MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Female game developers Siobhan Reddy, Robin Hunicke and Tamara Miner were celebrated for their phenomenal work in games at the Women in Gaming Awards recently.
Taking place during GDC in San Francisco, the ceremony’s three categories included the Innovator Award, the Ambassador Award and the Rising Star Award.
Reddy (pictured), studio director at British developer and LittleBigPlanet creator, Media Molecule, was presented with the Innovator Award. Hunicke, a co-founder of the independent studio Funomena and previously at Thatgamecompany and EA Maxis, claimed the Ambassador Award. While Tamara Miner, a technical project manager at US studio Riot Games, was named this year’s Rising Star.
Now in their sixth year, the Women in Gaming Awards started as a set of informal dinners held by a group of female developers from Microsoft’s Xbox division.
More than 250 members of the games industry and press attended this year, as the event continues to be a global forum for discussion of the issues facing women in the gaming and technology business.
Last year, Brenda Romero was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony. That was just hours after hosting her 1ReasonToBe talk at GDC, in which she and other female developers shared their stories of rampant industry sexism and how to change the industry for the better.
“Even as a minority in the makeup of the gaming industry, women have played a huge role in gaming since its inception,” said Karen Randhawa, the leader of the Women in Gaming group, as reported by the New York Times.
“It’s important to continue to recognise that success and contribution and empower more women to want to be a part of this industry.”
Among the 14 nominees was t he pop culture critic and activist Anita Sarkeesian, founder of web series Feminist Frequency, who became a target for online harassment campaign after she starting a video series called ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games’. Sarkeesian was given a special award at the Game Developers Conference Awards for her work highlighting the portrayal of women in games.
