"We're really passionate about getting young girls into games": What Girls' Game Lab hopes to achieve
pcgamesinsider.bizThe recently announced Girls’ Game Lab is designed to break down stereotypes and encourage a new generation of girls to follow their passion for games.
Three women are behind this new initiative are MCV’s Women in Games 2019 mentor award winner Caoimhe Roddy, PlayStation producer Rachael Gregg-Smythe and Lucy Smith, who is set to start work for Sumo digital later this year.
Girls' Game Lab will be hosting workshops across the UK, with industry professionals aiding them. The first workshop is set to take place in Leamington Spa at the office of Forza Horizon studio Playground Games on August 3rd.
The first event is aimed at girls aged eight-to-12 and will focus on the Stencyl development tool.
Speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz, Caoime Roddy discusses the new initiative and what it hopes to achieve.
PCGamesInsider.biz: What made you decide to create your own organisation?
Caoimhe Roddy: We're really passionate about getting young girls into games. We found that pretty much every woman working in games has heard the old "games are for boys" tale. We're hoping to break down stereotypes and not only show that games are for girls too, but that when girls are involved, games become more interesting.
We've been running workshops like this for a while now, and we were all involved in running the very first one in August 2018. When we saw the interest in these workshops, and I mean the waitlists would always suggest we could double the number of girls coming in, it was just clear there's a demand for this sort of thing.
We're keen to keep up with this demand and starting our own organisation to give us a platform to let these girls explore their interest seemed the best way to go.
Why do you think many young girls do not consider a career in the games industry?
I think the first barrier is realising games are made by real people. People that also started tinkering with computers or loved creating from a pretty young age. Once you get over that barrier, I suppose you start to
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