Caylee Morris
Software Engineer (ROLI Learn)
Thursday, 7 August 2025
Could you please introduce yourself?
Hi, I'm Caylee! I'm a programmer, designer, video editor, maker and general thing-doer in my early 30's living in Bristol, UK. I'm also a trans woman.
Whats your background?
I have a pretty weird and varied job history! From swimming pool design software, to mobile games for Cartoon Network, AR robots, museum interactives, PC/console games, VR fire safety training, and now music education software. I also run my own little business selling small-run electronics, needing me to work on hardware design and manufacture, firmware, and software all at once. I'm part of the AV team for a fairly large convention up in Scotland, and I contribute to a small indie game studio when I have the time. I'm quite busy.
Whats your current role?
Software Engineer on the Learn team at ROLI.
Why have you decided to learn to code?
While I've had an affinity for computers as long as I can remember, it was my love of videogames that brought me into the space. Starting with games that included 'developer museum' levels (Ratchet and Clank 2 & 3), behind the scenes documentaries (Destroy All Humans), and full developer commentaries (starting with Half-Life 2: Lost Coast), I realised that making these things was someone's actual job, and that maybe it was a job I could do.
Within a few years, games started to have level creation and sharing tools built right in (LittleBigPlanet, Modnation Racers), simple game maker tools were released (FPS Creator, RPG Maker), I got tinkering with Nintendo DS homebrew (Still Alive DS was a favourite), and eventually making levels for larger scale videogames using the same tools as the original teams (mainly Source Engine titles such as Portal and CS:GO). I'd focused on the deisgn and media side of games through all this, but when the time came to choose a university course, coding felt like a natural gap in my skillset to fill. Turns out, I really enjoyed it!
Do you think its important to learn to code?
While I've had an affinity for computers as long as I can remember, it was my love of videogames that brought me into the space. Starting with games that included 'developer museum' levels (Ratchet and Clank 2 & 3), behind the scenes documentaries (Destroy All Humans), and full developer commentaries (starting with Half-Life 2: Lost Coast), I realised that making these things was someone's actual job, and that maybe it was a job I could do.
Within a few years, games started to have level creation and sharing tools built right in (LittleBigPlanet, Modnation Racers), simple game maker tools were released (FPS Creator, RPG Maker), I got tinkering with Nintendo DS homebrew (Still Alive DS was a favourite), and eventually making levels for larger scale videogames using the same tools as the original teams (mainly Source Engine titles such as Portal and CS:GO). I'd focused on the deisgn and media side of games through all this, but when the time came to choose a university course, coding felt like a natural gap in my skillset to fill. Turns out, I really enjoyed it!
Do you feel the tech industry is male dominated? How can we encourage more women into the industry?
Yeah, it is really is. And while that can be less of an issue for teams on the low-end (if your team is good, they'll support you regardless, and everyone's working together), it can be a real issue when it comes to leadership. You just need to look at the really big tech firms to see how many male CEOs have all too willingly bent the knee for right-wing governments with this 'anti-DEI' surge, forcing women and other marginalized people out of positions they rightly earned. It can be especially hard when you're trans, as there are growing calls from certain big-tech CEOs and in government to isolate us from our cis colleagues or deny our existence entirely.
As for encouraging more women to get into tech - all I can say is that I assure you that there are good companies out there - good teams, and good people that you will absolutely enjoy working with. You'll get to solve interesting problems, create amazing things, and contribute to things that could make a huge impact on the lives of those around you. The tech space would be seriously less interesting without women in it.
Did you struggle being a woman in the tech industry yourself?
I have found it can be a little isolating at times. I've worked on teams mostly comprised of men, and while my team members have been consistently lovely, I do miss that sense of affinity I get when working with other women. Beyond my own feelings, it's also really good to have a more diverse and varied group of people to bounce off - different perspectives that might help spot something in a project you've maybe not considered when thinking about it from only your own point of view. I'll never forget when a certain videogame focused body-tracking camera failed to track people of differing skin colours because they'd never considered that would be an issue when developing the technology.
Whats the most rewarding and most challenging parts of your tech career so far?
Most Challenging: Fusing two different AR frameworks to produce an app with both stable positional tracking and full 3D object tracking that worked across multiple platforms... that was a pretty nasty feat to pull off and keep things stable, but it worked, with fantastic performance to boot. That tech is currently deployed at both IWM London and the British Museum!
Most Rewarding: If you'd asked me this a year ago, I'd say getting to work on museum interactives that are used to educate thousands of kids as part of the national curriculum. However, I often felt kinda detached from that - you don't get to see the people using what you made or hear what they thought. So I think now, it'd be right at the NAMM Show when someone asked me where the "Playground" feature was on the Learn demo apps, as it was their favourite part of the app and the thing they used most. (For context, I wrote that entire feature!). Funny how the last person I got to meet at the show was also my favourite.