The gaming industry is often considered a male-dominated arena, but not only do statistics show otherwise; many women also currently play key roles in creating and shaping the industry as it is today.

In honour of International Women’s Day today, we spoke to five of these brilliant individuals, and listened to what they had to say.

1) Gwen Guo – Co-Founder, IMBA Interactive

Singaporean Gwen Gwo is no stranger to gaming. Sharing a computer with her siblings as a child, she recalls using Norton Commander on DOS to run her games! However, working in the gaming industry was not what she initially had in mind.

Growing up, Gwen had fallen in love with electronic music, which led to DJing and music production. Armed with a new media diploma, she then aimed to get into the animation industry.

“I wasn’t aware of the games industry,” Gwen tells us. “In 2007, our government and MIT had an open-call for their new joint initiative – the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, a 2-month games incubator program where students from Singapore were sent over to Boston, collaborating to develop games based on research goals. While I applied to be an artist/animator, I was chosen to do sound design and music for the games instead. Within those 2 months, the program pushed me to explore game audio as a profession while working in a healthy, safe environment with other game developers.”

This was where Gwen would meet her fellow co-founders, and eventually go on to create IMBA Interactive, a studio which specialises in anything related to sound for games – including sound effects, music, voice-overs and audio integration. Together, they’ve worked on award-winning games including Dusty Revenge and Masquerada, and spoken on panels for sound design, music and more.

IMBA Interactive’s main mixing room. Source: imbainteractive.com

“As with any community/industry with a gender imbalance, being a woman in a male-dominated workforce can be quite a lonely journey especially for someone in a leadership position,” Gwen says, when asked if she felt any different as a woman in the gaming industry. “I notice less women are being retained in the workforce, which leads to less potential women in leadership positions and role models for the future generation of girls hoping to enter the industry.”

“If you’re a woman, reach out to other women in the industry regardless of your role and position! Create our own safe spaces and understand that we’re not alone.”

“If you’re an ally regardless of your gender, we can all help by being sensitive and self-aware with our own biases and communication. Prioritise mutual respect for both professional and social settings. Men can help by calling out other men for unacceptable behaviour. Maintaining a healthy environment for game developers to flourish requires everyone’s help.” she says.

2) Lydia Ho – Creative Director, Kurechii

Lydia’s brightly coloured hair and stylish fashion sense easily sets her apart from the crowd, but her achievements in Kurechii, too, are a force to be reckoned with.

Established in 2009, Kurechii is a Malaysian game studio with a number of impressive awards under their belt. In Dec 2017, their immensely popular mobile game Postknight was the only Malaysian-developed game to be listed on Google Play’s list of Best Games of 2017. Their other popular titles – Tiny Guardians and The King’s League – were similarly highly-acclaimed, having won other awards including TouchArcade’s Best Action Game of 2013.

Screenshots from Postknight.

Lydia works on content and writing: from game design to world designs, character stories to proposals and presentations. She also manages the social media channels for Kurechii, and by extension, the communities for their games.

“As a gamer, I’ve always enjoyed games,” she says. “It never occurred to me that I could have a career creating them, but as a multimedia student, interactive media was one of my favourites – and what other media is more interactive than games?”

“We had a short game design course back in college, and it was very enjoyable, so when Yiwei and Zyen approached me to pitch for a game grant, I thought “why not?”. One thing led to another, and now I’m very happy to be able to develop games on a full-time basis.”

Although Lydia admits that she hasn’t personally felt a huge difference as a female in the gaming industry, like Gwen, she similarly alludes to the power of kinship.

In her words: “Kurechii started off with two girls in our small team, so I never felt the lack of female presence. Even now when there are more male members, there are no issues that I feel are notable due to gender. I believe that Kurechii’s working culture is fair to everyone regardless of gender, so there hasn’t been any unreasonable issues revolving around this.”

It is precisely this culture that she thinks would greatly help other females looking to play a larger role in the game industry. “Even if the industry is very male-dominated, it doesn’t mean that a female’s voice and efforts will be drowned out.”

3) Tiffani Lim – Esports Community Figure, Head of Marketing & PR at Battle Arena

Multi-talented Tiffani “Babyoling” Lim is a familiar face in the local gaming circuit, with over 50,000 Facebook fans and a long history in gaming, particularly in Dota2.

“I joined the esports scene back in 2013, and from then on I’ve ventured into every nook and cranny of the industry, including team management, events management, journalism, digital marketing, translating, even being an on-screen talent myself,” Tiffani says. “All these hands-on experiences have allowed me to learn the ropes of and appreciate the inner workings of the esports scene.”

“I’ve been a gamer all my life, playing all sorts of FPS, RTS, RPG games throughout my childhood and school life, so when the chance came for me to hop into the gaming industry, I jumped at the opportunity!” Tiffani even decided to join an all-female competitive Dota2 team in order to prove a point that “females can game just as well as or even better than male gamers”, winning a tournament along the way.

Grills Gaming, an all-female competitive Dota2 team.

“For me, respect and recognition do not come easy in such a male-dominated industry, especially when you want to be taken seriously – people tend to have these fixed or pre-conceived notions that females in gaming have to go down certain paths such as streaming and influencer jobs. It’s usually assumed that they do not possess the capability to handle anything beyond that, or that they’re simply not as “hardcore” as the male gamers. It’s by no means the fault of our industry peers, but fact remains that most of the management level jobs in gaming and esports are still occupied by males.”

As such, she believes more inspiring female role models and community leaders are needed, to prove that it’s a level playing field for everybody.

4) Fern Yeap – Partnerships Manager, Garena Malaysia

Another accidental entry into the gaming space, the bright and bubbly Fern does not regret her decision one bit. “There is a lot of heart in this industry, and the passion is contagious!” she says, smiling.

Having been part of a startup community in her university, she was then recommended by her peers to work in Garena Singapore, but initially applied for Human Resources.

“I wasn’t sure either how else I could fit into what many regarded as a “male dominated industry,” she says. “The office itself back then was about 80% male. However the HR manager felt I had the right personality to manage their local community in their Game Operations team and I was assigned to EA Sports FIFA Online 3. That’s how I started!”

She has been in many positions since, from community to marketing, event management, sponsorships, human resources, public relations and now partnerships. Her current department bridges all external partners (such as corporate sponsors, media, government, sometimes even community groups or influencers) with the various PC and mobile game titles published by Garena Malaysia.

“Honestly, I have felt underestimated at times because of my gender when I meet corporate clients and even community members, possibly because they are used to meeting more men who are in the same position or role. They express genuine surprise when I tell them I game at an average of 10 hours weekly!” she laughs.

However, Fern is hopeful for the many talented and capable women who have performed well in various positions in the industry without any preferential treatment. In this respect, echoing the others’ thoughts, she says, “I believe that we just need to give a space for their voices to be heard, to educate the community and challenge stereotypes that this industry is male dominated.”

“I’m excited to see more media partners feature females who are part of the gaming ecosystem, doing various roles. It’s also nice to see communities such as Malaysian Female Gamers grow — the page is full of encouragement, feedback and advice from matters ranging from streaming, latest events, game patch updates and even gaming equipment.”

5) Mariah Ahmad – Esports News Journalist & Producer, Astro Awani

Mariah is a rare gem – one of the few journalists and producers in Malaysia who produce social video content related to esports news. She shoots, edits, and produces for her own show called #ArenaMaya on Astro Awani, and also writes articles regarding happenings in the local esports scene – including tournaments, players and personalities.

A content creator at heart, Mariah proudly pronounces, “I love games! After a few years in journalism, I believe I need to do something for the esports community in Malaysia. Thus, here I am, beginning my first step in the esports scene.”

Mariah’s announcement for Arena Maya.

As a woman behind the scenes in the gaming industry, however, Mariah notes that most people do not take females seriously because of a tendency to underestimate them. She says: “People will ask you to do your job properly although you already know what you’re doing. But I’m glad that I’m surrounded by people that are so positive and open minded that makes you feel that you can do it.”

As for how we can empower more females to be part of the same space? Mariah suggests two words – “experience and knowledge.”

She explains: “By experience, you need to do a lot of things that related to your field or interest, and maybe doing the same thing again and again. As for knowledge, you need to gain more of it since people will underestimate you. Thus, it’s better to learn and study, more than usual.”

She encourages females who are interested in gaming to understand the heroes (in the game context), gameplay and the status quo. “Through experience and knowledge, you’ll gain confidence. And in my opinion, there are so few of us (women) in this industry, that we need to support each other! Don’t ever, ever, feel afraid if you want to do something. Just. Do. It.”

Words to remember.

Here’s to wishing all our trailblazing females the very best in their careers in gaming, and for more to emerge in the near future!

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Written by Michelle Tan, co-founder of Fundeavour.com, a platform that nurtures and connects up-and-coming gaming talents with brands and the community. She enjoys hot tea, a good book, and entertaining her viewers through her Twitch streams.

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