{"id":43519,"date":"2023-10-20T15:29:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/she-makes-games-encouraging-women-to-make-video-games-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:29:10","slug":"she-makes-games-encouraging-women-to-make-video-games-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/she-makes-games-encouraging-women-to-make-video-games-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"She Makes Games: encouraging women to make video games – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About half of Australian video gamers are female, but men account for 88% of game developers. The Girl Geek Academy has organised an event in Melbourne later this month that hopes to help change that.<\/p>\n

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The event, She Makes Games, is aimed at women who have a great idea for a video game but who lack previous experience the tools needed to bring their vision to life.<\/p>\n

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She Makes Games, which has already sold out, will take place in Melbourne on January 31 and will teach women to basics of game development using an engine called Stencyl.<\/p>\n

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It is the latest of a series of all-female events organised by Girl Geek Academy, and follows a maker faire<\/a> last year, as well as a hackathon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A similar event, titled Girls Make Games and aimed at girls aged from seven to 16, will run from January 12 to 23 at RMIT University in Melbourne. The two-week camp costs $500 per week (with financial aid available) and provides an introduction to game design, art and programming with classes taught by professional developers.<\/p>\n

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The video game industry is booming, it’s grown from $US19 billion in 2010 to $US66 billion in 2013 and is anticipated to grow further to $US90 billion by 2017.<\/p>\n

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Girl Geek Academy co-founder and She Makes Games organiser Lisy Kane told StartupSmart<\/i> the aim is to boost awareness of game development as a possible career option or hobby.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBasically, the Girl Geek Academy cofounders all have a passion project, and this is my area of expertise and passion,\u201d Kane says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGame development is something I only though about seriously as a career path the past five years; it\u2019s not something I knew I would do straight out of high school.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo the idea is to open their eyes and mind to the idea they can make games, not necessarily as a career, but also possibly as a hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As with all Girl Geek Academy workshops, the event is designed to introduce women to a tech-related field \u2013 in this case game development \u2013 in an easy manner that avoids the intimidation that\u2019s possible at male-dominated events.<\/p>\n

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Kane says Stencyl as a game engine allows people to start creating their own games without necessarily learning how to code.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe reason we use Stencyl is because it adapts to the level of knowledge you have, and for beginners it can be used with a drag-and-drop GUI. You just need to understand basic \u2018if\u2026then\u2019 logic, and there are a lot of pre-fabricated assets,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is powerful enough to use commercially \u2013 a team from Adelaide recently crowdfunded a game called Hollow Knight that uses it as a game engine. But there\u2019s no need for programming experience at all.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd I\u2019d stress this event is not aimed at people who are already programmers. This is for people who want to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Follow<\/i> StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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