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Student Surname KIERMOWICZ

First Names DOROTA

Student Number 96078114

Course Name and short code ANIMATION ANI (example: Fashion, FAS)

Academic year 17-18 For group work (if appropriate): Group Name Role in Group Please copy the following from the Project Brief:

Unit Title Dissertation

Unit Code C301

Year, Term Year 3, Term 1

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Six keywords Game, Character, Design, Gender, (separated by commas) Objectification, Industry

Your LEAD QUESTION DESIGNING A FEMALE CHARACTER TO COMBAT GENDER OBJECTIFICATION IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY

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DESIGNING A FEMALE CHARACTER TO COMBAT GENDER OBJECTIFICATION IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY

A VISUAL DISSERTATION BY DOROTA KIERMOWICZ BA ANIMATION 2018

CONTENTS PAGE

Page: - List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 - Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... 6 -Chapter 1. Female game players and creators……………………………………………………………….. 6 -Chapter 2. Positive and negative female characters………………………………………………………. 12 -Chapter 3. Design Fighting With Women Objectification……………………………………………….. 15 -Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20 - Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 21 -Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 28 -Progress Map…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration Page

Figure 1: Statistics (2017) The Statistics Portal [diagram]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video- 7 gamers/ (Accessed on: 8.10.2017)

Figure 2: My own Diagram (2017) [diagram], my own diagram. Statistic information available at: https://www.glassdoor.com/research/studies/gender-pay-gap/ (Accessed 9 on: 8.10.2017)

Figure 3: Funemena (2017) [ illustration]. Availible at: https://luna.funomena.com/#new-page (Accessed on: 22.10.2017) 10

Figure 4: Beasley, Berrin., & Collins Standley, Tracy (2002). Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a869/79702bd24d79e70d5c6ef75decacc70296ba.pdf (accessed: 20.09.2017) 11

Figure 5: Kothe, Peter (2003) [illustration]. Available at: https://peterkothe.tumblr.com/post/145426949627/videogamesdensetsu-beyond- 12 good-evil-ps2 (Accessed on: 5.11.2017)

Figure 6: Ubisoft (2009) [illustration]. Available at: https://www.ubisoft.com/en- us/game/beyond-good-and-evil-hd/ (Accessed on: 5.11.2017) 13 Figure 7: Game Artbook (2010) [illustration]. Available at: http ://nnm2.com/blogs/fnightmare/game_artbooks_soul_calibur_iv_- 14 _collectible_comic_and_artbook_scans/ (Accessed on: 8.11.2017)

Figure 8: Fandom (2014) [illustration]. Available at: http://deathbattle.wikia.com/wiki/File:Soul-calibur-4-ivy.jpg (Accessed on: 8.11.2017) 14

Figure 9: TV Tropes (Unknown) [illustration]. Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhipSword (Accessed on: 8.11.2017) 14 Figure 10: O’Hara, Finn (Unknown) [photograph]. Available at: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/jennie-carignan-will-be-the-first-female- 16 general-from-the-combat-arms-trades/ (Accessed: 2.10.2017) Figure 11: Perkel, Colin ( Unknown) [photograph]. Available at: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/jennie-carignan-will-be-the-first-female- general-from-the-combat-arms-trades/ (Accessed on: 2.10.2017) 16

Figure 12: My own illustration (2017) [sketch] Sketch of the early design 17

Figure 13: My own illustration (2017) [sketch] Character sheet sketches 17

Figure 14: My own illustration (2017) [sketch] T-pose of the character with colour 17 Figure 15: My own illustration ( 2017) [sketch] Character in a dominating pose 17 Figure 16: My own illustration (2017) [sketch] Final character T-pose with descriptions 17 Figure 17: My own illustration (2017) [sketch] Face and mask design for the character with descriptions 18

Figure 18: My one illustration (2017) [screen grab] Marvelous Designer work in progress of the garments 19

Figure 19: My one illustration (2017) [screen grab] Maya 2017 work in progress 19 Figure 20: My one illustration (2017) [screen grab] Zbrush work in progress 19 Figure 21: My one illustration (2017) [screen grab] Final renders 19

INTRODUCTION

Feminist ideology should not encourage (as sexism has done) women to believe they are powerless. It should clarify for women the powers they exercise daily and show them ways these powers can be used to resist sexist domination and exploitation. -bell hooks, “Changing Perspectives on Power,” in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 1984 ‘’ Female game characters in today’s reality are frequently pictured as sex objects (Beasley & Collins Standley, 2002; Dietz, 1998; Miller and Summers, 2007). Previous studies by Berrin Beasley and Tracy Collins Stanley showed, that women are underrepresented in video games and the clothing aspect of the design is an important part of perceiving game characters. Statistics by The Entertainment Software Association presenting women as 42% of gaming audience, which shows that women are a big part of the industry. In the first chapter, I will be talking about women as game players and creators. In the second chapter, I will be analysing two existing female characters that in my opinion are positive and negative examples of perceiving women in video game. Finally, in the third chapter I will be talking about my design and the influence of the creation of my female character. For the practical component of the work I will design and create a 3D model using Maya and Zbrush. When designing the character I will focus on the clothing aspect that impact how viewer is perceiving the character (Beasley and Collins Standley 2002). The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the change in portrayal of gender in games by creating female game character being a lead character in both gender-friendly game. In this writing I will use two sources of primary research, online survey about the design of an character and interview with concept artist at CD Project Red Studio, Marek Madej. As the result of this work I aim to answer the question: can designing a female game character combat gender objectification in the games industry? CHAPTER 1. FEMALE GAME PLAYERS AND CREATORS

Female Game players 6

There is a lot of misconception regarding what people assume about female players, especially young girls. I will present a few of them and try to explain Why those misconceptions are inaccurate. Ernest Adams in his book ‘’Fundamentals of Game Design’’ talk about few of those misconceptions, here are two I chose as an example: ‘’Girls don’t like violence’’. The reality is that girls don’t like casual, sadistic violence that becomes brutality. In games, girls would accept violence if it is defensive or provoked so there is a reason to use and it is more acceptable. ‘’Girls want everything to be sweet and happy’’ Is another false assumption, girls are looking for mystery, suspense that is meaningful. Here are only two of the stereotypes people think when comes to the female players (Adams, 2010, p.95). Stereotypes have a big influence on the design of games but also on the people who are playing video games. They can influence the vision of creator and the perspective of player.

The game industry is a constantly growing and evolving market. Women represent a big portion of the game market. Newest studies by Entertainment Software Association show that in 2017 42% of the gaming audience in US are women, Which has increased by 1% since 2016. Figure 1. shows the proportion of male and female game players in the US between 2006 and 2017 (ESA, 2017).

Fig.1.: Diagram presenting male and female proportion of players in the US

From the 4,000 UK residents women make up 52% of the gaming audience, increasing from 49% three years ago. The most popular games genre are Trivia and Word Puzzles, which are mobile and casual games (IAE, 2014). However, the same study showed that 56% of female have played on console and 68% played online. In the recent report by Nick Yee, the co- founder of game analytics company Quantic Foundry, shows which genres of games are

7 dominated by women. He surveyed over 270,000 gamers asking them about their favourite game titles. The result of the study indicated women made up about 70% of family/farm simulation games. One of the interesting results that he mentioned in the interview with Cecilia D’Anastasio, Senior reporter at Kotaku, “There’s a lot of variation not only between genres but within genres,”. There is 36% of fantasy MMORPG female players, but only 26% of World of Warcraft players are women in comprising to the Star Wars: the Old Republic, which has twice as many female players. Yee said: “[role-playing game] Dragon Age: Inquisition has almost double the group average of Western RPGs (48% vs. 26%). This 48% is higher than the group averages of the next 5 genres in the chart.” It might be that more women would enjoy role playing games if they were designed with women in mind. Female Game Creators The game industry has always been dominated by men (Ivory, 2009). Male developers are likely creating games that they themselves would like to play or games they would like to play when they were young boys (Adams, 2010, p.87). There is a number of people in the game industry trying to encourage creators to work on games with adventurous female protagonists. Unfortunately, some of the projects an unpleasant response from a minority of men who do not want those types of games to exist. This minority is not only attacking women working in the games industry, but female players too, more often ( Dietz,1998).

Research article: “Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female- Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour” study by Michael M. Kasumovic of the University of New South Wales’ Ecology and Evolution Research Centre and Jeffrey H. Kuznekoff of Miami University Middletown’s Department of Integrative Studies looked into whether “female-initiated disruption of a male hierarchy incites hostile behaviour from poor performing males who stand to lose the most status” (Kasumovis and Kuznekoff, 2015). It provided one of the reason of male being aggressive towards female game players. They ran an experiment and analysed a total of 163 gamers of Halo 3 with the two manipulations by female and male voice manipulators. As result of the analysis of a female-voiced account turned out to confirm the theory, as mentioned in the paper: “overall, the female-voiced manipulation experienced a greater frequency of negative comments” and “focal-player skill further moderated player behaviour with the lowest-skilled males behaving less positively towards a female voice” (Kasumovis and Kuznekoff, 2015), possible it is a reason why women are being objectified in games. 8

It is proven that men don’t like to lose, and in particularly to a women. Not only in games but also in the game industry. In an industry that is male dominated, seeing female developers is threatening. The issue is not only men reacting to women in the industry but Also the existence of pay gap. The new analysis by a career review site Glassdoor shows that woman within the computer science industry earn much less than men with the same job titles in the U.S.. The analysis is based on 505,000 salary searches of a full-time employees revealing that the average gender pay gap is 5.9% (Glassdoor, 2016). It is based on statistical variables including age, occupation, education, location, experience, industry, job title and company. That shows that even if men and women are almost identical in every way except gender, the male worker earns 5.9% more than a female. Figure 2. presents the percentage of a pay gap between male and female employees.

Gender Pay Gap Gender Pay Gap 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Computer Game Artist Software Software Mobile Programmer Architect Engineer Developer

Fig.2. Diagram presenting pay gap in different male dominated fields

The potential explanation of such a wide gap in salary is due to the fact that industry is dominated by men. The chief economist Andrew Chamberlain based on the research said: “Fields where the proportion [of employees] is tilted towards men see wider gaps,” and that “The process of pay setting and promotion tends to be more biased” (Chamberlain, 2017). Latest statistics the of Current Population Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017 are showing that women are 33.6% of web developers, 20% of software developers, 23% of programmers, 37% of database administrators, 38.5% of producers and directors. From the 23% of female developers, there is one woman who revolutionised the video game industry. Robin Hunicke is a designer, producer and CEO. She is known for her work on the game MySims released in 2007, which is the Wii version of The Sims. She is a co-founder of an independent game studio Funomena based in San Francisco, California. She is also an Ambassador for Woman in Games. Hunicke is recognized in the industry for her 9 participation in game design and game culture. She co-organizes the annual Experimental Gameplay sessions at the Game Developers Conference, which is about experimental game designers around the world. Currently, she is working on a video game both VR and PC name Luna. Figure 3. presents Luna the game. Game is a tactile, interactive fairy story of a young Bird who got lost physically and mentally and player is helping him to get back home. The pay gap proves that game industry is male dominated and women like Robin Hunicke shows industry professionals who are trying to encourage the change to equal rights.

Fig.3. Illustration from game Luna

For the primary research, I wanted to interview one of the women working at the CD Project Red game studio, which I am looking personally to work for in the future. Unfortunately I did not receive any responses from the female workers. However, I interviewed a concept artist working in the studio, Marek Madej. About his insight on women working in his studio, Marek said: There are few women working in our studio. Very talented ones that are important part of the company. I think there is as stigma about female game creators in the industry and I hope in the future we will recruit more women to work on our games. (Madej, 2017) Looking at the company from the perspective of designing their characters, Pawel Swierczynski, a lead developer on Wild Hunt asked about the character they are creating, he said: ‘’ We always aimed to tell stories about people. And there are people with boobs and people with panties. Sometimes both.’’ He also adds: "this is my personal opinion and not of my employer" ( Swierczynski, 2016).

To create a good game that women would enjoy is not as simple as creating a ‘Women’s game’ by simply creating features and assets that address generalities about women. Instead it is about designing an interesting game and keeping in mind issues that may affect the reaction on your potential customer base (Adams,2010, p.86). Female characters in video games and gender representation is a subject of popular debates and social scientific research (Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002; Dietz, 1998; Miller, K. M., & Summers, A., 2007). Content analyses found that women are underrepresented in many cases and there is far more male characters than women. In the study ‘’Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games’’ by Berrin Beasley from the Department of Communications and Visual Arts University of North Florida and Tracy Collins Standley from the Department of Mass Communication McNeese State University, which included a 47 games being analysed for characters. From all the 47 games there were 597 characters and five games did not include any characters. The result of the analyses are predictable ‘’ Of the 597 characters analysed, 427, or 71.52%, of the characters were men, 82, or 13.74%, were women, and 88, or 14.74%, were of an undeterminable gender.’’ (Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002). Figure 4.presents those statistics. Those findings shows that games companies underrepresent women in many scenarios. There is not enough female protagonists in the game industry to fight with the female objectification.

Fig.4. Percentages of female and male characters in 47 analysed games

In the same study Beasley and Collins Standley came up with a thesis that women in the game are showed in less clothing then men. Based on the same research analysis the result was supporting the thesis. Writers said: ‘’Of those characters shown with a low neckline, in which cleavage or pecs were visible, 85.71% were women. This again supports the claim that female characters are shown less clothed than men.’’ (Beasley & Collins Standley, 2002) 11

That proofs female characters being showed in more provocative clothing. The analysis above shows that more than a half of characters with revealing neck lines are women, which proves that sexual objectification is directed towards women. Underrepresentation of gender is an everyday reality in game industry.

CHAPTER 2. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEMALE CHARACTERS

In this chapter, I will be reviewing two examples of video game characters that I chose as a positive and negative example of female character. Firstly, a positive character that resonates with people and can be relatable on many levels of the game. Choosing Jade from ‘’Beyond Good and Evil’’ I will present an example of a well-designed character for female audience. Second, a negative character I will be reviewing is Isabella ‘’Ivy’’ Valentine from the game ‘’Soul Calibur’’. I will be analysing a number of aspects about the characters, which include: profile of the character, personality, abilities, weapons (if existing) and the appearance.

Jade from ‘’Beyond Good and Evil’’. The game was created by Ubisoft and developed by Michel Ancel. His goal was to create a female hero character that is relatable and not objectified by male perspective. In the interview by Gary Steinman, senior Communications Manager from 2013, Ancel asked why Jade still resonate with people today he said:

When we started the project the first thing we said was, If this project is different it’s because it’s a female character who is driving the story. She’s not like other characters who look like women but act like men. I’m not saying women don’t shoot guns or defend themselves; it’s just that most women in games are clichés. They are just one vision of the woman. We wanted to create this character and respect her. We said, This is our character. This is how she is. We are not going to modify her with our male fantasies. We tried as much as possible to make Jade her own entity and her own personality. It was one of the challenges of development. (Ancel, 2013).

Fig..5 Early concepts of Jade’s look The design of Jade changed multiple times. Original models were described as too cute and cartoony for the character. Figure 5. presents the early concepts of the Jade’s look. The final look of jade was: Green pants with print on the side, tank top, headband and black short hair, jacket and mature facial features, as figure 6. presents.

Fig.6 Final look of Jade Jade is a positive example because she is strong relatable character resembling a real person, not a passive, sexually objectified action woman. The creators made sure the character is a positive visualization of women.

Ivy from the ‘’Soul Calibur V’’. Game created by Japanese game company Namco Limited, the Project Soul division. The character became most recognizable by her snake sword and revealing clothing. The industry is full of reviewing sites which for some part are positive for the player but other times it is sexism at its fullest. A WebCite website published list created by Laura Burrows in 2008, a list of ‘’ Top 50 Chicks Behaving Badly’’ and Ivy took 35th place. Being described as "a pain in the ass, but she's got a tight one, so she's okay by us" 13

(Burrows, 2008). In the game review by David Houghton for GamesRadar he added directly regarding character of Ivy: ’’[t]his is not female empowerment‘’(Houghton, 2014).

Fig.7 Concept sketches of Ivy Ivy’s character is one if the first in the Soul series to wear a very revealing costume. Figure 7. presents concept sketched of the design of Ivy’s costume. Her chest has an enormous size with a lot of cleavage exposed, also her thighs and hips have been designed to look very revealing. Her white hair remains the same throughout the whole series. The armour over her shoulder is impractical and too heavy to be possibly to wear. The final Ivy’s look: long high heel boots, bodysuit type top with revealing cuts on the chest, straps around her body, left shoulder armour, big choker necklace and snake sword. In the male concept of the same character the outfit is more appropriate. The design of male costume in my opinion, would work perfectly with female character. Ill. 8 and Ill.9 presents the difference between female and male version of the costume.

Ill.8 Ivy Valentine Ill.9 Male version of the Ivy’s character

Analyses conclusion Both characters Jade and Ivy have a similar background, both are orphans and are trying to fight evil, but there are major differences. The most obvious one is appearance. Jade was created with a goal to empower women and to be relatable. Trouser and t-shirt are simple and places women on an equal level with men. Her camera and stick to fight enemies are realistic and make sense in the story and the environment. Ivy is designed to be a sex object in the game. The story could be perused in the same without her reviling clothing. The clothing is highly impractical and not protecting any part of her body except left shoulder, where the armour is not proportionally possible. The sword itself would be a difficult weapon to use. To control such a whip with blades she would need to go throng extensive training and would still be a difficult to not hurt herself while using it. The weapon they both use is significantly different. Jade’s weapon is practical and possible for a real woman to use. By analysing those two characters and reading reviews by various reviewing websites and players I can clearly state that design of female character is a selling point of the game. Unfortunately, there is market for those types of characters. There are professional individuals and creative are trying to fight is with the sextual objectification in game industry. In the next chapter I will be describing the way I approach to change the way is industry perceiving women. CHAPTER 3. DESIGN FIGHTING WITH WOMEN

OBJECTIFICATION Designing a current fictional female character for a game is a task I gave myself to fight women objectification in the game industry. I took a lot of inspiration from real life female heroes. The woman I chose to be my inspiration is Jennie Carignan, first woman to become a general from combat arms activities. She served in Middle East, Afghanistan and Bosnia. The key reason for choosing her as an inspiration is: she is not trying to fight her femininity while being a soldier. She also helps other women to get to an army. Michel Maisonneuve, academic director of the Royal Military College in the interview for an online magazine Macleans said: “I call it ‘the Jennie effect’,’’ (Maisonneuve, 2016). Recruitment raised up from 10 to 25% between 2013 and 2015, during those two years Carignan would go to meet girls in their mothers’ houses. “She can wear a dress or a bulletproof vest,” says Maisonneuve’s wife, Barbara, a director of the college’s fundraising foundation:

That’s a new breed we’re seeing. [In the past,] you would see the female soldiers, and sometimes it was like they were a bit burly. It was like they were fighting to not be feminine. She just proved to a whole generation that you don’t need to do that. (Maisonneuve, 2016)

Fig.10 Portrait of Jennie Carignan Fig.11 Jennie Carignan leading her division When designing my character, I started with researching female army clothing and equipment. As it is visible on the Figure 11. men and female uniforms are exactly the same. For my design, I created an outfit that both men and women could wear. The idea was to a create mask to cover her face, so it gave her more mysterious look. The mask would encourage player to discover more information about the character as the story progress. During the designing process, I received feedback from amination specialists, which to some extent contradicts the purpose of this design. It was mentioned in the feedback that she should have more Skin and face showed. All the specialists ware male, that proves in some extent that men are looking on a design on a female character in different perspective. They also mention that some aspects of design could be impractical in the fight. Long hair and long front cloth would be an easy target for her enemy during fight. To get more feedback I created an online survey using the Survey Monkey (Kiermowicz, survey, 2017). I received total of 7 responses, age from 13-28. In the question about role of the character in game, 5 out of 7 people responded ‘’Hero’’; one person: ‘’Side Character’’; and one: ‘’None of the above’’. In the comment section explaining why they choose this answer, even when respondent chose ‘’Hero’’, they stated that she looks more like ‘’Side character’’: ‘’ Rogue like, possibly a medic too - not a character type the main plot typically focuses around, but always a valuable side character.’’ (Anonymous,2017) Illustrations below presents the designing sketches for the original design before changes.

Fig.12 Character sheet of my design Fig.13 References and designing sketches

Fig.14 Character T-pose Fig.15 Character in pose Taking all the feedback into consideration, I changed certain aspects of the design, such as the practicalities, however, I did not strip her from any clothing. As the study previously showed most obvious aspect of sexual objectification of females is the low neck line (Beasley & Collins Standley). As result of this research and a statement, my character will not have her chest exposed. Her final look includes features like short brown hair for more practicality, consideration feedback from the animation specialists. Mask covering her whole face except eyes, eyes would stay visible to make her more relatable for the player. Survey I created informed me that people relate more with fictional character by eye contact (Kiermowicz, Survey, 2017) The mask is interactive and it allows her to see in the dark and display all the information to defeat her opponents. Vest from thin yet impossible to destroy metal like material, short front cloth to indicate her femininity. Femininity of this

17 character will not be defined by the clothing she is wearing, rather the way she act. The front cloth is a representation of that. The whole body costume is made from the weather interactive material. Arm and knee pads are made from light material, also they are mechanical and contain various weapons: throwing knives, lines and traps. High flat combat shoes are practical and protective. She always wears a sword on her back. The sword is an interactive weapon, designed especially to defeat the mechanical mutants. All the aspects of the clothing design are practical for the environment that she is in. Illustration below ( Fig.16; Fig.17;) presenting the final concept of the character.

Ill.16 Final character concept Ill.17 Mask concept Background story. Her name Garra, the combination of Greek and Roman names of the goddess of the earth, Gaia and Terra. Her name is representing her love for earth and people leaving there. The place she is leaving is an post-apocalyptic earth, a small city with the people she knows and love. Earth is being invaded by mechanical mutants, cyborgs. From an early age she was trained in combat fight by her mother, who was an army officer in the fight against the cyborgs and she died in the battle. After her mother died, she become a guardian to her little sister but also a hero to protect people in the city. In the game, the main task would be to rescue her little sister, who was kidnaped by a man who controls the cyborgs. To create the 3D model I used Maya 2017 and Zbrush for the bade body and Marvelous Designer software to create clothing and assets. The process of creating a 3D model is very technical, so I will not write much about it. The model I created to be used in both game and

18 cinematic trailer for the game. Illustration below (Fig.18;) are presenting the process using the three software I mentioned previously.

Fig. 18 Marvelous Designer Fig.19 Maya 2017

Fig.20 Zbrush As a result the design represent empowering of women. She is an independent character, fighting for her own rights and freedom of being. That represents what women are doing now. Not only in gaming industry but every male dominated industry in the world. Figure 21. presents four final renders of the finished character. Online link to the video presentation: https://vimeo.com/246319385?activityReferer=1

Fig. 21 Final character renders 19

CONCLUSION

There is a market for games more inclusive for women. In the first chapter I presented statistics that proves that female players deserve games that will respect the image of woman. By creating more games focused on the female audience, industry will benefit in more versatile styles of paly. There is a minority of people trying to discourage women to step up and fight for the way females are represented in games. Game developers like Robin Hunickem, Ambassador of Woman in Games are a good example of people trying to inspire the change. There is still stigma around women in the game industry, players or creators are still afraid of how industry is staying in the same place and not changing. The change is starting now with people like Robin or Marek Madej, people who want the change to happen. Marek encouraged me to work in the game industry. That shows there is place for woman in games. By analysing two examples of character design in games that in my opinion are positive and negative vision of female representation. I can clearly say that it is unnecessary to sexualize women, no matter what the story is. Story of the both characters is similar in some way. Their back story is similar, but their appearance differs very much. This research shows that there is no explanation of using female characters as sexual object, other that sexism sells. Unfortunately, there is a market for it. Looking at the way industry is moving, slowly but certainly, I see there is a future for female game protagonists to conquer the world of games. The design is a power tool to create change in the game industry. The design I created, warrior, feminine yet strong character is an example of what I as a women expect games to be. Empowering and encouraging for women to play. The design no matter the gender, age or ethnicity should be respectful. Women are equal to men, There needs to be more change done in the way games are designed.

APPENDICES

1. Appendix – Interview with Marek Madej, Concept artist at CD Project Red. (translated from Polish) 4th October 2017

Transcript: 1.Where did you study and in what years? Has it prepared you in some way for the work you are doing now? I have studied only one year at the Warsaw University of Technology between 2006 and 2007 at the Faculty of Engineering of production. It was not in any way related to what I do in my professional life. I quit studying mainly due to the fact that I wanted to follow the career I have now. 2.What was your impression starting in the computer games industry and what was your first work connected with it? The games are in my life since I can remember. The initial was 65 Atari XE belonging to my father where the games were still on cassette tapes. You waited a long time before the game has loaded at all. At that time, graphics were limited due to resources. Today came the fashion for this type of graphics. This is called: pixel art. Mainly used in indie games. 3.How look the situation of female employees in the company CD Project Red that you are currently working for? There are few women working in our studio. Very talented ones that are important part of the company. I think there is as stigma about female game creators in the industry and I hope in the future we will recruit more women to work on our games. 4. What works do you do now and what are your plans for the future? How important is concept art in creating games? I am a graphic concept. I run a concept art classes at a private university. In many ways, I’m happy where I am. Certainly, firstly I want to develop all the time as a person. Maybe someday I'll try something with its own project. Not necessarily have to be a game. It will, however, it’s still time. 5. What do you expect in female design the computer game in the future? Do not foresee that there will be any drastic changes in the way female characters are design. The market for current female design is booming so most companies will go with the flow.

2. Appendix 2 – Interview with Erwin Cruz, Independent Game Developer. 26th September 2017

1.What was your first experience with games and how would you describe graphic then? My earliest experience was playing 'Tennis' (yes it was planely called that) on Game Boy. The graphics were 8-bit in black and white. I was around 7-8 years old at the time when i discovered an got addicted to this simple game. Everything about it was perfect, the sfx matched every bounce an hit of the tennis ball. The music was cheerful and upbeat. There was a filmic quality to how the game will cut to a shot of the two tennis players switching sides as the crowd cheered and Mario looked on as chair umpire. The use of perspective was key because the graphics were very limiting. Every time you lobbed the tennis ball in the air it would progressively appear larger until it reached a peak an came racing back down. It was special because you felt the presence of space an depth where the ball was high up in the air and could land anywhere. It didn't feel 2D. But at the time it was 1997 an there was games like Crash Bandicoot which was 3D low-poly. The designs were simple and the quality of textures varied from being high-res to looking stretched an pixelated. All the work was done on the textures and then projected onto a simple 3d plane. So instead of modelling individual stones an sculpting cracks and crevices in a wall they painted that on a texture. 2.How was game industry looked like when you studied at Ravensbourne ? At the time I think the mobile games industry was hitting its stride. I mean, that’s where the market was expanding and all the money was heading. I think everyone was trying to work out a 'formula' for success so the games coming out were very creative with simple game mechanics and colourful graphics. Console games just seemed to be heading towards that endless cycle of churning out more 'hyper-realistic' and highly-rendered graphics. I remember one late afternoon at Ravensbourne everyone was crowded around a laptop watching the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto V. After the trailer stopped playing we all looked at each other wondering whether the gameplay footage was actual real time in- gameplay footage and not pre-rendered animations. It was amazing at the time, how detailed it looked for a game that’s designed to be open world. 3.Could you tell what was your experience starting in the gaming industry ? What was your first job?

My first experience was quite recent. Around December 2016 my close friend decided to quit his job an start a game studio. We had always planned to make games but most of my jobs have been in films. So my friend quit his job, launched a game that was more of a test for him to make something from scratch quickly. I gradually became more involved in the games he was creating until I was eventually helping from start to finish on a game. He made me a partner at the game studio he founded an now we're working on small mobile games to help fund a bigger project for console release. 4.What's is your role in the industry now? That’s hard to say, as I’m taking on more tasks that does not involve concept art. You could say my role is a games developer as I’m not only thinking about the art direction in a game now. It could be anywhere from sound design to game mechanics. 3. Appendix – Survey on the character design. 21st November 2017

Look at the design above. 1.Judging only from what you see, what role would you guess that the character plays?

Hero 71.43% 5

– 0.00% Villain 0

– 14.29% Side Character 1

– 14.29% None of the above 1

2.Explain your answer. What elements make the character fit in that

23 particular role in your opinion?

I relate the character with the main character in a game called Journey and looks like a treasure hunter 11/23/2017 2:37 PM

Rogue like, possibly a medic too - not a character type the main plot typically focuses around, but always a valuable side character. 11/22/2017 6:51 PM

Looks like time and thought went into the design so looks like an important character but they don't look menacing so not the bad guy. Has a mysterious look too so I'm assuming information will be revealed as the story progresses. While this doesn't necessarily make me think they are the hero it def makes me think they are the centre of the story and not the villain. 11/21/2017 5:42 PM

The design seems to be quite generic 11/21/2017 5:31 PM View respondent's answers Details, weapons, armour 11/21/2017 1:39 PM

They seem to be equipped for any situation especially with what seems to be a bag pack, 11/21/2017 1:34 PM

Stuck between hero and side character, more of a side hero. A main hero is usually a leader, and usually have bigger physical attributes to show this. This character looks more like the assassin type and the assassin type hero is usually a side hero. 11/21/2017 1:17 PM

3. What makes this character seem appealing to you? all the accessories fit her well 11/23/2017 2:37 PM

I like rogue-type characters, anything stealth related which I feel this character may lean towards 11/22/2017 6:51 PM

The mystery behind their appearance 11/21/2017 5:42 PM

The level of detail. Placement of weapons. Mask 11/21/2017 1:39 PM

The overall design of how they look, from the clothing to the hair and the mask. It makes them a secret making the character very intriguing to me 11/21/2017 1:34 PM

Again, the side hero isn't necessarily a bad thing and this character looks like the assassin type and they're usually the more interesting roles in movies such as Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe. I like the mask and the katana and the whole outfit in general. 11/21/2017 1:17 PM

4.What makes this character seem unappealing to you?

Not much room for complaints 11/23/2017 2:37 PM

Not sure about the front tunic but open back...

11/22/2017 6:51 PM

Nothing in particular 11/21/2017 5:42 PM

Lack of personality 11/21/2017 5:31 PM

There is No logo or graphic that makes the character belong to Some organisation 11/21/2017 1:39 PM

If I had to nit-pick it's probably the flap at the front, visually it looks cool but, when it comes to any other purpose it seems like it could get in the way when she's running or something someone could easily grab. Seems like an inconvenience, but overall everything good 11/21/2017 1:34 PM

Nothing really, the back pack I suppose. 11/21/2017 1:17 PM

5.What games do you like to play the most?

Adventure 57.14% 4

– 0.00% Simulations 0

– 28.57% Real-time strategy 2

– 0.00% Puzzle 0

– 0.00% Action 0

– 0.00% Shooter 0

– 14.29% Combat 1

TOTAL 7

6. What age range are you in?

13-20 28.57% 2

– 71.43% 21-28 5

– 0.00% 29-36 0

– 0.00% 37-45 0

– 0.00% 45+ 0

TOTAL 7

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