A successful indie game developer has called for more women to join the games industry, gradplus.com reports. Sophia George is a recent graduate and has recently launched her first game, Tick Tock Toys. As gradplus.com points out, with her success George has “bucked the trend” in “what is perceived as a male dominated industry”.
It's not just this new game that demonstrate her ability, either. George and a team of programmers from Abertay University (Dundee) have won a BAFTA One to Watch award, as well as the university's Dare to be Digital competition two years ago. Winning the game design contest netted George £25,000 to help her start up a company.
That company is Swallowtail Games, a team made up of some of those people who helped win Dare to be Digital. Tick Tock Toys is the studio's first game, designed to be accessible for families to play together. George wants the game to serve as an example to women who might want to break into the industry:
“I just hope the release of Tick Tock Toys will help show young women they can get into the games industry – and they too can create the games they love to play.”
As George points out, women are put off the idea of trying to make it in the industry because “this male-dominated idea is so pervasive – and it influences what families think about games, and what young women think as they grow up and make decisions about their careers.”
A professor at Abertary University says that there is increasing interest from female students in the game art, design, and programming degrees the university offers, but agreed that “a greater public awareness is needed that everyone can enter this industry.”
