Hello, gentle readers,

I just wanted to share something exciting with you. I have been working for a few months on a friend’s indie game venture. It was my first time working on a video game, and I was feeling a little down at some parts of the process. Namely: I worried that as a female gamer I would become too frustrated by the lack of female main characters to work in the interactive entertainment industry.

Dang, even y’all don’t wanna let the girls in?

My thoughts were based on the fact that this group of friends, just everyday men I knew, were so against having a female main character. They argued that having a female lead would “alienate players,” because most players in this genre were male, according to their research.

However, they mentioned that they still wanted strong female characters in the game, so I decided to stick around.

But maybe they do…

My first hint that maybe this wouldn’t be so bad came about when we created character ideas. Everyone loved my two strong female character ideas.

My big hint came today when we wrapped up voting on the main plot arc for the game. My plot won the vote by a landslide. The runner-up was another plot put forth by a girl gamer, and we actually ended up combining the two plots, since they were not mutually exclusive.

I CAN do this…and so can you!

I guess what really made me feel great was the validation that there is a place for MY women in games, that I may have to compromise but I still have viable ideas, and people LIKE those ideas for games and characters.

Anyhoo my dears, just thought I’d share the good news with you. I hope this little snippet can cheer up or provide inspiration for any other girl gamers feeling a little down about the state of affairs in the gaming industry.

Just don’t give up!

Hugs and kisses,

TheRebel

Shenzi by Kevin Michael Roberts