WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2010

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An Opening Letter from the Editor, Tina Tyndal

Q&A: Melissa Astle, GameDev.net

Melissa Astle

Briefly describe GameDev.net and your role at the organization.
GameDev.net was created with the sole purpose of providing a public site where game developers could freely exchange information. It has since grown in scope to provide resources, opportunities, and support to people at all levels of the industry. The site isn't powered by a large corporation, but by game developers, real people with real experience and education in their fields. As President, my goal is to give our executive team the resources and encouragement to continue to provide quality content and a rich experience for game developers worldwide.

Looking back, what was your first break in the video game industry and how has your career evolved since then? Is there anything you would do differently?
Although I played games quite a bit, I never had any intention of joining the game development community. When the owners of GameDev.net approached me and asked me to “answer a few emails” on the sales side of their business, I had no idea what kind of amazing community I was getting myself into. From answering a few email to coordinating a knowledgeable staff, I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed the games industry far more than any other industry I’ve worked in. It totally beats out the portable toilet industry.

What key attributes make the video game industry attractive to you?
The video game industry is attractive on many levels. How many other industries are designed around having fun? As developers, your entire job is focused on finding cool new ways to help people play. Add to that the intelligent, friendly, generous people that work in this field, and it makes for an atmosphere that’s tough to beat.

What advice would you give to individuals who want to pursue a career in the video game industry?
My advice would be to just go for it. Start attending conferences, reading books, and taking advantage of the articles and forums on GameDev.net. Make an effort to learn what courses you need to succeed in the areas you are most interested in, be it art, music, design, programming, or production. There’s a lot of room for growth, and if you’re actively pursuing your passion, you can succeed. Start making games or demos right now, in your spare time. Don’t wait. You get ahead in this industry by showing knowledge and initiative. Understand that it’s going to take work and effort and don’t give up.

Is there anything that women should be particularly cognizant of?
The above is just as true for women. Don’t feel like you have to be limited to casual games or other female stereotypes. There are more girls in games than you realize and plenty of opportunity to increase the demographic. Some of my favorite people in the industry are female programmers and producers. And they’re having just as much fun as the guys. But they knew to put the time in for their success.

What can video game industry professionals do to help increase the number of women considering and pursuing careers in the field?
The games industry has been dominated by men for a very long time. I think that dynamic will continue to shift as more girls are raised playing games. In addition to the things that industry professionals are already doing, such as mentoring and reaching out to girls through various foundations and grants, it’s important to remember that people are inspired to make great games when they fall in love with a great game. Society is changing in our approach to games. For the first time, kids who love to play games are being raised by parents who love to play games. It is acceptable to love games, which is something I wasn’t raised with by any means. Growing up, games were only tolerated, and I was taught to focus my energies on medicine or law if I wanted to be successful. Now that the games industry is so successful, even in an economic downturn, that perception is starting to shift and following a career in game development is acceptable. In my house, and I think in a lot of houses now, my girls are exposed to a variety of gaming platforms and game genres. Although this doesn’t ensure they will become game developers, it certainly helps that they are allowed to be passionate about games. I believe that passion fuels game developers to succeed. So in addition to everything else the industry is doing to attract more women, let’s continue to make amazing games.

How has IGDA benefitted you personally and/or professionally? If so, how?
The IGDA has been instrumental to my role at GameDev.net. The individual chapters promote and support the exact thing we are creating virtually at GameDev.net, and that’s the community. It’s great to see people gather and collaborate to further the industry. We’re happy to continue to support that effort.

What is your favorite game of all time and why?
I’ll confess to a serious love of Galaga. I know it isn’t the sexiest game out there, but it’s by far my favorite. I loved the challenge of blowing up aliens and staying away from their bullets while maintaining a hit/miss ratio better than any other player. I spent hours at the bowling alley and then later the arcade, feeding quarters into that game. And although I’m terrible at it now, I’ll still feed a quarter or two in when I encounter it, just for the love of the game.
But I grew up on Atari and NES, so it’s hard to name just one game and not feel like I’m being disloyal to Pac Man, Frogger, Astroids, Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and even Duck Hunt. I’m still good with a gun.

Parting words: Personal motto or words to live by?
Make your own luck. Don’t wait for luck to find you.

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Wanted: Girls Who Like Computer Science

Despite the rise of women attending college and becoming the majority of the workforce, one area that continues to be ignored by women and girls is computer science.

There are many theories as to why girls love using computers (women are the majority of social media users) but don't want to learn how to program or build computers. There are those who chalk it up to gender differences plain and simple. Some believe it is because girls are repelled by geek or hacker culture. Universities and companies who hire computer scientists are constantly recruiting girls and trying to show them why computer science is a great option.

One part of the theory why girls are excluded from hacker culture is that it is too "frattish" and misogynistic. That is why I find the lap dances at a recent Yahoo! event (Yahoo! paid for women to dance in skimpy clothing at a "brainstorming session") to be especially atrocious.

Sure, the Yahoo! folks said they were sorry, but no apology will erase the damage done and the way this incident adds to a stereotype about women's place in the tech world. Instead of a forced apology, I would like to see Yahoo! increase their outreach to girls in high schools. I know they already make some effort, but incidents like this lapdancing fest demand a higher response. Yahoo!, please increase scholarships, internships, summer camps around the country and anything else you can think of. There are plenty of organizations working on this issue. Yup, it's throw in the kitchen sink time!

Many people might scoff at this, laugh it off or even excuse it as "boys will be boys." But incidents like this leave lasting impressions. They reinforce a stereotype about not just a company, but an entire field. Yahoo! isn't the only organization who has suffered from bad public relations due to a frat boy mentality, after all.

Earlier this year at a Flash developer conference the poop hit the fan when a keynote speaker used graphic photos and crude language that was utterly unprofessional. The organizers, Dave Schroeder and Hoss Gifford, did apologize, thanks to some organizing by the Geek Girls. The first apology, Schroeder's, allows us to peer into the mentality that occurs, even to men, when we allow a "boys will be boys" mentality to rule:

"How did this happen? There is no long exhaustive answer. I made a terrible error in judgment. I knew there was potential for this to occur and I blew it. And for that I deserve to on the hot seat for this. Hot seat accepted. Which I think raises a good point about the gender issues addressed above. Even a guy like me, who knows what is appropriate and what is inappropriate can be lazy at times, or even appear to be in a mild coma when inappropriate behavior occurs. It's important keep your own values close and online all the time. I'll certainly be working to improve this aspect of myself."

Dave admits that he messed up and it is a wonderful apology, but it also allows us to see that even a self-professed feminist can buckle under the pressure to not rock the boat in this industry and just see what happens. From what I can tell here from his own words, he gambled and lost.

Hoss on the other hand used the "I can't be sexist, I'm a husband and father!" line. Um, yes you can. I'm sure we could rally a ballroom full of women who can attest to their father's sexism.

But this isn't about Yahoo! or Hoss or any other dude who thinks he needs to wow a tech audience with porn and offensive language. Honestly, if that's your M.O. you might want to look into your raising the ante of your content and reassessing the IQ level of the audience. What this is about is that these separate incidents set a TONE for the entire industry.

This is why an innocent enough comment about sparkling pasties can offend. It's not that we are hypersensitive, but rather that we are tired of having to endure a Tailhook gauntlet at tech conferences, whether physically or environmentally.

And then back to girls. Girls are online, they are reading our blogs and seeing how adults act at our professional meetings. Not too many girls are going to see all of this evidence and say, "Hey! I want to be a computer science major and develop the next Flash."

So dudes, keep the frat boy antics in your head. If you are father, ask yourself, "Would you want your daughter to see this power point?" Because in the world we live in, chances are she will, as will her friends. If you aren't a father, just say no to porn in your presentation, plain and simple.

To the young women reading this...Not all of the tech industry is a frat party. Check out the Grace Hopper Celebration or your local She's Geeky events.

Author: Veronica Arreola

Veronica Arreola is a professional feminist who directs an office for women majoring in science, technology, engineering and math. She also serves on the boards of the Chicago Abortion Fund, Women In Media & News, and the advocacy council for Women Employed. A partner for 15, wife for 9, and a mom for 5, Veronica blogs about the intersection of feminism and motherhood at her blog Viva la Feminista. While some mommy bloggers started as a response to post-partum depression, Veronica started blogging as a result of post-election (2000) depression. www.vivalafeminista.com

Article taken with author’s permission from the Awearness Blog: www.awearnessblog.com/2009/10/wanted-girls-who-like-co.php

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Play and the Politics of Computer Code

Yet in most of the conversations I listen to, rarely do I hear the word "play," except when used as a verb: "I'm going to play a game."

So, what is play, why do people play and how does play affect us?

Play is older than culture and it is not just a human phenomena. Watch the crows outside your window, or two dogs play. One dog jumps while the other bows. They continue playing if one doesn't bite hard or too much. If a rule is broken the play stops and the dogs will abandon this activity. Crows also have rules of play and will chase one another for bits of trash. You hear children giggle, laugh as they romp, and play, like a celebration. As Johan Huizinga wrote: "Play can not be denied, you can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions, justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play (Homo Ludens, 1950). I agree with Huizinga when he says that Play is a social function, a special form of activity. All ritual is born of play, life is lived within and about play. Most importantly, play is a voluntary activity, but civilization would not exist without play. Culture arises in and out of play (Leyden,1950).

Play is not only for children. As we move into adolescence, those attracted to each other, will begin sparing with each other, tenderly. They will play with each other, gentle teasing and challenging as a form of play. One day, they may wrestle playfully and find themselves in an affectionate embrace. Whether or not the play invitation is accepted and "played" along is one determinate in the direction and length of the relationship.

Wrapped up in all of that is the essence of learning, to educate through play. When you know the rules and play fair, you can play with others. When you play affectionately in the right way with the one you love, you receive their affection in return. Playing educates.

Chris Crawford in his Art of Computer Game Design, Why do People Play Games? Sometimes we play games to explore and fulfill our fantasies, to move out of our present and sometimes uncomfortable world (www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html). Carl Jung, said of Storytelling and Archetypes, that ourselves and our societies are created by our stories (The Essential Jung, 1988).

Digital games run the gambit from first person shooters, detective mystery games, and massive multiple online player games. These games embrace the player's senses of sight and hearing and emotions. These emotional attachments to the games are manipulated by computer code.

As a graduate student, I studied interactions on Everquest, a MMOPG produced by SONY. During my study, a interesting phenomena took place. The programming of Everquest, created a hierarchy where "dedicated players" had advantages over "casual players".

Everquest was set up to spawn "mobs of NPC's (nonplayer characters), after the servers came back on line at about 3 am in the United States. The casual base of players

began to complain that these mobs were being taken down by:"…guilds made up of teenagers, college students, Asians, or other people whose lifestyles allow them to jump out of bed at 5am and take down these mobs right after they've spawned, tend to monopolize all the high-end encounters (Dolalin Bonewielder, The Death of the High End Game, or, The Death of EQ's Casual-Raid Playerbase, Everlore,2000)". It wasn't long before some posts started to take on racial slurs toward Asians. The external war of Everquest had begun. What exacerbated the conflict was that everyone would eventually bring their character to a level 60 and would need to join in and raid this large mob of NPC's.

Arguments raged back and forth and even caused 'virtual wars' on line between guilds east and west of the International Date Line. Other arguments included that those who complained were whining and needed accommodate their schedules to rise up at 3 am and fight their battles then go back to bed. Life wasn't fair in real life, so why should it be fair in virtual life? Basically: "deal with it."

Many players wrote SONY with solutions, including adding more random generation of characters so that guilds couldn't "jump" software patches and take advantage of the mobs of NPC's. It took SONY six months to respond to the requests, while never really acknowledging problem, made a small announcement about the new method of patch implementation and generation of mobs.

A simple set of coding, created and made an environment for complex human interactions, many of which were not positive. If the intensity of this virtual conflict were to occur in real life, we might categorize it as national internal strife or civil war.

Every time I attend a digital gaming conference or read my subscribed list-serves, the intense and heated discussions continue about whether digital games can affect human behavior. I say they can and will. As programmers, game designers and producers, we need to be fully aware of the impact of the games we create.

We learn from play and in Everquest a story was created that caused conflict. Eventually the rules of the game were changed through the efforts of the players, to make the game accessible for everyone, but not without invoking anger and misplaced racism along the way.

It is interesting that the politic of the code changed the behavior, and then the players changed the politic of the code.

Play is essential to life, and everything else arises from play.

About Jeanette Burkett

Jeanette Burkett

Jeanette Burkett is a game theorist focusing in human behavior and computer interaction.  She specializes in digital gaming environments. Her graduate work at the University of Washington focused on human communicative behavior in virtual environments. While at the University of Washington, she received a grant from America OnLine for her studies, and was a research assistant in the Center for Social Science Computation and Research.

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Tips for Organizing Your Portfolio: She’s Got Skillz…And Guts, Too.

Lastly, I slip in a reminder that your portfolio is just a representation of your skills, and that it’s actually you who will take the necessary steps to get the job, rather than the portfolio.

First, the scenario for needing the sort of organization this article discusses: Let’s say you’re just starting out, and since you’d probably be thrilled to get hired in any area of making art for games, it may be too early to carve yourself a niche. Or maybe you’ve been working in a specialty, but you’d like to explore more options. Rest assured it is a good idea to have a foundation of skills spanning several facets of art production, e.g., modeling and texturing of props and characters, concept drawing, character animation, visual effects, etc. This makes you flexible as a new hire for a variety of positions.

You’ll notice, however, that a lot of job postings are for specialty positions like environment artist, character animator, technical artist, etc. Therefore, you could take this as a cue for how you might divide the parts of your portfolio site, so that a hiring manager looking for someone with a specific skill can go straight to the section that contains the appropriate samples. In other words, if someone is looking to hire a character modeler, it should be easy for them to find a cohesive page (or pages) of samples on your portfolio that contain both skinned and wireframe versions of character meshes, plus unwrapped texture maps showing your color, normal and specular channels separately. Similarly, if someone were looking for an environment artist, they could find a cohesive section containing sample meshes and textures for props, foliage and architecture.

No matter how you group your samples, make your portfolio answer as many questions ahead of time as possible. Make sure each of your samples is labeled with the software used, the number of faces or polygons in the mesh, and the size of the texture map (e.g. 512 x 512 pixels). Also, put your name on every page of your website. It sounds funny, but as the manufacturer of the art on your website, your name is the brand name for your services! Art directors can tend to forget whose art they’re looking at, too, especially if there are a dozen portfolios to scan through in a day. If they have to hunt to remember, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

The last thing I’ll mention ties into having the courage to put your name prominently on your website: To get the job of your dreams, you must believe in yourself, take the appropriate action, and stay the course no matter what discouragement comes your way. Put only your best work in your portfolio even if it means you only have three samples, and never apologize for what’s missing. You want to draw people’s attention to what you can and have done, not to what you haven’t done. If you have passion and commitment for the craft, that will come through in everything of yours that people see. That passion and belief in yourself will also enable you to do things outside your comfort zone, too, like pursuing leads. Your portfolio just can’t do that for you.

So submit your portfolio for any job posting that excites you, even if you feel a little intimidated. And ask for feedback if you get passed over—you never know when an art director might be willing to give you some advice. If someone offers you an opportunity to get discouraged by turning you down or saying something unconstructive, don’t use that as an excuse to take your dream away from yourself. Dust yourself off, modify your strategy and keep going!

About Beverly Garland

Beverly Garland

Beverly Garland, named “one of the Game Industry’s 100 Most Influential Women” by Edge Magazine, has been a computer game developer since 1992. She has contributed to seven published games as an artist, art director, or art production manager, and trains development teams in the use of Agile production methodologies as a Certified Scrum Master. When she is not consulting, she provides career coaching to current and future game artists via her online business, PortfolioMentor.com, and teaches the Avatar® personal development course.
Beverly can be reached at beverly@portfoliomentor.com .

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What does Agile Development Mean to Game Developers?

In agile development, team members break down tasks in small increments, forcing them to think about the details before beginning work. This saves headaches down the road. Agile does not guarantee a great game, but it builds team ownership, increases communication, and puts the odds in your favor for hitting ship dates.

What is Agile?
Agile is an iterative process focusing on delivering functional software. The process is about communication, giving people the tools and trust to do the right thing, and allowing them make a great game.

Below are some of the commonly accepted agile terms and how they apply. Many companies rename terms and roles to better fit their culture; changing these titles can help make agile feel less like the latest project management gimmick and more like an organic process.

Product Backlog: All the game’s features and functionality are called the product backlog. This includes everything that goes into a specific result: interface, HUD, sound, art, mechanics, etc. It’s entirely possible that one completed task provides foundation work for other tasks.

Sprint planning meeting: A meeting between the Product Owner and scrum team to prioritize the next sprint’s deliverables, and to determine what the team can complete within that time frame.

Sprint: The sprint is the core of the agile methodology. It consists of development cycles lasting from one week to one month. The team divides the larger task into smaller, self-contained jobs and writes them down on a card or inputs them into an agile tool such as Jira, adding a tracking number for requirements or testing traceability. Team members discuss the time necessary to complete each card; if the task is too long to complete in under a day (preferably 2-4 hours), break it further. The smaller the task, the more tasks can get done in one day, and the more you’ll feel you’ve accomplished. The ScrumMaster reviews the tasks to ensure they’re reasonably sized.

The cards go up on the wall or shared space under “not done”. When they’re ready to work, team members pick up a card. They put their name/initials on it, move it to “In Progress,” and get to work. Once they’ve completed their task, they mark it complete and place it in the “Done” category. Visible tracking of tasks completed spurs competitive spirit and creates motivation to finish quickly. The open wall space allows for better, more frequent collaboration on other tasks, and creates a space to talk freely and naturally about work.

Product Owner: The key stakeholder, representing users and customers. For game development, it’s generally the Executive Producer, depending on the size of the development teams and relationship to a publisher.

Scrum Team: The scrum size should be around 5-8 people. Teams should be self-organizing, varied in skills and skill level. They should be the right people to complete specific features, regardless of tradition or rank. Teams should change frequently from sprint to sprint.

ScrumMaster: The ScrumMaster is the team leader, responsible for making sure their team is as productive as possible. For games, this will generally be a lead member of the team, a line producer, or the producer. The deliverables for the sprint drive the selection of the ScrumMaster.

Velocity: This is the speed at which scrums or people finish their work. Each hour equals one point; velocity is points achieved divided by available number of hours, thus tracking progress toward the overall deliverables. Showing management the team’s velocity demonstrates whether the team is moving at a reasonable speed to complete the entire project.

Stand-up Meetings: These daily meetings are short and to the point. Standing keeps the people engaged and the meeting short. If two teams are working on different but related parts of the project, they hold meetings together. Meetings answer, “What did you do yesterday, and what are you doing today? Are there issues or comments?” Team members can voice concerns freely and ask for help. The meeting should be the same time every day.

Some Agile Principles:

The most efficient and effective method of information is face-to-face conversation. Change your environment to facilitate communication and collaboration. Put scrum teams in open workspaces or project rooms, and eliminate cubes entirely. Provide temporary private spaces for personal use.

Deliver working software frequently.
The first sprints of any project should be to create a useful framework. For example: The game interface, combining programmers, artists, testers, and sound designers. This is about creating something tangible to start conversations and evolve the product. Showing the overall development something real allows people to have the same frame of reference to create change.

The best designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
A background and textures artist might work with the level designer frequently during a specific level design. If they sit in the same collaborative group, there are fewer communications issues and a broader cross-functional team emerges.

Build projects and environments around motivated individuals. Artists and game developers are motivated and possess necessary technical tools. What they lack too often is reliable management support and trust. Every team member must be involved in supporting others’ work. Offer to do reviews, find information, or work together to find the answer.

Working software is the primary measure of progress. Make sure your people are involved in the agile transformation and listen to their ideas for improvement.

Creatives frequently thrive under pressure… but too much pressure slows the project and invites chaos. Agile creates small deadlines and provides a more frequent sense of accomplishment. This spreads motivation across the lifetime of the project, rather than focusing it at crunch time, reducing burnout and building fully engaged teams.

About Robin Moulder-McComb

Robin Moulder-McComb

Robin Moulder-McComb has more than 20 years' experience in executive and project management and all aspects of software, hardware, and firmware design. She has served as the president of an Internet incubator firm, the CTO of a technology / manufacturing incubator,
a software development manager, and an entrepreneur developing prototypes for companies such as Leapfrog. In the past year, she and her award-winning game designer husband, Colin McComb, established 3lb Games - a game design, development, and creatives services company, focused on continuous concept creation, storylines, art assets, music, and production: www.3lbgames.com

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GameMentorOnline Ramping Up for Second Year

Game Mentor Online (GMO) will soon celebrate its first anniversary, and it’s time for its progress report. GameMentorOnline was launched in March 2009 in an effort to help women and men trying to break into the industry find the mentors they need in order to succeed. Through an automated system, mentors and protégés sign up with their preferences and are matched through the system. The program then guides the pair through an eight-month process designed to prepare the protégé for the industry. But really, how helpful is it? Although the system is currently designed for students, I decided to investigate further.

I’m grateful for the many ad hoc mentors I’ve had in the industry, but I’ve never gone through a formal mentoring program. I signed up as a protégé and was quickly matched with fellow WIG SIG member and chair Fiona Cherbak. We set up phone calls spaced out anywhere between two weeks and two months. Once a week we would get an e-mail from MentorNet suggesting a conversation topic, like sharing resumes, or tips on networking. Although the program is geared toward students about to enter the field, my mentor was able to act as a business advisor who could follow my progress over the course of months and hold me accountable for getting plans in motion.

Our little experiment suggests the program is a success, and feedback from other participants confirms it. One protégée recently applied to and accepted a full-time job, so the program proved fruitful. “I also feel better about my ability to move up in the company I currently work for, and if I have to move to another company I have resources to do so,” she said. “I feel I can interview better and learn more about asking for raises or seeking promotions with my mentor.” Chelsea Schetzle, an artist, found the best advice she got from her mentor, Chris Oltyan, was “Don’t go into full-time unpaid jobs. Even as a student, working 40 hours a week of unpaid labor is still not a good deal.”

Clearly the protégés get value out of the program, but they’re not alone. As a mentor, Oltyan, Director of Product Development at ZeeGee Games and co-chair of GameMentorOnline, liked helping someone understand the game industry and dispel a few myths. That, and he “got to meet a cool up and coming artist in the industry.”

One mentor got more than warm fuzzies, saying the program, "renewed my interest and joy for my job.” “I learn almost as much as I teach each time I mentor," said another. As mentors form long-term relationships with their protégés beyond the program, it’s likely the benefits to the mentors will increase.

The first year of Game Mentor Online has not been without its growing pains. One protégé cited how long it took to be matched with a mentor. Matching can take several months, which shows a continuing need for more mentors. For his part, Oltyan would have liked to form a community of mentors, so that they could share with each other their progress. In addition to improving the interface, GameMentorOnline will continue to make efforts to bring mentors into the program to ease up these concerns. We are also upgrading the matching service next quarter to allow game professionals to sign up as protégés, in addition to students.

Game Mentor Online Year One has already shown the benefits this program can offer to women and men in the industry. In a growing and sometimes confusing industry, mentorship can make the difference when breaking in. I’m excited to see where GameMentorOnline will be at the end of year two!

If you’d like to be a part of Game Mentor Online as it launches into its second year, contact me at gamementoronline@igda.org or visit www.gamementoronline.org to find out more.

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The Past Decade's Ten Most Influential Women in Gaming

This is the time of the year where most sites are doing their top ten lists about different subjects. Personally, I hate top ten lists. If I’m going to do one, then it’s going to be about something I’m passionate about. Here we are looking at the ten women that influenced the gaming industry in a big way over the last ten years. This isn’t an all-inclusive list and I’d love for you to join in the conversation by including your nominees in the comments at GamingAngels.com. The game industry is starting to see change and some of it is due to the women on this list paving the path. Here in random order, are ten women that really changed the game industry over the last ten years.

• Lucy Bradshaw has to start the list with her work on The Sims beginning in the year 2000. Lucy and the Maxis team created a game that would be named the best selling PC game to date. The Sims is also credited for bringing more women into playing games. Lucy Bradshaw now leads the efforts of the Maxis team on the various Spore titles. She is an amazing speaker and is always pushing the industry forward.

• Kim Swift took the game industry by storm with the much praised hit, Portal. Swift was hired by Valve after graduation and won many awards with a title that appealed to casual and the hardcore. Swift has now joined Airtight Games to assist with games aimed at a more diverse audience.

• Jade Raymond was the producer on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. While she had been a producer on previous titles including The Sims Online, Jade definitely had to put up with controversy from men that couldn’t get over her looks. Yes guys, it is possible to be gorgeous and talented. Her official website says that she now works with Electric Playground and we hope to continue to see great things from Jade.

• Corrinne Yu is an amazing woman. She’s the principal programmer at Microsoft’s Halo team. I met her at a GDC Women in Games luncheon where she was rewarded for her work on the Halo series. She dresses like a rock star and talks about programming theory unlike anyone I know. Corrinne is an inspiration as we look at the problem of not enough women going into programming as a discipline.

• Megan Gaiser is the President and CEO of Her Interactive. Through her work at Her Interactive, she has helped make intelligent games for the younger female audience. Her Interactive games create the Nancy Drew series of games that are very popular. Megan works hard in both talks and through her work at Her Interactive to get more girls interested in gaming both as a hobby and as a career.

• Kellee Santiago is an amazing young woman from the Interactive Media program at USC. She is the president and co-founder of ThatGameCompany, a company that strives to create games that create an emotion in the player. Their first two games, flOw and Flower on the Playstation 3 are not only beautiful but also appeal to a more diverse audience. During our interview with her at the Spike VGAs, it was great to see her passionate and excited about the future of ThatGameCompany. We look forward to Kellee pushing the boundaries of what we think about games.

• Amy Hennig works as Naughty Dog as the Creative Director on Uncharted and Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 is second in the top 20 ranked Playstation 3 games on Metacritic. Amy concentrates on story and actors and it shows. Uncharted 2 has some of the best voice acting of any game out there. It will be interesting to see how close to films that Amy and the Naughty Dog team can take video games.

• Deborah Mars is the Managing Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studio who worked on PSN title, Fat Princess. The title had early uproar from various websites because the game was built around the mechanic of feeding your princess cake so she would weigh more and be harder to kidnap. In the end, Deborah and her team proved that Fat Princess is an incredibly fun title.

• Cammie Dunaway is the executive vice president of sales & marketing at Nintendo. As one of the most powerful people at Nintendo, she led the way to reach out to women gamers with the Nintendo DS and Wii. She has had a rough road being criticized for being too nice or even fake. I interviewed Cammie at the 2007 Women’s Conference and she was sweet but also very knowledgeable about the products available. She genuinely wants to see a more diverse audience enjoy gaming.

• We end our list with a female that has taken community on the Xbox 360 to another level. Christa Phillips Charter, better known as Trixie360, was responsible for many community initiatives for the 360 that is what makes us feel at home on the 360. She organized Game with Fame nights, Community Spotlights, Gamer Spotlights, and created/founded GamerChix a place where female Xbox gamers can gather to talk about gaming. Christa has always made herself available to gamers. Her new title is Social Media Lead of Xbox LIVE and we can’t see where she takes Community and Games next!

I hope you enjoyed our list and I’d love to hear who you think should be on the list. We didn’t include the wonderful women that run amazing communities or clans, but they definitely could be here as well. I’d like to thank Robin Yang for working with me on ideas for this list. Here’s to another 10 years of greatness from women in games!

Original article posted here: www.gamingangels.com/2009/12/the-ten-most-influential-women-in-games-over-the-last-10-years/

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IGDA Women in Games Wants You To Join Us at GDC

We are excited to have a full slate of SIG activities at GDC this year! You are invited to attend our roundtable meeting, social gathering and two panel sessions at GDC 2010.

ROUNDTABLE MEETING: We will hold our annual SIG roundtable meeting on Thursday, March 11, 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm in Room 230, East Mezzanine. The roundtable meeting will be moderated by Tina Tyndal, SIG steering committee member and newsletter editor. Bring your fresh ideas and enthusiasm, plus stick around for the latest news on our primary initiatives during 2010, including GameMentorOnline and Games2Girls.

SESSION: Starting Something New – Women in Games
Thursday, March 11, 3 pm to 4 pm in Room 130, North Hall
Moderated by Sonja Kangas, Head of Game Lab, Paf and IGDA Women in Games advisor, with speakers Tiina Zilliacus, CEO of IronStar Helsinki; Celia Pearce, Director of Experimental Game Lab at Georgia Tech; Megan Gaiser, CEO of Her Interactive, and Julia Brasil, the first G.I.R.L. scholarship recipient, SOE.

SESSION: Are Women the New Hardcore Gamers?
Thursday, March 11, 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm in Room 130, North Hall
Moderated by Shanna Tellerman, Founder and CEO, Wild Pockets, with speakers Amy Jo Kim CEO of ShuffleBrain; Wanda Meloni, Market Analyst with M2 Research; Morgan Romine, Community Manager and Online Marketing Manager for Ubisoft (plus Team Captain, Frag Dolls), and Jessica Tams, Executive Director of the Casual Game Association.

SOCIAL GATHERING: We are reprising our annual SIG social gathering at the IGDA booth on Friday, March 12, 3 pm to 4:30 pm at front of the South Hall. Join our sponsors BingeGamer.net, GamingAngels.com, Gas Powered Games, Her Interactive, Naughty Dog and Obsidian Entertainment for refreshments, door prizes, networking and fun! Expo pass badge holders are encouraged to attend.

If you are interested in being a Games2Girls or GameMentorOnline volunteer or committee member, or just want to learn more about these programs while at GDC, join our Games2Girls meeting on Friday, March 12, 10 am -11 am, and our GameMentorOnline meeting on Friday, March 12, 11 am -12 pm, both meetings in Room 230, East Mezzanine.

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2nd Annual Microsoft Women in Gaming Awards at GDC

Send in your nominations today! Microsoft in partnership with the IGDA Women’s SIG is excited to announce their 2nd Annual Awards Luncheon celebrating women in the gaming industry across disciplines that have played an important role in the development.

Our first awards luncheon at GDC in 2009 brought together 70+ talented gaming industry professionals, including producers, designers, engineers, artists, and many other accomplished women playing an important role in the gaming industry. This year’s invitation-only event will be hosted during GDC in San Francisco at the W Hotel on Friday, March 12. The event will include networking, lunch, an awards ceremony and guest speakers.

IGDA Women in Games invites you to nominate top women in our industry to receive acknowledgement for their contributions at Microsoft’s 2nd Annual Women in Games Awards at GDC. Nominate women who you feel have made a substantial impact in the videogame industry within the past decade. This is the first time that the nomination process is being opened up to the entire games community.

You are invited to submit one nominee for each of these five categories: Top Woman in Art, Top Woman in Design, Top Woman in Engineering, Top Woman in Production and Lifetime Achievement Award. Voting ends on at the end of the day on Friday, February 26. Please send your nomination to WIGgroup@microsoft.com

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U.K. Women in Games Conference in March

"We are very excited to be hosting the next Women in Games conference in Bradford, through a collaboration between The University of Bradford and Bradford College," commented Mark Eyles, founder of Women in Games, "both institutions have a commitment to computer games and will be working

closely with local developers to ensure that Women in Games continues to act as a bridge between industry and academia."

With a focus firmly on industry and academia, the Women In Games 2010 conference looks to showcase the Industry, academic research and latest technologies relating to games and women. The goal for Women In Games 2010 is to build bridges between different cultures within the games industry, game markets and game study, in what is becoming an increasingly globalized marketplace. Learn more at www.womeningames.com.

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2010 Women in Games $30,000 Scholarship

Vancouver Film School Presents 2010 Women in Games $30,000 Scholarship at Game Design Expo

As part of the annual Game Design Expo, Vancouver Film School will throw open the doors to its acclaimed one-year Game Design program on Sunday, April 11, 2010 for a free, day-long Open House. Vancouver Film School has been named a top 10 school “most favoured by video game industry recruiters” by the Los Angeles Times. The event offers a hands-on look at the program, providing visitors with the opportunity to test-drive student- and alumni-created games, take sample classes, and meet faculty and students.

The Open House will also launch the 2010 Women in Games $30,000 Scholarship to VFS. Inaugurated last year, the scholarship is part of VFS Game Design’s ongoing initiative to actively support women entering the game industry – the only one of its kind in the world.

In a process that closely mirrors a real-world studio environment, students work in teams to take a game from concept to completion. Through an in-depth curriculum covering visual storytelling, analog games, Flash, interface design, level design, project management, game audio, motion capture, and much more, students learn many facets of game design, gaining broad and applicable experience as they begin their careers. At the end of their year, they have the opportunity to present their final games to an audience of industry insiders and recruiters.

Hosted by the Game Design program at Vancouver Film School (VFS), the fourth annual Game Design Expo will take place April 10 and 11, 2010 in Vancouver. This popular event for video game industry professionals and gamers will be tackling the most pressing challenges and trends in the game industry now and for the future, and features the game industry luminaries responsible for today’s most innovative games. Event details and registration are available at www.gamedesignexpo.com.

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Games2Girls Program Taking Big Steps

The Games2Girls project shows middle school girls what's great about game design! IGDA Women in Games, in conjunction with our partner, Communications, Computing and Technology in Education at Teachers College Columbia University, is pleased to report our latest progress with the Games2Girls program.

Right now, we're working on activities that help girls imagine themselves joining our industry, and that let them connect their excitement about games to math, science and technology. We're also creating materials to help girls start game design clubs of their own, so that they can teach and learn from each other. We've already tested our first round of activities with middle schoolers (they loved it!), and we're using what we learned to create an even better experience for our target audience.

Now we're seeking sponsors to help us finish developing the curriculum and to get it into the hands of future WIG SIG members. We

are also seeking a graphic designer or design group to sponsor design of our Games2Girls logo and other identifying artwork. If you are interested in contributing cash sponsorship or in-kind support to Games2Girls, please e-mail us at wigsig@igda.org for more complete details.

Margaret Wallace, Games2Girls Committee Chair, and Jessica Hammer of Teachers College Columbia University, are organizing an informal gathering for Games2Girls volunteers and committee members at GDC. This will be a perfect opportunity to find out more about the program, provide ideas and lend a hand.

If you are interested in being a Games2Girls volunteer or committee member, or just want to learn more about the program, join our Games2Girls meeting at GDC on Friday, March 12, 10 am -11 am in Room 230, East Mezzanine

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GameMentorOnline Develops New Site

Plank is an award-winning web agency that has been designing and developing high quality web sites and web applications since 1998. Their clients include Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean, to corporate clients (especially in the technology sector) to numerous non-profit organizations and everything in between. Headquartered in the historic Belgo building in downtown Montreal, Plank counts its 10+ employees and great corporate culture amongst its reasons for success.

Find out more about them at www.plankdesign.com.

GameMentorOnline supporters and volunteers will be working closely with Plank Design over the next two months to develop GameMentorOnline web site, just in time for the launch of our second year of this successful program. We extend heartfelt thanks to all of the web design groups who expressed interest in working on this project, and welcome Plank Design to the games community.

If you are interested in being a GameMentorOnline volunteer or committee member, or just want to learn more about the program, join our GameMentorOnline meeting at GDC on Friday, March 12, 11 am -12 pm in Room 230, East Mezzanine.

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Global Game Jam Breaks Records

The rules of GGJ were simple: pitch an idea, gather a team, and make a game by any means necessary. There was a global constraint, in that all games had to feature "deception" as a theme. Additionally, each time zone had its own set of three additional elements, and the teams had to choose at least one to incorporate into their games. It was up to each team to decide how to interpret these constraints, and as expected, the resulting games offered many different interpretations and mechanics.

This year offered some additional features over GGJ 2009, notably the "Achievements": additional constraints that experienced teams could attempt (or ignore) at their discretion, offering a way for participants to scale the difficulty of the task depending on their level of comfort with the intense Game Jam schedule. These achievements ranged from the relatively straightforward (uses only a 16-color palette) to challenging (integrate external hardware not associated with games, such as a toaster or stapler) to downright odd (all sound effects must be produced by someone's body).

A searchable database of all 900+ games is available at: www.globalgamejam.org/games. To learn more about the Global Game Jam, visit their web site: www.globalgamejam.org.

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GamingAngels Wants You!

the barriers and encouraging young women to pursue these career options.

As a media partner with IGDA Women in Games, GamingAngels would like to extend an invitation to any members who would be interested in taking part in this series. If you would like to participate, please contact Annette Hurd at pr@gamingangels.com for more information or to schedule an interview.

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IGDA Women in Games & Frag Dolls Photo Shoot at E3

Along with our partners and sponsors, we are gathering together as many industry and gamer females as possible for this event to demonstrate the significant presence of women in gaming. E3 is being held June 13-17 this year. Please stay tuned for more details on the specific date, time and location ofour E3 photo shoot!

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SOE’s G.I.R.L. Scholarship Program Underway

WIGI Announces New Chair & GDC Event

For GDC 2010, Women in Games International is hosting an invitation-only event with Social Gold, a full feature virtual economy platform used by developers. Other event sponsors include The Entropia Platform, Garvey Shubert Barer Law, LOGIN Conference, Vivox, Disney Interactive Media Group and Gibney Anthony & Flaherty, LLP. Women in Games International works to promote leadership, inclusion and advancement of women in the global games industry. WIGI believes that diversifying the game development, media, academic and publishing workplace results in not only a more equitable space, but better products. For more info, visit www.womeningamesinternational.org.

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WIG SIG Adds New Steering Committee Member

Amanda d'Adesky

Amanda d'Adesky recently joined the IGDA Women in Game steering committee, taking on the role of Development Manager. In this new position, Amanda will manage SIG fundraising campaigns, direct development of SIG sponsor benefits and provide support to committed SIG sponsors. As IGDA Women in Games expands its reach, Amanda is helping to ensure that these programs and initiatives receive the funding support necessary to deliver them.

Prior to her role as Development Manager for IGDA Women In Games, Amanda worked as Talent Coordinator for GameX, the games and media expo in Philadelphia, lining up celebrity appearances and panel discussions. In 2007, she began game testing for Merscom LLC in Chapel Hill, NC. While she has worked on many casual titles in the last four years, Amanda recently received credit for her work in Mystery of Cleopatra and Wisegal, two games jointly produced by Merscom and Moby Games. Eventually, she plans to be a game designer and producer, hoping to be the driving force behind a development team.

If you are interested in sponsoring and IGDA Women in Games program or event, please contact Amanda directly at wigsigsponsors@igda.org.

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Vote Now For Your IGDA Board Choices!

Please take a few minutes to read about the candidates: www.igda.org/igda-board-directors-2010-candidate-statements, and then vote: www.igda.org/2010election/BoDVote. Voting is only open until Sunday, February 28, so please remember to vote before the deadline.

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How to become an IGDA WIG SIG member

Thank you for partnering with us in 2009.

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How to contribute to the IGDA Women in Games newsletter and web site

If you want to join our IGDA Women in Games Mailing List please sign up here.

You can also join the IGDA Women in Games community on Facebook and LinkedIn or follow us on Twitter.

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