Games & Animation HEPLER Women in Game Development BREAKING THE GLASS LEVEL-CAP Videogame development is usually seen as a male dominated eld; even playing videogames is often wrongly viewed as a pastime for men only. But behind the curtain, women have always played myriad important roles in gaming. From programmers to artists, designers to produc- WOMEN IN GAME DEVELOPMENT ers, female videogame developers endure not only the pressures of their jobs but also epic levels of harassment and hostility. Jennifer Brandes Hepler’s Women in Game Development: Breaking the Glass Level-Cap gives voice to talented and experienced female game develop- ers from a variety of backgrounds, letting them share the passion that drives them to keep making games. • Experience the unique stories of nearly two dozen female game developers, from old-school veterans to rising stars. • Understand the role of women in videogames, from the earliest days of development to the present day. • Hear rst-hand perspectives from working professionals in elds including coding, design, art, writing, community management, production and journalism. • Get tips for how to be a better ally and make your company and teams more inclusive. • Learn about the obstacles you face if you’re an aspiring female developer, and how to overcome them. • Meet the human face of some of the women who have endured the industry’s worst harassment… and kept on going. Women in Game About the Editor: Jennifer Brandes Hepler has been in the games industry for 18 years, starting as a writer for tabletop games before joining Bioware as a senior writer on the Dragon Age series and Star Wars: The Old Republic. After two years as the lead writer on Disruptor Beam’s Game of Development Thrones Ascent, Jennifer is now working on serious games for Kognito Interactive, using game dialogue to teach empathy and communication skills. Jennifer has spoken on gender and game writing at GDC, Games For Change, Geek Girl Con, and EA University. BREAKING THE GLASS LEVEL-CAP EDITED BY 173907 JENNIFER BRANDES HEPLER ISBN-13: 978-1-1389-4792-4 90000 9 781138 947924 Women in Game Development BREAKING THE GLASS LEVEL-CAP Women in Game Development BREAKING THE GLASS LEVEL-CAP EDITED BY JENNIFER BRANDES HEPLER Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed on acid-free paper Version Date: 20160509 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-94792-4 (Paperback) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. 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For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright. com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hepler, Jennifer Brandes, author. Title: Women in game development : breaking the glass level-cap / Jennifer Brandes Hepler. Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, 2017. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016013699 | ISBN 9781138947924 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Video games industry. | Computer software developers. | Women in computer science. | Sex discrimination in employment. Classification: LCC HD9993.E452 H47 2017 | DDC 331.4/817948--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013699 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com This book is dedicated to the tens of thousands of women who have been toiling invisibly in the game industry since it began. We couldn’t fit you all in here, but we know that every one of your stories is unique and valuable and part of what makes games into the art form that we all love. Thank you all for doing what you do. Contents ȃ Acknowledgments xi Contributors xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Brenda Romero 5 3 Rebecca Ann Heineman 15 4 From the Beginning 23 5 Judy Tyrer 27 6 Brianna Wu 35 7 Karisma Williams 47 8 It Starts in the Classroom: Women and Computer Science 55 9 Jane Ng 59 vii viii CONTENTS 10 Kimberly Unger 67 11 “You Must Be an Artist”: Stereotypes and Realities about Female Game Artists 75 12 Laralyn McWilliams 79 13 Elizabeth LaPensée 87 14 Elizabeth Sampat 95 15 Erin Hoffman-John 103 16 Don’t Girls Hate Combat?: Variety in Game Design 111 17 Jennifer Brandes Hepler 115 18 Sheri Graner Ray 123 19 Write What You Know: How Female Writers Expand a Game’s Audience 131 20 Megan Gaiser 135 21 Kari Toyama 145 22 Good, Fast, or Cheap: What Does a Game Producer Do, Anyway? 153 23 Katie Postma 157 CONTENTS ix 24 Donna Prior 163 25 “Just a CM…”: Why Community Management Is Judged So Harshly 171 26 Sheri Rubin 175 27 The “Average Player”: How Game Testing Departments Can Bias Their Results 185 28 Leigh Alexander 189 29 Mattie Brice 197 30 Anita Sarkeesian and Laura Hudson 207 31 Conclusion 213 Index 217 Acknowledgments ȃ This project has been a delight to work on, from beginning to end. There’s nothing like being able to say, “Hey, do you want to be in my book?”, to allow you to cold-call some of the people you respect the most in your field. And after collaborating with them and sharing in their wonderful stories, I feel like they all have become friends. So, first, a huge thanks to all of my amazing contributors and also to the many other inspiring women who offered stories that we didn’t have the space to include. Special thanks to Judy Tyrer, Brianna Wu, Jane Ng, Kimberly Unger, Elizabeth LaPensée, Elizabeth Sampat, Megan Gaiser, Sheri Rubin, Mattie Brice, and my fantastic company, Kognito Interactive, for also providing your additional artwork and photos to give the book some visual flair. A thousand thanks to our cover artist, Kimberly Unger, who after I spent months tearing my hair out about how to visually represent women in games without showing a pink game controller, knocked it out of the park with her adorable pixel-lady. And special thanks to Sheri Rubin who proved that QA truly runs in her blood by reviewing the entire manuscript with a fine-toothed comb. The book is far better for having had your eye on it! I am also grateful to Sean Connelly and everyone at CRC Press for sup- porting this project from the very first letter I sent about it. You’ve been great to work with. Let’s do this again someday! And on a personal note, I could never have juggled my job, freelance work, family life, and this book without the constant support of my parents, Sue and Larry Brandes, my husband, Chris Hepler, and my wonderful kids, Beverly and Shane. xi One thing I’ve been thinking about this past week is the unique challenges women face in the virtual world…. We know that women gamers face harassment and stalking and threats of violence from other players. When they speak out about their experiences, they’re attacked on Twitter and other social media outlets, even threatened in their homes. What’s brought these issues to light is that there are a lot of women out there, especially young women, who are speaking out bravely about their experiences, even when they know they’ll be attacked for it—from femi- nist bloggers who refuse to be silenced, to women sports reporters who are opening up about the extreme safety precautions they need to take when traveling for work. Every day, women of all ages and all backgrounds and walks of life are speaking out. And by telling their stories, by you telling your stories, women are lifting others out of the shadows and raising our collec- tive consciousness about a problem that affects all of us. President Barack Obama White House Reception for Women’s History Month March 16, 2016 Contributors ȃ Leigh Alexander Donna Prior Journalist En Masse Entertainment Mattie Brice Sheri Graner Ray Independent Zombie Cat Studios Megan Gaiser Brenda Romero Contagious Creativity Romero Games Rebecca Ann Heineman Sheri Rubin Olde Sküül Design Direct Deliver Jennifer Brandes Hepler Elizabeth Sampat Kognito Interactive Electronic Arts Erin Hoffman-John Anita Sarkeesian GlassLab Games Feminist Frequency Laura Hudson Kari Toyama Wired and Offworld.com Valve Software Elizabeth LaPensée Judy Tyrer Independent 3 Turn Productions Laralyn McWilliams Kimberly Unger The Workshop Entertainment Bushi-go, Inc.