League of Ladies : Interviewing the Women Working in the Gaming Industry

The gaming industry is an infamously male-dominated workplace. Impact’s Gaming Editor, Daria Paterek, interviews six women from various corners of the industry to find out their experiences of working in such an environment.

“I am an art director for a start-up. My current role is to build the visual identity for the games we produce. Part of why I love the industry is that I do not have an ‘average day’. Everything changes so dramatically. There are so many aspects of my job that I enjoy. I remember sitting in the tube and seeing someone play a game I worked on. You want to go over and say, ‘I made that’, but of course you don’t. Later in my career, it was rewarding to bring people into the industry and see them grow.” Riana - Art Director at TreesPlease

“Unfortunately, I have experienced misogyny, though not at my current studio. At a previous job, I worked as a Project Manager and found myself contributing heavily to the design of multiple titles. I did not receive credit, and I was one of two women in the company who had done a lot but had little to show for it. I now take full ownership and pride in my ideas. I feel empowered and my voice is amplified at my current studio. It has made such a huge difference in my confidence and mental health. I am a Producer of Art and Design, and my team seems grateful that I have an in-depth understanding of their disciplines.” Jodie - Producer at Sumo Digital

“I am a 3D artist and a generalist.I do everything from modelling and texturing to making scenes. I work for a small company that does multiple simultaneous projects, and I am currently the only artist on this particular project, so I do everything! I am very new to this job, but I am glad I can make my own decisions. I also enjoy actually playing the things I create.” Niki - 3D Artist at The Gang

“A big part of why I joined WINGS is that I wanted to make a visible difference. You don’t have to be a massive advocate to make a change, but joining WINGS enables me to have a directly positive impact. We want to create standards of acceptance and excellence. I am constantly learning from the team, and it is amazing how much expertise is on the table. It feels like we are making massive movements despite being such a small team. I feel like I am changing the industry for the better.” Corina - Communications Manager at WINGS

“A game investor once pressured me to look at his penis during contract negotiations for an eSports psychologist role. I tried to contact all the big wigs in gaming about what I experienced. I created a group chat and asked them: ‘What are you going to do at the top to make this industry safer for female professionals and female consumers?’ They left the group chat shortly after.” Anonymous

“The most frustrating moments for me as a female engineer were when my peers would not respect my domain knowledge or authority as a lead. I would have to argue and prove my knowledge. It sometimes took them more than an hour to solve a problem that should have taken five minutes if the developer had just listened to me. My feedback would be easily disregarded without proper reason by my tech leads, and I would have to stand my ground and make them listen to me. All this resistance motivated me to be prepared for an argument and grow my knowledge as an engineer.” Mahum - Software Development Engineer in Test at Unity Technology.

By Daria Paterek

Illustration by Ciara Lurshay Page Design by Chiara Crompton