Whenever I find myself in discussions about women in games, it seems like it’s always about getting women into more positions in the mainstream game industry. That’s all well and good and useful, but I have a better idea: why don’t we just get more women to develop indie games? It’s arguably far easier than what we’re led to believe are the traditional methods of “breaking in” — you can find free or cheap development tools for nearly any genre or style of game you fancy creating, so the only thing you need to do is make something cool and post it online. That’s it. No need to worry about getting the right degrees or jumping through dude-controlled corporate hoops. Just write a game. How hard can it be, right?
It's not only the mainstream game industry that's dominated by men; indie games have the very same problem. Quite frankly, it's just as annoying.
Maybe the problem is that not very many women even want to make games — the same problem that supposedly plagues the mainstream industry. To exacerbate the situation, most people don’t get paid to write indie games; it’s a hobby that takes up a large chunk of one’s free time, with little or no promise of any sort of concrete reward. Could it be that in our society, women aren’t encouraged to have seemingly pointless, solitary hobbies to the same degree that men are? Perhaps, but there are still a lot of women out there who work on novels, short fiction, blogs, visual art, music, crafts, and other time-consuming creative things in their spare time. Why should games be any different?
Maybe it’s because games are too technical, and women supposedly have a handicap in that regard. These days, as girls are being given more opportunities to excel in math and science than was the case decades ago, that’s becoming less and less true. Sure, learning to program is hard, but once you get the basics down, it’s actually a lot of fun. Of course, if coding isn’t your thing, there are tools that allow you to avoid it, from Inform 7 to ChoiceScript to Adventure Game Studio to Ren’Py to Game Maker… and I’m sure there are others out there that I’m missing.
Maybe the problem is that a lot of women don’t know where to go for resources and community when it comes to indie games. It’s true that one of the best ways to keep up a hobby is to know that there are people like you out there doing similar things, with whom you can bounce ideas around and give and receive helpful tips and advice. Maybe too many indie game communities in existence are overly dude-centric, overrun by guys who think of ladies as mythical creatures rather than actual people, and maybe women game developers want a place where they don’t have to deal with being belittled and mansplained at. Maybe it’s just as simple as not wanting to be the odd one out. Sure, there are some women out there who are more than happy to hang out with a crowd of all men, but it’s certainly not for everyone.
Maybe the problem is that we game enthusiasts don’t do enough to promote the work of existing indie games created by women. Where are our female Jon Blows and Jason Rohrers? Some would argue that there simply aren’t any female indie developers out there who measure up, but is that really true? Or is it a matter of our societal biases privileging the point of view of men over that of women, just like we do in literature, music, and film? To give a specific example, why are so many online discussions of the recently-released Hey Baby game inundated by nitpicky complaints about the bad graphics and lack of interesting gameplay, when Super Columbine Massacre RPG! had the exact same problems but was lauded by many gamers as a work of art? Why don’t we even know the names of Hey Baby’s creators? Could it be that there are a handful of women out there making great indie games whose names or work we haven’t even heard of?
"Hey Baby" is a first person shooter about street harassment, written from a woman's perspective.
What are your thoughts? How can we convince more women to develop indie games? What can we do to counteract some of the above problems? Are there others that need to be overcome?
Yup – if indie gaming is, or can be, punk, indie gaming needs riot grrls: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_235/6981-Riot-Grrrls-Wanted
I love that article sooooo much, I have it bookmarked for whenever I need some inspiration XD
Anna Anthrophy identifies as female and she makes some awesome stuff and gives awesome talks: http://www.auntiepixelante.com/
Geek Feminism blog might have some people interested in collaborating on games etc: http://geekfeminism.org/
I love this blog, and while I have a strong sympathy with the intent of this post, the line “Just write a game. How hard can it be, right?” makes me pretty angry. I hope you were being flippant, but if so, it doesn’t read that way. It’s pretty well accepted by most, and well know by many, that making games is hard, and expensive, and making indie games doesn’t really pay well.
FYI, there are a bunch of talented women making indie games. There’s a nice little list in this post here:
http://www.colossalcave.org/women-in-games/
However, you’re absolutely right that there must be plenty of girls who are fully capable of making it as an indie game developer out there that could use more support.
Hard? Of course it’s hard, but so is playing a musical instrument or writing a novel. Expensive? Yes, if you want to compete with Bioware’s AAA shininess, but if you just want to build something small, there are so many free resources out there that all you really need to pay for is a computer and an internet connection. And no, of course indie games don’t pay well, or in many cases, at all…. but people engage in amateur pursuits all the time for no reason other than the fact that they love doing so.
Anyway, I’m sorry my choice of words made you angry. What would have been a better way to phrase that sentence?
I started writing a comment and it turned into a post:
Making games is hard: On the barriers that women face
I go into more detail in the post itself, but there is a fundamental difference between making a game and playing an instrument or writing a novel. I think that it’s important to understand and recognize that difference because it plays a role in discouraging women who would love to develop games, even as a hobby, from doing so.
Great post, and you’re absolutely right about the “room of ones own” issues involved.
However, I really think making games CAN be easier than writing novels or playing instruments to a high level if your skills lean more in that direction – I’d MUCH rather write/programme an IF game than write a novel, and don’t get me started on instruments!
Working alone, you do need a realistic sense of what you can accomplish – there is a reason AAA games use huge teams of specialists. Deirdra’s talked about her choice to use simplified art and sometimes just still images, instead of trying to create high-res graphics, since the focus in her games is on the dialogue.
The ultimate gateway drug is modding existing games with provided toolsets – you have a premade creative world, art assets, UI and game engine, and you can flex your creative muscle, practice level design, quest design, game storytelling, manage beta testers and bug reports, and delve into how a game is put together. (Sort of like writing fanfiction as opposed to an original novel?)
Good modders have got picked up by proper games companies before on the basis of their mod work!
This last makes me wonder if encouraging modding would actually help indiegaming, or if it’s more of a lead-in to professional development. Since you get used to having the high-level systems and art there for you, the thought of having to make it all on your own might get even MORE overwhelming, because your expectations are higher! Still, it remains a fast and easy way to realise interactive creative visions, test out ideas, and get your feet wet.
Funny, my feelings about novel writing versus game development are pretty much the opposite of yours. When I make a game, it doesn’t take me very long to feel proud of it and post it online for the world to see, but I’m a lot more self-conscious about my straight up prose writing; the only novel I’ve ever written has been read by a grand total of one person, in large part because I think it’s a crappy, nearly unreadable mess.
Anyway, thanks for your input; it definitely got me thinking.
Yes! Good prose is horribly tough! I LIKE writing for games precisely because I can just write dialogue, which I love writing, all the time!
Great post! I found it very inspiring.
While it may, or may not, be true, I think “How hard can it be?” is a pretty good thought to encourage in girls (or anyone) considering game design. Yes, some will hit hurdles and get discouraged, but others will find they love it, and are willing and able, to work through the tricky parts.
Making games is not inherently more difficult than, say, dressmaking. It can be easy, if you keep it simple, or it can get incredibly complicated and expensive and require skills that take a while to learn. It also depends on the individual, and what they are naturally good at.
With gamesmaking and dressmaking, and many other hobbies, there are cheap, relatively easy things you can do to learn the basics, and test the waters. Yet tech-hobbies are often seen as “scarier” than others, especially to girls conditioned to think of themselves as “bad” at maths, science, technology, etc.
If it gets them to try making games for themselves, I’m all for promoting accessibility by playing down the difficulty. It’s no harder than many other worthwhile pursuits.
The problem with down playing the difficulties is that anyone who tries it will run into those difficulties. Selection bias is a pretty big issue. I saw it time and time again when I was teaching kids’ 3D animation. We’d do this trial classes where students could give the class a try to see if they wanted to take the main class. The trial classes were about twenty minutes, so it’s not like we did anything too difficult, but some students would be better than others. Boys who were just alright, would normally sign up for the class. Among the girls, only the best of the best tended to sign up for the class. Girls who were better than average in the first twenty minutes with Maya, would still decide it was too hard and take painting or cartooning instead.
The sad thing about it is you really can’t tell how well you’ll really do at something as complex as 3D animation or programming in 20 min. Some of the students who did the worst in the trial classes turned out to be the best students in the long term. Inversely some of the students who did really well in the trial never really progressed past their initial skill level.
I really don’t think the problem is that women and girls see the hurdles and get scared off. It looks more like women and girls trip up on the first few and just assume that means they’re not meant to do that particular activity. Pretending those hurdles are really challenging is just going to discourage those who aren’t immediately good at over coming them. I believe it would be more useful to let women and girls know that the hurdles are normal and that getting tripped up by them doesn’t indicate anything about their long term abilities.
I agree with this comment.
OK, yeah, you’re right – and that’s a really good thing to consider (esp. the part Brinstar quoted) in the context of something genuinely complicated, like 3D animation, ONCE you already have girls having a go at it.
I guess my issue is that “making games” covers a huge range of activities, some difficult, and needing careful introduction and handling, and others that really are easy, if more people would only experiment.
Lumping the entire category as “HARD” scares some people off from trying any of it.
Better authoring tools and resources, and a much, much better culture of players and developers. Plenty of good (or at least interesting) comes out of indie development, but so do large amounts of bad-to-horrifying (hello, The Path) and indie devs can sometimes have extremely fragile egos. It’s not a really welcoming environment for anyone.
But yes, first things first, better resources. Things like crafts, or writing, or even blogging are based on skills that we’re taught from an early age. People make complex narratives with the Sims (though I suppose that’s more machinima than games development). Environments that give you more to work with than a simple ‘hello, world!’ script. Real-world environments that encourage young women to go into development.
…must… not… derail… thread with argument about how The Path was awesome and feminist and revolutionary… *grits teeth*
(agree to disagree, there, I guess!
)
I’m glad someone mentioned Anna Anthropy! I’d also like to mention Christine Love, who made the recent indie game/interactive fiction game Digital: A Love Story: http://www.scoutshonour.com/digital/
“To give a specific example, why are so many online discussions of the recently-released Hey Baby game inundated by nitpicky complaints about the bad graphics and lack of interesting gameplay, when Super Columbine Massacre RPG! had the exact same problems but was lauded by many gamers as a work of art?”
I had not heard of either of those until now. I haven’t gotten around to the Columbine game yet but the online Hey Baby demo is… very “pre-alpha” looking. (Also I slowed down badly later in the game when more targets showed up… had to close the window to avoid punching the screen)
It’s a hilarious premise and startling execution though. The demo has no time limit, no risk of death or injury*, no ammo to run out of – and I was freaking out about having to shoot every target into little pieces RIGHT THE HELL NOW no less than the craziest, most mess-with-your-head Doom level.
*that I know of – I never could bring myself to stand there and not shoot long enough to find out
Also, being in the development field myself, it is much more risky and less stable to create or be involved with indie games. It is more desirable to have a stable, full-time job rather than take a chance when you have no money and build some indie games. And it takes a LOT of time even if you have a small team to make good quality, polished indie games. I am involved outside of my regular work in the indie scene in Boston and I meet up with people in a group called the Boston Indies and there are a few women in the group, but it’s about the same average as in the regular field of game development (about 1 woman to every 10-12 guys).
I completely agree that there are less entrepreneurs in regards to starting their own companies, but I wouldn’t say that the ratio of men/women is any less in the indie field if you include freelancers and other people who work on indie projects. (of course the ratio of women/men is not good enough yet
)
I know that I haven’t started my own development company is that when I graduated I was penniless and I would rather save my money now and continue working at a full-time steady(er) job than to start my own business where 50% fail and lose money, 25% break even, and 25% actually earn a profit.
Thanks for posting links to those scripting/development tools. A friend of mine got me into the DS last year and I’ve wanted to design my own adventure games since, but have no knowledge of hard coding. I’m fine with HTML and graphics program, but C+, huh, no. This is a great starting point.
If you want an easy intro into a more “hard coding” style language, I would also recommend PHP. Although I had had some basic (read: “Hello World!” level) background in Pascal and C, using PHP for my web pages is what really taught me code. Getting into C and C++ after that was just a matter of learning a few language specific rules.
The main reason I recommend PHP (since it’s not actually a game oriented language) is because, given that you know HTML I’m guessing that you tinker with web design and there’s a great resource called PHPBuilder.com that is great for newbies and veterans alike (I’ve been annoyed in my inability to find a similarly good resource for C++ and DirectX).
I work as a community manager, researcher, and a writer for an indie game company–and I’m a female. I’m one of two in our small company of about fifteen people. After nearing three years in it, I can say that it’s a very weird world, and if I ever decide to write about my experiences, I will have a very long and possibly negative novel about stereotypes and let-downs.
I think the worst part I’ve experienced has been simply experiencing people who assume I know nothing of the company, that I’m a “PR bimbo my company has hired.” This especially happens in any podcasts or interviews my company asks me to do–since we’re tiny, I usually speak for all of them. There’s a lot of bias it seems against any female in this niche; I’ve pointed out to them, after that initial disqualification based on my gender, that I was the one who wrote the unit description of those weapons and tanks they play in game, as well as the one who helped write the bestiary they’re drooling over. I mean, I’ve written over half of our in-game lore and I’ve even QA tested, giving feedback for what weapons to make stronger and what to cut back on. But being a female that isn’t purely development seems to lead to nothing but misogyny and judgments. People will literally say something to the extent of, “No offense, but we’d like a developer, not a chick who knows nothing,” in reply when my company replies that I’m free for a podcast just because they realize I’m a female.
It’s led me to disliking a lot of review publications whose names I’m not going to name right here.
Personally, I’d be terrified to start an indie development company. Small business seems way too risky, and I want security, savings, and a living wage from a job. Not that those things are guaranteed from a large company, but striking out alone has no appeal for me.
I never meant to imply that one had to start a company to make indie games. Many people I know (myself included) have a day job and work on their games in their spare time. Maybe it’s not an ideal arrangement, but compared to a) the risky ups and downs of running a business and b) the lack of creative freedom you get at most large game companies, it’s really not all that bad.
I find it funny that so many people are dismissing Deirdra’s opinions, considering that SHE HERSELF is proof of what it’s possible to achieve as a (mostly) unpaid hobbyist female gamesmaker with a dayjob.
I’m very glad she didn’t get scared off by this sort of stuff back when she started, as I love her games!
lol, seriously, this. Maybe it would help if I linked Deirdra’s intro post?
How about actually talking about some of the women who are successful in the indie game world and constantly overlooked?
So far the only names I see listed are people who are doing free games as a hobby. That’s fine, but what about:
http://www.amaranthia.com
http://www.hanakogames.com
http://www.sakevisual.com
http://www.redpandagames.com
http://tale-of-tales.com
http://endlessfluff.wordpress.com/
I’m sure I could come up with more given a bit of time, that’s just people I know off the top of my head.
Amaranth is what inspired me to start making RPGs back when I was a freshman in college! I remember being so excited to find out it was basically one woman making all these cool games.
did my earlier post not go through because I linked to too many female developers sites? I really hope that post turns up…
Anyway, if you want EVEN MORE female indies, this time of the freeware sort, check out the RPG maker forums or just http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=26 and there are plenty.
Yeah, I had to fish it out of the spam queue.
Thanks for rescuing it.
It’s rather frustrating that I’m *trying* to post a long list of female indie developers who’re being completely overlooked but the blog apparently won’t let me!
Regarding if making indie games is hard, i would agree it’s pretty hard, even discouringly hard. From my expereince i would advice team work, having another dedicated person on the project make stellar difference, add another and it’s completly difference experince.
This post is just making me look at my unfinished backlog of half-baked Inform 7 projects, and frown.
I know that at least for me, programming is kind of a hurdle. Not that I can’t program – I can – but it doesn’t inspire passion in me the way it does a lot of the top male developers you mentioned. Jon Blow at heart is a programmer, at least judging from his blogs, and though there’s other roles in game development, lotta times you need someone like that to do the actual making of the actual game. Still true even with today’s devleopment tools – at some point you’re gonna want to dig in to the logic of this thing to make it do something unique.
I know what it’s like, so many ideas, so little time! Or motivation … -_-
It’s one of my life goal to make a game on my own. I already done games when I was in college, in Flash and Virtools. But they were budgy and unplayable.
But I find that my biggest obstacle in making a game, is the storytelling and narrative.
Thanks for the post Deirdra, I definitely will check the tools you are proposing.
Hmm, I wonder where one could find women who are interested in games on a variety of levels and who could probably make the most kick-ass indie game ever???
For me, it is definitely the lack of a women-oriented indie community. I am not very involved in any indie communities at all, but the ones I have stumbled across (like the RPGToolkit and DS homebrew communities) DID seem very male-dominated, unsurprisingly. I don’t think either of those communities would have been hostile to me, but I think it’s easier to participate in a community that has more women in it. It would also be more inspiring to see and talk to and basically “hang out” (online) with other women working on indie games. It’s motivation!
Alex, this is a great idea!
I completely agree, the Borderhouse *should* make a game! No, it *needs* to. There’s already an awesome community, and Deirdra, you *did* say we need more women in indie games did you not? There’s definitely no lack of creative and technical talent found around here either.
Borderhouse: The Game
Release date Q4 2011 (before the end of the world, obviously)
Credits: the Borderhouse
I, for one, can’t wait.
You have my vote!
Let’s conquer the WORLD! muhahaha … jk
(But seriously, I like the idea for making a community for developping games)
wut
Great idea! I’d love to participate in a project like this. Could we create a group on Google or Basecamp through Borderhouse? Get ideas going?
I’d be happy to join in somehow, even if it’s just in an informal consulting role. (busy with my own stuff, of course)
I would love to participate as well. Please keep me informed!
Emily Short is another indie dev worth mentioning. But on the subject of interactive fiction, I’d say that Inform 7 doesn’t really let you avoid coding — it sort of provides a handy way in, and then you try to do something complicated and Gah! coding. But people on informfiction.org and rec.arts.int-fiction will usually help you with your questions.