MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
With October 11th, 2019, marking the UN’s International Day of the Girl, War Child UK has partnered with Children in Conflict to celebrate female protagonists in games and female representation in the gaming industry, “while raising vital funds to support the most vulnerable children affected by conflict”.
Working with a range of partners the charity will host a number of live streams from Bethesda Softworks, Turtle Rock Studios, OpheliaNoir, and Yogscast, as well as promote sales across Steam, Google Play, and Chrono.gg. There will also be a female-focused industry panel.
From 9 – 16 October, Steam will host a Day of The Girl Sale in includes Heaven’s Vault (Inkle), Thief of Thieves: Season One (Rival Games), Ys Origin (XSEED Games), Gone Home (Fullbright), Transistor, (Supergiant Games) and more. A percentage of sales made during this period will go to children affected by conflict.
There are also sales at Google Play where “female-fronted titles from acclaimed creators” will be on sale, again with a percentage of proceeds going directly to War Child UK, and Chrono.gg will have a custom Day of the Girl digital game store, raising funds over the week by offering a number of indie titles at a discount including Iconoclasts (Bifrost Entertainment), Timespinner (Chucklefish) and Tangledeep (Impact Gameworks).
On Monday, October 14th the panel ‘Day of the Girl: Getting Girls into Games’ will take place at Salesforce Tower in London. An all-female panel of industry experts will discuss the opportunities and challenges young girls face entering the gaming industry and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields in the UK and in conflict regions.
Panellists include Anisa Sanusi (Hutch Games), Charlie Harris (SEGA Europe), Jodie Azhar (Teazlecat Games), and Enana (War Child UK YAP Member), and will be hosted by Eurogamer’s Aoife Wilson.
War Child is “striving for a world where children’s lives are no longer torn apart by war”.
“We protect, educate and stand up for the rights of children caught up in conflict,” the charity said. “We aim to reach children as early as possible when conflict breaks out, and stay to support them through their recovery – helping to keep them safe, give them an education, and equip them with skills for the future.
“War Child UK supports children whose lives have been torn apart by war. The specialist gaming team has innovative fundraising partnerships across the PC, console and mobile industries, as well as through streaming and support from the gaming community and to date has brought in a massive $4.3million through gaming”.
