Meeting the women who put the “difference” in the Difference Engine
Still from Kreayshawn: The Game.
There is a female influence in video games. It’s true. Without pivotal developers like Jade Raymond and Kim Swift, we would not be ripping through Assassin’s Creed and Portal games. Heck, even back in the day Roberta Williams clocked out King’s Quest (and the hilariously violent Phantasmagoria). But despite the influence, the go-to game heroine remains a generously endowed lady Indiana Jones in khaki cut-offs dating from the same era Duke Nukem was relevant. This may not change next week, or even within the next few years. But something like the Difference Engine Initiative is the kind of collaboration that will rev this industry in a different, female-friendly direction.
One of the rare-but-there women in game development is Mare Sheppard, who, with Raigan Burns, created the commercially successful time-sink platform game N+. “I definitely see a lack of women in game development,” says Sheppard. “Often I go to conferences, and I’m the only woman in the room, or one of five. I know that there are so many creative women out there who have so many interesting things to say.”
Along with Toronto gamer community hub the Hand Eye Society and new frontier TIFF Nexus, Sheppard put forward the Difference Engine Initiative, a female-focused incubator that aims to level out the bearded boys’ club in the gaming world. “We need some clean-shaven people from other cultures. I think more people having input on the design of games makes sense, because there isn’t just that one specific audience that plays games.”
The Difference Engine didn’t aim to attract any one particular type of woman. Of the 66 applications, Sheppard picked the six who displayed a variety of career backgrounds and interests, looking past tired “gamer girl” stereotypes. The only noticeable pattern is how often they accredited Google+ for their learning about the Initiative. So, to challenge two long-held beliefs: Not only are there are girls who play video games, but there are also people who use Google+.
Game creation is certainly familiar to Una Lee. She’s a producer and creative director on Food Quest, a “food security adventure” game that aims to raise awareness about chronic disease. But developing games proved taxing. “It was absolutely awful,” says Lee. “Every step of the way, I couldn’t stop thinking, ‘This is how the programmer felt. This is how the designer felt. This is how the sound guy felt.’ It’s awful.”
The result of Lee’s Difference Engine project is Unicorn Justice Fighter/Unicorn Robber Baron, a Tron/Snake-esque arcade game where you gobble coins and crap out rainbows. “Who doesn’t love unicorns?” says Lee. “Jerks, and I’m not a jerk. They’re a magical symbol of hope and awesomeness. The rainbows that shoot out of their butts are also a symbol of hope and awesomeness.”
Beth Maher had far less experience with game making. Her work as an illustrator and designer, however, did explain why her game had the best visuals of the bunch. She made Kreayshawn: The Game. (Yes. Really.) “I had this much more esoteric, intellectual idea for a game that I wanted to make,” she says, “a point and click adventure with a board-game mechanic. When it came down to it, I decided to make a Kreayshawn platformer where you destroy basic bitches with swag. That just appealed to me more.”
Maher says that she had been to a Hand Eye meeting in the past, but somehow a narrow, packed bar full of dudes with laptop bags didn’t feel like her scene. “The Difference Engine idea made me feel more comfortable. To make these games all we needed to be told was that we can make games. That’s something none of us had ever really been told before. One of us has a degree in computer engineering, but she’s a woman, and she’s never been told she could do stuff like this.”
The one who has a degree in computer engineering is Cecily Carver, whose interest in games pairs with her fascination with an age well before Pong and Pac-Man. Adeline’s Elopement is a Victorian stealth/marriage action game inspired by both 19th century novel Adeline Mowbray and Thief II: The Metal Age. “I wasn’t thinking that I wanted to make a feminist game or a political game,” says Carver. “My thinking was that I wanted to make a game that my dorky literature friends would want to play.” Carver hopes to one day make a game based on Jane Eyre.
“On the whole, a homogenous group does not tend to welcome outsiders,” Sheppard insists. “It definitely feeds itself. Video games have been aimed at guys for so long. Boys grew up playing these games, and now they’re going into game development making games for younger versions of themselves.” The Difference Engine will soon fire up a second incubator, with another group of six women. Sheppard stresses she wants to include more participants in the future. Getting women in the industry isn’t just about having games about unicorn fights and suitor-dodging. It’s about cultivating different ideas.
The games displayed—all developed, coded, and produced in less than six weeks—boasted a wide array of concepts, designs, gameplay, story, and strengths. While none proved overly impressive as a complete product, they all gave the impression that the Difference Engine can bring something needed to the industry and help carve out a space for female game developers. Otherwise, they’ll need to figure out a way to work some brutish, energy sword-wielding space marines into their work.
