Developing video games is increasingly being seen an exciting and rewarding career for women. Whether you come from an artistic, technical, creative, marketing or managerial background there are jobs in the games industry to suit you, offering interesting career progression and a stimulating and passionate work environment.
Traditionally a male dominated industry, game development is increasingly diverse with many companies now actively seeking to balance the gender ratio on development teams. In fact a panel at GDC 2009 concluded that it is more critical than ever for women to get into games. Consoles such as the Wii and DS have massively increased the numbers of women playing games and many games are now targeted specifically at women, with the developers looking to include more women on the teams making the games to help introduce a female perspective to the development process and increase the appeal of these games to women.
In addition to opportunities to work on more female friendly games there are now far fewer barriers to women wanting to work on the more traditional FPS's, RTS's and RPGs and less stigma attached to those that do. A shining example came recently with 'Portal', Valve's innovative puzzler that won Game of the Year at GDC 2008 which was conceived and designed by Kim Swift, a woman, but was far from being a 'girl's game'.
Most employers will look for a passion for games when recruiting and obviously the skills to do the job but are gender neutral and the traditional view of dev teams as sexist enclaves of pepsi swilling and pizza obsessed men is usually very out of date. Many companies are actively seeking to move away from the unhealthy bedroom coder image by offering free gym membership, regularly restocked fruit bowls and even paid overtime.
Interactive Selection is actively seeking to promote the role of women in the games industry. We work with the top studios worldwide and have recently placed women in senior Art, Animation, PR, Marketing, Sales and Production jobs in countries such as UK, Canada, Iceland and Germany. We will help you manage your career, whether you are looking to start out in the games industry or find your next job. While previous games industry experience will always be beneficial, if you have equivalent experience from outside the industry but have a passion for games then Interactive Selection can help you take the next step in your career.
"We know that the numbers of women in the games industry are frustratingly low," comments David Smith, MD of Interactive Selection "It's a failing of the games industry as a whole - not just on a social level but on a business level. But whatever the cause, I want to do more to help women work and progress their careers in the games sector. The industry welcomes - and would like to see more - women recruits to both help develop games and take on business-focused roles. While it's not possible to overtly advertise for guys or girls, the message I get is, if they have two candidates of equal ability, they'd probably hire the women."
Over the coming weeks and months we will be talking to some of the games industry's top women and men from HR, Production, Design and other disciplines about the role of women in the games industry and what they look for in an employee so keep checking back here for updates.
Women in Games Jobs Blog
Join over 500 following Women in Games Jobs on Twitter at @wigj !
Sat, 28 Jan 2012
Our recently launched Twitter account now has over 500 followers. Join us at http://twitter.com/wigj Our Twitter account is @wigj and we use the #wigj hashtag to group together tweets on the same women in games subject.
Women in Games Jobs MeetUps in London to be launched shortly.
Sun, 08 Jan 2012
Watch this space! Cassandra Donnelly has joined the Women in Games Jobs team as Project Manager to extend the outreach to women who want to meet on a more regular basis than just at the annual conference. Cassandra recently attended the WIGJ lunch at Develop and has plans to organise regular meetings in the evening in London, UK. If you have any suggestions for Cassandra you can reach her at cassandra AT wigjobs DOT com. Volunteers for speakers are welcome.
Ella Romanos, MD of Online and Mobile developer Remode Studios with Game Careers
Thu, 15 Dec 2011Ella Romanos, MD and co-owner of Remode, an interactive production and game development studio in the UK, talks to David Smith of Game Careers in Brighton. Remode create their own original games and also work with clients and partners to deliver interactive content across web, mobile and gaming platforms. Remode’s debut game, Mole Control, was released worldwide in 2010 across Steam and other PC download portals and was a finalist in the European Europrix Multimedia Awards. The game has subsequently been published at retail in North America by leading casual game publisher Mumbo Jumbo and is currently on sale in stores such as Amazon and Walmart. Client projects include an iPhone/iPad game for CITV’s show Tati’s Hotel, online games for TV shows such as Franklin & Bash and Top Chef, a training simulation for PADI and an online virtual world for kids. Ella grew up between Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the UK, and in 2008 received a 1st class honours from University of Plymouth’s Digital Art & Technology BSc. Having previously worked for London-based Specialmoves, her background is in programming and user-centred design, but she now spends most her time on business development, project management, strategy and sales! She was a finalist in the 2011 UK Women in Technology awards ‘Innovator of the Year’ category, speaks at international conferences such as MIPTV and Develop and has co-founded the South West’s first games conference, Extended Play.
Her advice for job seekers looking to apply to smaller company like Remode: “I think the biggest difference between the bigger studios and small ones like us is that whilst you need to be good at something, you also need to have a broader skill set. So if you are an artist you may be best at modelling, but you probably also need to be able to do other stuff as well to pitch in on projects.” View the full clip here:
Over 400 in Women in Games Jobs Facebook Group. Join our professional network.
Thu, 15 Dec 2011
We’re happily announcing that our newly created Facebook Group page for Womeningamesjobs.com has over 400 Facebookers! Yippeee!
The aim of the Group is to broaden out the message of WIGJ, bringing in new interest for the site as well as raising awareness of the opportunities for women out there.
We hope that the Group will enable those previously unawares of our message and aims to be welcomed into the fray and to get to know us, making connections and networking with established professionals as well as others with similar interests. We’d also like to encourage conversations and discussions on the topics and issues posted and linked to the Group.
So please join us, support the group to continue raising the interest for Women in Games Jobs! Spread the news; we look forward to seeing you on there!
Over 2700 join our own Women In Games Jobs LinkedIn networking group. You can too!
Fri, 02 Dec 2011
Join THE professional network for women in online and video gaming! If you are a women in the games industry and member of LinkedIn, you can now get together with over 2700 others who share the same interests. We think this could be the largest grouping of women in games in Europe. Dont miss out on the inside track!
Please link through to http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2739553 . Start a discussion, share news! Just join the group and start networking. Good luck.
Positive Role Models of Women in Video Games – A personal project by Canadian Cam Meiklejohn
Mon, 24 Oct 2011
Recruiting more women into games: Highlights video from European Women in Games Conference
Tue, 11 Oct 2011Too busy, too far away, just thought it a waste of time or never even heard about it, you can now get a flavour of what you missed. Whatever reason you could not make it to the European Women in Games Conference, London on 22 September 2011, here is the highlights video of the conference brought to you courtesy of James Hakesly Photography. Sold out and packed into the downstairs conference suite of the NH Harrington Hall Hotel, London, some of the games industry’s most successful female achievers inspired other women seeking to enter the games industry and those wishing to progress their careers at the annual European Women in Games Conference and Networking event. If you are interested in joining the WIGJ professional network, we recommend you should join over 2500 other supporters in our LinkedIn group.
Change the default resolution of 360p to 720p and see the full clip below in glorious HD.
Frederique Doumic of OUAT & Louise Murray of Lionhead – first inductions into Euro Hall Of Fame
Mon, 26 Sep 2011
James Hakesley Photography
Frederique Doumic, CEO of OUAT Entertainment and Louise Murray, Head of Fable Franchise at Lionhead Studios are the first 2 to be inaugurated into the European Women in Games Hall of Fame.
In an exciting finale to the European Women in Games Conference, the announcement and presentation was made by Alison Cressey, former Europe GM at Activision supported by Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager for Awards Sponsor, Electronic Arts, who came over from the US especially for the Conference. The Hall of Fame seeks to highlight the significant contribution of women to the games industry as well as promote role models to those women considering working in games. Voted on by peers in the Women in Games Jobs network, we expect this award to become an annual event.
Frederique Doumic is CEO of OUAT Entertainment which was she co-founded in 1999 in Angouleme, France. OUAT Entertainment creates, designs and publishes video games for women and kids, in clear ‘casual games’. Since 2008, her company has produced its own casual games: Miss Teri Tales series (3 titles); pure hidden and Eden’s quest.
Louise Murray is the Head of the Fable Franchise at Microsoft Games Studio Lionhead where she has been leading the development on Fable 3. Louise picked up the Action Adventure category BAFTA award for Fable 2 in 2009 on behalf of the development team. She joined Lionhead in 2005 and became Head of Studio. Previously she worked at Criterion.
Our congratulations go to Frederique and Louise and the other 3 shortlisted nominees: Dr. Linda Breitlauch, Professor of Games Design, Media Design University of Applies Science; Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule and Fiona Sperry, Studio Director and VP, Criterion Games
Inspiration abounds at the European Women in Games Conference 2011, London
Mon, 26 Sep 2011
James Hakesley Photography
Thursday September 22nd 2011 at NH Harrington Hall Hotel, London, some of the games industry’s most successful female achievers inspired other women seeking to enter the games industry and those wishing to progress their careers – at the annual European Women in Games Conference and Networking event.
Women in Games Jobs founder David Smith was delighted, “Thank you to all who came today – doubling our expected turn out for this, our first Conference event. Thanks to our keynote speaker Fiona Sperry, Studio Director and VP, of EA Criterion Games, and Jude Ower, CEO of The PlayMob. Both of who shared key career insights and inspirations which I am sure everyone here today appreciates greatly.”
Fiona Sperry’s down to earth and frank story of her career journey centred on her fundamental belief that quality brings success. Of this, Fiona said, “Perform well and you should be rewarded for it. Take responsibility for your journey and do what you love – the one characteristic that winners share is that they care more than anyone else.”
Jude Ower agreed with this and demonstrated her slightly different route into the games industry via educational games. She demonstrated how games can have an extraordinarily positive and real effect on people and the world around us by demonstrating their new core platform GiverBoard. This connects games to charities, allowing game play to be used to donate money to real world charities. Already showing huge success with its first campaign and appreciation and support from the gaming community we are sure to see more of this from The PlayMob.
Professional Enterprise Coach, Andrew Tilling of Preseli Partnerships took the attendees on a more personal journey, helping every attendee to clarify their thinking on where they are at now and to examine where they want to be. He introduced the meanings of success and ways of reframing obstacles whilst always keeping an eye on your goal.
A quick fire Q&A session followed with a panel of games experts including Antonia Cullum, Talent Manager, Natural Selection; Ali Bergstrom-Allen, Senior Producer, Sony Computer Entertainment; Maggie Berry, MD, Women in Technology; Louise Murray, Head of Fable Franchise, Lionhead Studios; and Prof. Dr. Linda Breitlauch, Professor of Games Design at Media Design University of Applied Sciences, Germany. All took a variety of questions encouraging different approaches of getting into and progressing to the top of the games industry. Topics were raised on how best to present your CV and how to make the most of networking opportunities. It seems clear that male or female is you have passion and talent you can go far.
An exciting finale to the Conference was announcement and presentation by Alison Cressey, former Europe GM at Activision, of the newly launched Hall of Fame Awards which this year went to Frederique Doumic, CEO of OUAT Entertainment and Louise Murray, Lionhead Studios. The Hall of Fame will now grow year on year to celebrate the achievement of women across the industry.
A special thanks goes to Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager for Electronic Arts who came over from the US, especially for the Conference. A key sponsor, they support the bringing of their organisation into alignment with the diversity of their customers and game players. Ginger said, “EA knows the importance of reaching and supporting top talent on a global scale. We are very proud to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs luncheon which will provide an intimate venue for collaboration, networking and sharing best practices.”
This year’s conference focused on career development and revealed some secrets of success from the very best speakers working in this creative industry. We hope it will inspire those attending – helping to recruit into and retain more women in this, currently male dominated, video games industry
European Women in Games Conference on 22 September 2011 is Sold Out
Tue, 20 Sep 2011
We are pleased to report that the conference will sell out. Over 120 tickets have been sold and the conference venue is at its capacity. The European remit has been successful with delegates coming from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Spain, and even the USA in addition to the UK. We have reached out successfully to nearly 30 Education course leaders, lecturers and their students.
The Hall of Fame awards has been launched successfully with 19 nominations put forward by members of the WIGJ LinkedIn and WIGJ FB groups which has been shortlisted to 5 and voting is now underway, with over 200 votes so far cast. The nominees are Prof. Dr. Linda Breitlauch, Professor of Games Design, Media Design University of Applies Sciences; Frederique Doumic, CEO at OUAT Entertainment; Louise Murray, Head of Fable Franchise at Lionhead Studios; Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule; Fiona Sperry, Studio Director and VP, Criterion Games. All 5 plan to attend on Thursday.
3 outstanding speakers, a panel session, awards ceremomy and speed networking event should make it an unforgettable afternoon. If you already have a ticket, we will see you there!
