Level Her Up is calling on women from all walks of life to join its first Game Jam event during the weekend of September 16 to 17, as part of WA Games Week.
The free collaborative event, made possible by grants from Screen Australia and Inspiring WA, will give women the chance to work together in teams to create a small game from the ground up.
The local community of women game developers also provides beginner-friendly workshops and social events alongside a Discord community to inspire more women to enter the exhilarating realm of game development.
Level Her Up founder Camille Woodthorpe was inspired to create a community-centred around women to help bridge the gap caused by the underrepresentation of female game developers.
Women now constitute a huge proportion of gamers in Australia, with a recent IGEA study reporting four out of five Aussies play games, and of those, fourty eight per cent are female.
Level Her Up founder Camille Woodthorpe.
“Nevertheless, the surge in female gamers hasn’t yet translated to the field of game development at a similar pace.” Camille said.
Despite this, Camille highlights what women have to offer in the game development space.
“Women contribute a vast range of interests, personalities, and life experiences to any creative domain, including game development,
The inclusion of more women in game development will lead to a much broader spectrum of gameplay, mechanics, narratives, designs, and collaborative methodologies, which will significantly enrich the industry and the games that we create.” Camille said.
Following the success of the debut workshops, more plans are on the horizon.
“We’re aiming to support a greater number of participants in our future events so that we can maximise our impact, and to enable this we’re trying to gather sponsorship funds,
“We are also looking into other forms of events, such as boot camps to provide more in-depth knowledge for our participants who have found their calling in our intro series, and social events and initiatives so that we can continue to foster the fun and supportive community that is crucial to our mission,” Camille said.
Head to Level Her Up to find out more information or check out sponsorship opportunities.
Registration for the Game Jam weekend will be open in early September.
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