Women in Game Development

Video games have been around for as long as we remember and so have gasps at women mentioning their interests in them. But with the intense scrutiny of an underrepresentation of women in video games in recent times, a lot has changed and an unsurprisingly vast number of women partake in their own share of gaming. But what may come as a surprise is, there’s even more that have a hand in making them. Here’s a few worth mentioning.

Kim Swift

With massive successes under her belt, Kim Swift made a name for herself as a designer and environment artist at Valve Corporation in designing favourites like Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. Currently working as a Design Director at Electronic Arts, Swift has designed and led the design team for Star Wars: Battlefront II and is currently working on an unannounced project. With all that she’s done, one can only hope whatever’s coming is just as good.

Jade Raymond

Considered as one of the most influential women in gaming by Fortune, Jade Raymond started off as a programmer for Sony but soon joined Electronic Arts and produced The Sims Online. Her career, however, peaked in 2004, when she joined Ubisoft and served as producer of the first Assassin’s Creed and Executive Producer of Assassin’s Creed II and Watch Dogs. Three games that are loved by millions even today and from Altair to Ezio, she’s had quite an impact.

Bonnie Ross

With Halo Infinite scheduled to release in 2020, an ode to Bonnie Ross seems fitting. As the Head of 343 Industries, she has a direct hand in the making of the next Halo. Named after 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was founded by Ross and have worked on all Halo games since Bungie’s departure. But that’s not all she’s done, she’s worked on numerous successful games like Mass Effect, Gears of War and Counter-Strike.

Kazuko Shibuya

Since middle school, Kazuko Shibuya nurtured a growing interest in animation, but it was not quite what she expected to be doing. At the brink of giving up in her animation work, Shibuya was recruited by Square Enix and has since continued to work in design graphics with her massive successes in the initial games of the Final Fantasy Series.

Rhianna Pratchett

Amongst all the designers and programmers, writers too have a lot to do with game development. Where would storylines be if they weren’t skillfully written? From writing in newspapers to shifting her focus on video games, Rhianna Pratchett has since won and been nominated for multiple awards for her work. From Mirror’s Edge, BioShock Infinite, and the 2008 Prince of Persia, she’s done it all. Pratchett’s most acclaimed work however, lies in her massive contributions to Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider projects where she served as the lead writer.

Faiza spends most of her time staring at computer screens and playing a string of video games, give her new games to play at faiza2421@gmail.com