1st Edition

Women in Game Development Breaking the Glass Level-Cap

Edited By Jennifer Brandes Hepler Copyright 2016
    238 Pages 37 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Videogame development is usually seen as a male dominated field; 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 producers, 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 developers from a variety of backgrounds, letting them share the passion that drives them to keep making games.

     

    Key Features

      • 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 first-hand perspectives from working professionals in fields 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.

     

    Chapter 1 Introduction

    Chapter 2 Brenda Romero

    Chapter 3 Rebecca Ann Heineman

    Chapter 4 From the Beginning

    Chapter 5 Judy Tyrer

    Chapter 6 Brianna Wu

    Chapter 7 Karisma Williams

    Chapter 8 It Starts in the Classroom: Women and Computer Science

    Chapter 9 Jane Ng

    Chapter 10 Kimberly Unger

    Chapter 11 "You Must Be an Artist": Stereotypes and Realities about Female Game Artists

    Chapter 12 Laralyn McWilliams

    Chapter 13 Elizabeth LaPensée

    Chapter 14 Elizabeth Sampat

    Chapter 15 Erin Hoffman-John

    Chapter 16 Don’t Girls Hate Combat?: Variety in Game Design

    Chapter 17 Jennifer Brandes Hepler

    Chapter 18 Sheri Graner Ray

    Chapter 19 Write What You Know: How Female Writers Expand a Game’s Audience

    Chapter 20 Megan Gaiser

    Chapter 21 Kari Toyama

    Chapter 22 Good, Fast, or Cheap: What Does a Game Producer Do, Anyway?

    Chapter 23 Katie Postma

    Chapter 24 Donna Prior

    Chapter 25 "Just a CM…": Why Community Management Is Judged So Harshly

    Chapter 26 Sheri Rubin

    Chapter 27 The "Average Player": How Game Testing Departments Can Bias Their Results

    Chapter 28 Leigh Alexander

    Chapter 29 Mattie Brice

    Chapter 30 Anita Sarkeesian and Laura Hudson

    Chapter 31 Conclusion

     

    Biography

    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 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.