Some Nobody
Junior Member
*sighs* The fact that Jade's head over one of the biggest franchises in gaming's cool, and Jade is very pretty, but...dude. No. You can do better than this. Please.
We need women in the industry at all levels, though.
Positive female roles in the video game industry
- Thread starter Dugna
- Start date
*sighs* The fact that Jade's head over one of the biggest franchises in gaming's cool, and Jade is very pretty, but...dude. No. You can do better than this. Please.
We need women in the industry at all levels, though.
Top right of the pic in the OP. I'm guessing it's real?
I know about this, saw it on the One Night Live performance. I was just surprised to only just find out she played Marlene seeing as though HL2 and TLOU are two of my favorite games.
I think the list should just be for actual game developers, not critics, even as influential as they might be.
I still really like Geometry Wars creator Stephen Cakebread.
Yes, that's true.
I wish she would go back to getting into the nitty-gritty of building a game though.
For sure. I highly doubt all she does is put money into a project and call it a day. Some creative oversight is likely a huge part of her role, I'm sure.
I think the thing is that since most of us don't work on games at a major company -- and seemingly a lot of game companies structure their hierarchy really differently anyway -- we don't really have any idea. It just seems like people constantly assume Raymond does nothing of value, even though we don't really know what being a producer at Ubisoft entails.
In film a "producer" does not necessarily contribute a great deal (though again, this varies), but the producer in many television shows is much closer to what many people think of as the "director." At Ubisoft? I really have no idea. I've often wondered.
1. Animal Crossing started the revival. Check the data.1. 3DS was saved way before Animal Crossing, but I know that's not the point.
2. Was it script as in code scripting or dialog/plot scripting?
2. She worked on the story with someone else. She talks a bit about it in the Twilight Princess Iwata Asks.
In our studio we have females working in all sorts of roles including producer/product manager, art, concept art, graphic design, UI design, programmer, tools programmer, usability tester, office manager, marketing manager, community management, and customer relations.
Having a female on the team is certainly not a novelty, though we still skew about 75% male for our 80 or so employees.
Slightly out of date photo. We've hired a few more females since it was taken.
Having a female on the team is certainly not a novelty, though we still skew about 75% male for our 80 or so employees.
Slightly out of date photo. We've hired a few more females since it was taken.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
.....Really?
Merle Dandridge, great voice actor.
Most known for Alyx in HL2.
Man, if we count voice actors then peeps like Laura Bailey or Claudia Black or Jennifer Hale should enter the list as well.
Origami Superman
Member
Roberta Williams pretty much defined my childhood games. Mad props to her.
CaptainSlow
Member
My first thought as well. She's not a developer in the sense but she's the head of a whole, pretty big studio!
Mysterious
Banned
Wait I thought Anita became known well after The Last of Us was revealed? So how would she have highly influenced development?
Shaunboy97
Member
*sighs* The fact that Jade's head over one of the biggest franchises in gaming's cool, and Jade is very pretty, but...dude. No. You can do better than this. Please.
We need women in the industry at all levels, though.
My apologies!! I was joking... but in bad taste
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Dunno about you, but a label like "Producer" or "Executive Producer" is not a label everyone in a project throws nilly willy. Whatever her roles was, she must be someone significant in Ubisoft to be able to get that title, moreso for a now-juggernaut franchise such as Assassin Creed.
Mysterious
Banned
1. I thought Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 did.
2. So design, development, story and director roles can all be done by the same person (on different projects, of course)? Interesting, as I thought it was very hard to move up the latter in NCL.
EDIT: Looking at this, I still don't see it.
2 pages without Carrie Gouskos and Abbie Heppie. Sad panda, cause these people are awesome.
How about Michiko Naruke, AKA Wild Arms' series composer?
Her work is on a whole other level, helluva musician, deserves to be more well known.
To name something outside of Wild Arms, which speaks by itself, it takes true genius to take a classic David Wise track, reinvent it entirely, AND end up with a new kind of awesome that's just as good.
Her work is on a whole other level, helluva musician, deserves to be more well known.
To name something outside of Wild Arms, which speaks by itself, it takes true genius to take a classic David Wise track, reinvent it entirely, AND end up with a new kind of awesome that's just as good.
you're totally right, especially with Carrie.
ActuallyHulk
Banned
Nobuo Uematsu was GOAT until I heard Yoko Shimomura.
I mean damn it just listen to this. It's beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZVAvHah9io
I mean damn it just listen to this. It's beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZVAvHah9io
blurt first, grovel later
Jade was one of the key people that helped build and grow the Ubisoft studio in Toronto, so she is definitely very senior and well respected in the organisation.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I notice Zoe Quinn isn't on that list. Is there any particular reason, or am I missing something?
Totally, KQ6 is my jam. Ahead of it's time, in my opinion.
This image has been floating around 4chan for a while. I think it initially started during the Anita kickstarter first started appearing.
someguyinahat
Member
For any of you people in the know about modern interactive fiction (sort of an umbrella term that encompasses both text adventures and text-only artful experiences like Aisle) the one name that shines brighter than the rest is Emily Short.
She's written and collaborated on more than 30 pieces of interactive fiction since 2000.
Check it out.
She's written and collaborated on more than 30 pieces of interactive fiction since 2000.
Check it out.
I thought MK7 came out after New Leaf. Oh well, then I'm wrong. I just remember New Leaf dominating everything when it came out.
I'd still count her in, at the very least she pushed out Assassin's Creed 1 being the game's producer.
Plus I love AC1.
Of course the vast majority of people can name Steve Gaynor and then probably Chris Remo.
There are literally thousands of talented female developers. Unfortunately being considered notable typically requires a lot of self-promotion and a certain type of self-aggrandizing personality that women are less likely to have.
Sadly these days if a female developer does want to become notable the easiest way is to become a twitter warrior / activist and move the focus away from the professional work. I know of a female dev recently who was frustrated that she wasn't getting any press coverage for her games, then she started being active on Twitter and writing blogs/editorials about sexism and now I see her name fairly regularly - but it's never mentioned for the quality of her work and her games are only mentioned in passing.
Did she get what she wanted? I'm not sure.
-Zoe Quinn, creator of the very cool Depression quest.
- Ayami " G.O.A.T" Kojima:
Influence is influence and if her writing is contributing for improving games like Last of US of making developers second guess their writing then she is important. That goes for producers and executives like Jade Raymond.
- Ayami " G.O.A.T" Kojima:
Influence is influence and if her writing is contributing for improving games like Last of US of making developers second guess their writing then she is important. That goes for producers and executives like Jade Raymond.
Eeeeeeeeeeee
That'll never stop being downright glorious. I didn't grew up with the series, I haven't even played it, but I stumbled across its soundtrack one day and has stuck with me ever since. Let's add:
Town Theme
To A New Journey
Port Town Theme
This is awesome -- I had heard a Wild Arms song or two that I liked, but I didn't know she was the one who arranged Bramble Blast in Brawl.How about Michiko Naruke, AKA Wild Arms' series composer?
Her work is on a whole other level, helluva musician, deserves to be more well known.
To name something outside of Wild Arms, which speaks by itself, it takes true genius to take a classic David Wise track, reinvent it entirely, AND end up with a new kind of awesome that's just as good.
Yes the picture relates to that stuff since it's 4chan and yes I've been against Zoe Quinn for reasons. But I'm trying to step back cool down and find something happy to think about and I thought this would be a good topic since everything has been negative for women lately in this industry.
Mysterious
Banned
Who was the female developer in the Iwata Asks for Skyward Sword? I recall Iwata mentioning that with more female developers, they were creating new ideas or something.
The Librarian
Banned
There are a couple of women on that list I admire that aren't on there.
Michiru Yamane is a goddess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nR1cr_PKpY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhGOCutrvM
we need more of her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nR1cr_PKpY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhGOCutrvM
we need more of her.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Yup, so it's weird that there are some that would exclude her just because she's more behind the scene stuff.
Anyways, as many has noted, Yoko Shimamura. A goddess of fantastic music and OSTs.
I enjoy some of Christine Love's work on visual novels. She can be really hit or miss, but Digital: A Love Story is fantastic.
Druckmann presented an award to her at GDC this year and said that she influenced his writing in the game TLOU. Based on some of the things he has said about the original arc for Tess, I'm very glad she did.
Druckmann presented an award to her at GDC this year and said that she influenced his writing in the game TLOU. Based on some of the things he has said about the original arc for Tess, I'm very glad she did.
Producers manage the timetables of the entire production staff to make sure that the game actually gets made and made on or as close to budget as possible. Without a good producer or set of producers you usually have no product or an underwhelming one.
I highlighted the whole nitty-gritty phrase in darthbob's post because a good producer is just as vital to the completion of a game project as any artist, programmer or designer and maybe more so. Literally every aspect of the games development falls under the purview of a producer-from qa testing to localization to budgeting to milestones, etc., etc. I have left 2 jobs due to the producer chronically misallocating resources and costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and wasting dev/artist time in the process.
It is not a "fluff" or non "gritty" position at all.
grandwizard
Member
Don't know about design ability but her heading the creation and cultivation of an entire new studio in Ubisoft Toronto who's first game ended up as good as Splinter Cell Blacklist is a damn good job.
Producers in game development are responsible for the overall vision of the game. "But isn't that the lead game designer's job?" No, it's not--or at least, with a lot of rockstar personalities, lead designer and executive producer roles go hand-in-hand. Depending on whether there's a production/development management split, they may also be responsible for team health as well. Producers are the yes or the no, the gatekeepers of development. They are the ones who end up saying "no, we can't afford female player models in ACU given our budget", but they're also the ones who say "give me a small team and I'll deliver multiplayer in ME3." They're one of the most important leadership roles in development.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Kotori Yoshimura
Formerly Katsunori Yoshimura prior to a sex change in the mid-oughties. Kotori's in a homosexual relationship with another female programmer. She's currently doing a wide range of programming work for PC and mobile. But her legacy is prodigious and commendable:
•Largely led Tecno Soft when it was still referred to as the Sasebo Microcomputing Center, hammering out multiple small games for Japanese computers back when the market was emerging
•Programmed and designed the original Thunder Force, as well as early space games like Star Fleet and Plazma Line; she even did unlicensed 2001: A Space Odyssey games!
•Formed Arsys Software with several co-workers, leaving Tecno Soft to push the limits of Japanese PC gaming—everyone should witness Star Cruiser (big gif), which, alone in Japan, achieved flat-shaded polygonal environments at a decent framerate with FPS combat and classic dungeon-crawling; other games like WiBARM, Reviver, and Knight Arms shared that high standard of quality
•Helped port Prince of Persia and Spindizzy Worlds to J-PCs, setting a high standard for future ports of the games
•Co-designed Omega Boost at Polyphony Digital
After operating Arsys' successor firm Cyberhead, hoping to finish Galactic Knights, Kotori started freelancing and soon became one of the few transgendered professionals in her industry.
My understanding of this topic and the intent of the original image is to celebrate women for their high-quality work rather than for advocacy or controversy.
It's not hard for women in the video game industry to be recognized for fighting sexism, for Twitter wars, for blog posts, for organizing things like #1reasonwhy or speaking in the GDC Advocacy track. What is hard is for women to be recognized for their craft when they simply excel at their craft and aren't mixed up in that stuff.
That's not a value judgement on that "stuff." It's just to say let's demonstrate that high quality work is by itself enough to be recognized, just as it is for men.
Edit: To clarify, I'm not opposed to Zoe Quinn or Anita Sarkeesian as individuals. But they are already recognized for their work, and for reasons largely not related to making video games. (Anita doesn't make video games at all)
There are women out there who feel like they do great work but because they aren't a man or an activist they don't get recognition.
someguyinahat
Member
Fantastic game, KQ6. And yet, I don't think it was ahead of its time. It was right about where it should have been. Had it been released a few years later, it might have been lost in the shuffle with the more cartoony sprite adventures and - God help us - FMV and early 3D. Still, I'd argue it was one of the best adventure games of all time.
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