“With game engine programming, we program a completely self-consistent world with photons traversing through game materials in just the right way, with faces and bodies acting and reacting just so, and every extra bit of engineering effort we put forth, we make the gaming immersion just this much deeper and richer for the player playing the game. It is a very mentally fulfilling sort of career.”

“I’ve loved programming computers ever since I first saw and touched one, which was the Apple II. It was before the personal computer revolution and so a lot of it was I’d basically go to universities and try to borrow time on the really big mainframes. I also tried to work for colleges, as well as for scientific communities … One of the first professional jobs I had was programming punch cards … I loved [programming] so much I just went out of my way to seek out opportunities where i could either do it for free or for a job.”

“Learning how to code is part of 21st century literacy. The single most important thing you can do [to break into the industry] is to make games - even if it’s a mod of a game that you love. Get together with other people and build a game. Maybe you’ll code or do the art, or manage the spreadsheet for the assets. People who already built their own games get interviews. [Employers] don’t want someone who is just an idea person or a talker. Build something, learn from it and then try building something else. In video games, you have to have a personality of a builder.”

“The games industry is being radically transformed right now. Mobile platforms and Facebook games have transformed where revenue growth is. It’s all in mobile, online and social. Consoles are holding down the fort but that is shrinking, and in all growth areas there are just as many females as males. The next 5-10 years of opportunity in gaming are going to be in these growth areas where there will be opportunity for people to reinvent what a game is for a very different audience from when traditional gaming started.”

”Females are uniquely suited to understand collaborative gaming and to create collaborative games. There is big opportunity for females as designers and creators of games that guys would never think to build.”

“There is something for everyone at a game jam. I saw an eight year old come with his dad and his job was to search online for sound effects, someone’s mom came and since she had a marketing background, we had her write up a blog post about the game jam. One woman came in with no hands - she’s an artist and we used her art in a couple of games. There is something for everyone to do. It’s a great way to learn how to create a game, as part of team, in a rapid prototyping environment. All you have to do is try it; don’t worry about whether or not you’re going to be perfect.”

“If you want to program, you need to go in the interview and be able to say ‘I want to be a programmer and I work at it every night, I’m always learning.’ That is the person we’re more likely to hire, who has that passion. If someone came to me and said ‘I want to be an executive producer, I want your job,’ I would say ‘learn everything you can about all the different skills that it takes to make games and what a project manager does. Learn excellent communication and time management skills. Take classes in project management and accounting. Don’t try to pretend you’re good at everything; if an applicant says ‘I’m really good at this,’ it’s more real.”

“Figure out what you enjoy doing, what your passion is. Don’t go to the game industry if it’s not your passion to make games; if you have don’t have a passion for it you won’t be happy. Find what you love, work really hard at it and enjoy it and the job will follow you.”

“I was one of three female interns for ‘X-Play’ and it was the first time they ever had that many women interning at the same time. I still talk to the people at ‘X-Play’ and they say that they always get more men than women applying but women are more than welcome. G4 is a great opportunity to get your foot in the industry and see what it’s about.”

“Your entry level job in the industry may not be exactly where you want to be at this very moment and that’s OK. I worked at GameStop and while it wasn’t where I wanted to stay, it lead me to great opportunities; you should make every experience a stepping stone to where you want to be.”

“When I interview, I am looking for someone with the aptitude for learning quickly. Do they see the big picture, work well with different types of people, understand all the different roles and have a basic understanding of that - do they have a passion for learning. Professionalism also goes a long way, such as proofreading your resumes. If shows you really care about the position you are applying for.”

“The NYU Game Center has a good networking community. I was amazed to walk into a room and it was just me and maybe about two other women - the rest were all guys. There should be more women there. Anyone can help test games and take their games [to the meetups] to get them tested, get exposure. If I was starting out and interested in breaking into the game business, that is what I would do: show up and be seen and connect with people by playing games and testing games.”

“Speak up, make your voice heard and don’t be drowned out. All these young men, they want to show their stuff and don’t have a problem sharing their portfolio. You can’t be a wallflower, standing to the side. It’s a competitive industry - you need to be proud of what you’ve accomplished and feel comfortable believing in yourself.”

“My ultimate goal is down the line to be a game designer, whether it be mechanics or story. It’s up to me to be self-motivated and do what I can, to put up content so people can respond to it. You build yourself up that way. I’m not that great at programming so I am teaching myself. I want to make a game for people to test. Right now I’m looking for internships and work that can help me build my skills, design-wise.”

“Sign up for game projects online and build your network. Whether it’s in Google hangouts or IM, sharing docs, contributing to open source projects helps you put your skills into practice while meeting new people. Taking an online course is also a great way to figure out how to manage time and teams remotely. You have to get in there, figure out what’s needed, ask good questions and grab onto something and own it. Building my network came down to me telling people what I wanted to do and doing it - leading by example. I like to say that I have my GSD degree - Get Shit Done.” - Tara Tiger Brown, Entrepreneur and Technical Product Manager/Writer

“I’m a host for the Platform Biased podcast because I’m passionate about what I do and it’s nice to represent that there are women out there who do this work. We’re here - we’re small in number, but we’re here!” - Bex Bradley, Software Development Engineer in Test, Microsoft Game Studios

“Beyond internships, there are many professional associations you can be a part of. There are plenty of opportunities online to connect with LinkedIn members who work in the industry. There are all kinds of ways to really put yourself out there and meet people - you never know what will come out of that. You can’t be scared to follow up.” - Liz Buckley, Vice President of Marketing at Majesco Entertainment, home to Zumba Fitness Rush and other popular titles

“Monetization is one of the areas where women with softer skills can make an impact: virtual goods strategy, the virtual economy itself. This role can be called a Revenue Officer but there are different types of titles. A woman who majored in psychology and behavioral economics can be an incredibly viable person in this role. Merchandizing, figuring out how to sell people something they want - women know how these things work.”

“I run an editorial site but it also features playable games. It’s a fun challenge dealing with companies or smaller entities to procure new games for the site. I definitely believe in the power of self-publishing; it’s in your hands - you just have to do it. In the 90s I created GameGal.com, a games site for women, with my husband. Self-publishing led me to meeting people in the industry and other editors, so eventually my fun side project resulted in paid jobs.” - Libe Goad, Editor in Chief at Games.com, judge for both Spike TV's VGA awards and the E3 Game Critics Awards

“Our industry is going through a revolution right now. The backlash, what is being seeing as misogynistic behavior, doesn’t represent the majority of male gamers, but it shows we have a long way to go. There are considerably fewer women in the video game industry, and within that population there are fewer women of color. How I’ve responded to [discrimination] is I expect it, but I don’t accept it.” - Shana T. Bryant, Senior Associate Producer at Capcom

“In the past, a guy said to me ‘why are there are no black characters in video games’ and at the time I couldn’t think of any, and it was a profound experience. I was working on a game where you could be a blue fairy but not a black character, which I changed that day. Now, when I’m making games, diversity is something I’m thinking about on the forefront. If you’re working on a game and want to see more Hispanic or Asian characters, bring it up, because it sounds simple but sometimes developers just haven’t thought about it. I think these are important requests.”

“Mattie Brice, who’s @xMattieBrice on Twitter, blogs at xgalatea.blogspot.com. She’s a games journalist and a transgender woman of color. She writes a lot about gaming from her perspective and takes on a lot of issues in gaming communities. She’s also a really nice, helpful person, so I think she’d probably be able to point you to some helpful folks.”

“You don’t see many Vietnamese female game developers in the industry but in my experiences, it’s been more an issue of gender than race. Overall though, I’ve had positive experiences; it helps that I grew up being able to interact with guys very easily, and in the end, everyone just wants to make a quality product. But there are some people in the industry who have an idea of how a female producer is supposed to be. There are times when you just have to be firm - some men don’t realize the context of their comments. I set my sights on game making and don’t put too much focus or energy on what’s keeping me back.”

"If a woman who has contributed as much to the culture, genre, and perception of gaming as Felicia Day can be dismissed as ‘a glorified booth babe’ by someone who hasn’t even bothered to read her ‘portfolio,’ then it’s safe to say that the problem is even worse on the ground for less well-known women who make their living in the industry, much less for female gamers themselves." - Wil Wheaton, American actor and writer (quote from Tumblr)

“It would be awesome if more people gained QA testing experience with indie game projects. Whether you gain it through an internship or on your own, being able to say during your interview that you have experience beta testing is very valuable, as well as being able to provide references from your team members. This breakdown [below]is specific to how we run things at Microsoft Studios. Generally across the industry there will be a group of testers and then a test lead, but here is our hierarchy within Test.”

“There are a number of ways to get an entry level QA position. A lot of testing is done by contract staff, so you can sign up with an agency. Normally to find this kind of work you need to live in an area where game developers are, because that is where most of the test jobs are. The industry can be very difficult to get into and there are many pros and cons. If you decide that you want to start in QA, you have to persevere and accept that contract gigs are often cut so there isn’t much job security unless it’s a staff position. You need to be able to quickly move onto the next role. If you have a degree, it makes it easier and you can often start in an STE position. It helps if you have a CS background, experience beta testing and can write test framework and automation tools.”

“I think that common personality traits of QA testers are enjoying taking things apart to see how they work, and if they were broken, figuring out why and putting them back together again. I’m from Northern Ireland and during high school I enjoyed studying tech and design, metalworking and woodworking. I like to drill down using root cause analysis: why did this happen in the first place? These are experiences are something that as a tester have been very valuable to me,” Bex explained.”