This International Women’s Day, we tip our hats in respect to all of the women who are fighting for their place in the gaming industry and the ones clawing their way to the top. Gaming is still heavily thought of as a male-dominated industry as a whole, but there are some truly badass women who are paving the way and balancing the field. In 2006 only three percent of gamers were women but as of 2021, forty-five percent of gamers in the United States are women. I think this shift is reflected in the types of storytelling we see in modern gaming now as the styles of games we see dominating the market now. Let’s take a look at the women who are changing the face of gaming behind the scenes and on the front lines.
Aya Kyogoku- Game Developer
There are probably many names that come to mind when you think of Nintendo and Aya Kyogoku should be among them. She’s the first woman to ever be allowed to direct a game in Nintendo’s history, leading the development of Animal Crossing: New Leaf and later Animal Crossing: New Horizons. New Horizons is the second best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch, selling over 37 million units and helping blow past the Wii as the best-selling console of all time. In short, she’s a cozy game legend.
Erin Robinson Swink- Game Developer
Erin Robinson Swink is a name you might have seen in the news recently, as she is the Senior Quest Designer for Horizon Forbidden West, which is the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. Along with her work at Guerrilla Games, she is also the founder of her own indie game studio, Ivy Games. Beyond her impressive game design, she spends her time guiding the next generation of great game designers into the industry. Artist. Teacher. Badass.
Keep up with her on Twitter here!
Latoya Peterson- Technology Director
Making the Forbes 30 Under 30 list is no small feat, but Latoya Peterson has never been a woman to shy away from a challenge. An accomplished writer, her writing has been featured in the New York Times and even Kotaku. Currently, she’s working as the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and co-founder of Glow Up Games and is focused on elevating the field of augmented reality, virtual reality and mobile games. She’s who we want to be when we grow up and 100 percent badass.
Keep up with her on Twitter here!
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Jen Zee- Art Director
Whether you played it or not, you definitely heard people talking about Hades. Its difficulty has become infamous, but the thing that catches most people’s attention first is the incredible art style that the game uses. This gorgeous, eye-catching art is all thanks to Jen Zee, the art director for this project at Supergiant Games. Her incredible talent is truly seen in her vibrant character designs that she’s developed from working on a variety of media from comics to tabletop games.
Keep up with her on Twitter here!
Laura Bailey- Voice Actress
Laura Bailey is the award-winning voice of many notable characters and a fan favorite as a member of the Critical Role cast. Her range is truly impressive getting cast in anime as adorable cinnamon roll characters like Fruits Basket to straight-up badasses in games like Gears of War. Her pace and work ethic is truly stunning to see and for that, we crown her a certified badass in gaming.
Keep up with her on Twitter here!
Tina Amini- Editor-In-Chief
Tina Amini studied media and communication at NYU to become a video game journalist. Over her ten year career, she’s covered mostly video games at various sites and started her job at IGN as the Editor-In-Chief for games in 2018. Since starting you can find her on convention floors, writing game reviews, sitting in on podcasts and talking about all things gaming at every chance she gets. She’s an awesome face to see in a sea of male game reporters and we applaud her hustle.
Keep up with her on Twitter here!
Amira Virgil- Content Creator
Most likely you know Amira (Mira) Virgil by her screen name, Xmiramira. She’s a prominate Youtuber and Twitch streamer whose content primarily focuses around The Sims. She is also most notably known for her mod pack for The Sims, the most downloaded of which is the melonin pack which she created to give her Sim skin tones and hairstyles/textures that more closely resemble her own. She led the charge in petitioning EA to add more inclusive styles into the game officially and the world has been better for it.
Check out her content on Youtube here!
Jessica Bravura- Content Creator
If you don’t know Jessica Bravura, odds are your kids do! Online she’s known most often by her Youtube persona Aphmau. She’s most widely known for her infectiously upbeat Minecraft content and makes this list for sheer level of creativity. She and her friends upload role play content within Minecraft daily that keeps up with pop-culture as well as a secondary channel where she uploads Roblox content. It’s different from your standard fare of let’s play content and we have to tip our hats to her grind.
Check out her content on Youtube here!
As we said this list doesn’t come close to representing all of the women in gaming, but we hope we did justice to the ones we did feature. If you are a woman in narrative design, game development, streaming, coding, audio design or any other facet of gaming we here at Geek Girl Authority stand with you in geekdom.
We see you badasses. Game on.
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This article was originally published in March 2022.
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