian Writers Guild - 2015-2019
Curatorial Advisory Group - Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) - 2015-2017
Program Advisory Committee, Bachelor of Design (Games) - RMIT University - 2014-2018
Co-Founder and Director, WiDGET (Women in Development, Games & Everything Tech) 2013-2018
Associate Producer - Freeplay Independent Games Festival - 2015
Program Advisory Committee - Freeplay Independent Games Festival - 2012, and 2014-2016
Associate Producer - Freeplay Independent Games Festival - 2012
Teaching
Leena taught writing for videogames at various universities in Australia across seven years as a casual sessional adjunct, including RMIT University, the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne University), & Swinburne University.
Awards & Honours
2017-2018: Leena was awarded a place in the inaugural “Next Gen Leaders” delegation with the International Game Developers Association, receiving a two year scholarship to their leadership program aimed at empowering and readying mid-career game developers from marginalised backgrounds towards leadership positions. After being the beneficiary of the scholarship for two years, she was asked to return and help coordinate the program, becoming a Next Gen Leader Program Coordinator in 2019.
Awarded a Masters in Arts Management (with Distinction) in 2019.
2015: Inaugural recipient of the “Pioneer Award” from the MCV Pacific “Women in Games Awards” presented by Xbox for “the woman who has, over time, paved the way for women in gaming and helped build the Australian and/or New Zealand Games Industries.”
Other Credits
Moby Games profiles: Leena van Deventer/Leena Van Deventer
Editor - Temple of the Spider God - Tin Man Games
Senior Copywriter - Run That Town - Leo Burnett and Millipede Creative for the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Narrative Consultant - Twists & Turns - Melbourne Writers Festival
Copywriter - Facebook Messenger Superannuation Chatbot “Cado” - for choice.com.au
Writer - Santa’s Lil Helper augmented reality game - Phoria for the City of Melbourne
Other projects under NDA and/or cancelled during development.