Findings from the Developer Satisfaction Survey (DSS) conducted by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) suggest that while most game developers regard diversity as important, a striking percentage feel their company had no diversity-related policies or weren’t aware of any such policies in place. The survey is based upon 963 valid responses.
According to the data, 81% of respondents believed that diversity was “very important” or “somewhat important” in the workplace, a increase from 2016 figures. While the number of respondents who believe diversity in the games industry has risen since 2015, it still sits at a comparatively small 42%. Out of the remaining numbers, 22% reported being unsure, and 3% considered the inudstry a less diverse place.
As for company policies, 57% of participants said there was a ‘general non-discrimination policy’ but the majority were not sure (34%) whether they were actually being enforced, or believed that they were not being enforced (56%). Furthermore, 56% felt no perceived inequality towards themselves, and 44% indicated no discernible inequality towards others.
On the future of game design and content, over half of participants (58%) expressed a desire for more diversity in game content, and the biggest group of participants supported the idea of making advancements to game design. Though companies are certainly making a stand for including more diverse content in games, it is telling that almost 60% of developers still see a need for improvement.
The data also shows that the most popular genre being developed regardless of employment type is action. For self-employed developers, casual games (40%) were the most popular choice, while 36% of self-employed developers veered towards strategy, and 35% towards the RPG genre.
What are your thoughts on diversity in the gaming scene? Let us know in the comments.
The DSS is publicly available. Those interested can give it a read here.
