• Register
Forum Thread
  Posts  
If you are a women get your game designed for free (Forums : Contests & Jams : If you are a women get your game designed for free) Locked
Thread Options
Mar 14 2014 Anchor

Hi I'm Heather from TFYC

We are running a contest where any woman can submit an idea for a video game. We take the top 5 ideas and get real concepts artists to visualize the game. We then put those pitches online and the internet votes on the best one. That pitch get's turned into a real game with the profits going to charity.

If anyone is interested in applying then you can go to our website at thefineyoungcapitalists.com

Thank you for your time.

Mar 15 2014 Anchor

this is wrong on so many levels
I seriously hope that it's *not* a joke
just so I can see the resulting train wreck

Mar 15 2014 Anchor

I'd love for a clarification of why?

Edited by: FineYoungCapitalist

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

If you where to change it from woman only to men only most people would lose their shit.

Outcrys of sexism would be heard across the internet, it would make the top page of reddit, people would go nuts. Not to mention you didn't even link to the charity or any formal website for the competition.

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

I cannot see this project being prosperous no disrespect. Now I would love more females to get involved in the CIS field in general. But these people act as if making a video game is like sticking a disk in a microwave, It's not easy. Video games as any piece of software should be designed in a meticulous fashion
A more effective route to your cause would be to teach women how to make video games, where programming matters quite alot start some kind of "help center" or something especially for women with lots of FAQ's none of this contest voting stuff just seems to be more style than substance

Look at MODDB's strengths most people here are average Joes that can give you advice that you actually understand
it allows users to post tutorials and information allowing people to solve their own problems independent of MODDB itself.
in my opinion flatmanagement is the key

Edited by: deleted_profile

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

@Noah
They just need to make a game concept.
If you haven't found women who are able of making games, then you are looking the wrong place.
---

@figalot
Thefineyoungcapitalists.com
you might want to read the second last question in the FAQ.
---

@FineYoungCapitalist
I have seen this project earlier. Have it run any successful campaigns?

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

@eliasr

If you haven't found women who are able of making games, then you are looking the wrong place.

I never said I have not seen any women in the game making industry all I said that I support the idea of helping there be more
and to achieve that particular goal I would go about things a little differently.

I wish @FineYoungCapitalist the best of luck and hope they do introduce more women to this field even if I disagree with their approach

Edited by: deleted_profile

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

To reply to you Naoh.Klabo

There are already multiple organizations focusing on your issues

Ladieslearningcode.com
Dmg.to
Girlgeeks.org

All them have meetup in most major cities related to programming and game design. There are infinite number of books and websites that cover the majority of the process of video game design. If we were to make another FAQ all we would be doing is splintering the market further.

The problem isn't access to knowledge, or interest as there are tons of for profits school to teach people how to make games which feed on interested and gullible people. The problem is access to funds and people having support for the entire process. Even if you complete a degree in Video Game Design from a properly credited school, you will not have learned the business or marketing skill to sell your product.

This project target the entire process, I.E. "Come up with a game an idea, we'll review it, we'll have the community review it, and if the community like it we'll take THE ENTIRE community through the process of bring a project to market." And the entire community has input through the process. This is the knowledge that people need, because the knowledge that is the hardest to get access to. This teaches "people," not just ''women" that actual skills that they need to make a business succeed. Very few people in Video Game design can actually program in C++. Tim Schafer the head of Double Fine, was ecstatic that he might actually get to do some scripting in Double Fine adventures in early production videos. This speak volumes to the difference between the perceived skill and the actual still required to bring a product to market.

@FineYoungCapitalist
I have seen this project earlier. Have it run any successful campaigns?

Yes they are small though and have been local with the community and under different banners. Most of them involved IOS applications, or starting small business, and focused on people with disability or racial minorities and were done through program with the Canadian government. They were not under the banner TFYC.

This project is global and larger so we've contract a production team in a developing country that actually produces video game to handle the production and art generation.

We did a soft launch for this project in February and it was public for 1 day on Reddit. In that 1 day enough people complaints from MRA activists to get us shadow banned from the site. The only valid concern was at that point there were ownership issues over the pitch material. We took 6 weeks off to raise funds so that every pitch would be funded and the person pitching the idea would keep it for no cost.

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

Ladieslearningcode.com
Dmg.to
Girlgeeks.org


I was unaware of these thanks for sharing them,

This project target the entire process, I.E. "Come up with a game an idea, we'll review it, we'll have the community review it, and if the community like it we'll take THE ENTIRE community through the process of bring a project to market." And the entire community has input through the process.


yeah my main concern has always been get my idea off the paper in a systematic order, story and design have always being last for me
just two different approaches I guess,

I can be very opinionated sometimes, hope I didn't come off too rude

Even if you complete a degree in Video Game Design from a properly credited school, you will not have learned the business or marketing skill to sell your product.


This is true I went through a programming course at my local collage and they did not cover the actual real life implementation and skill set

Edited by: deleted_profile

Mar 26 2014 Anchor

I just want to say that I support this initiative and you who don't (not necessarily referring to anyone who wrote in the thread) should give it a second thought and take a look at the divide between how many male versus female developers there are today, it's a real problem. It's not because women "can't make games" or how "they don't want too and that's why there are fewer women in the game biz" - it's about that the game biz as we know it today was built on a foundation made of boydreams from way back and have not been very welcoming.

Lastly, I do want to discuss these kind of things but if it turn out in a flame war in any kind of way I will leave without further due.

Peace out! :)

--

"Level design is for those who love to build stuff with broken tools."

@_Sjonsson

Editapp
Editapp Ethan Taylor
Mar 29 2014 Anchor

I don't think that it's very good
to leave men out of the equation I mean
men want their games designed too!

--


neonlightscpu

Neonlightscpu , Ethan Taylor

Mar 29 2014 Anchor

Word of advice. Next time if your advertising a competition be sure to write out a proper draft before submitting. A detailed well layed out pitch with details of charities, what your goal is, how will this will help young developers etc, something like that will go a long way rather than just a simple few sentences. Explain why it's woman only and not men. Include the process of how their game will be made. Why should they enter this? What are the benefits besides the obvious? What guarantee's do they have that you won't steal their ideas? Who are the concept artists you speak of? Background stories are the most important.

The more details you provide the higher chance you have of interest. Regardless of my personal opinion on this which I'm not going to say, I wish you the best of luck and the individuals who enter.

Mar 31 2014 Anchor

In a male dominated industry, with many games focused almost entirely on fulfilling the male fantasy. There is a need for games in general to evolve from both gender perspectives. I think this contest is a great way to see what women can come up with in terms of the next gaming experience. I think many people would be surprised by the variety of games that could be produced. Should this contest be female only? Sure! why the hell not! As a man, I'm curious to see what comes out of this.

Edited by: brightskul

Jun 6 2014 Anchor

As a girl, I think it's quite inappropriate to leave men out of the question. If we want true gender equality, we should both avoid men-only restrictiveness and women-only restrictiveness. I'm not sure if restrictiveness is a word in English or not, but I'm sure you get the point.

I'd go for it, though, because of the opportunity, but I'm already working on something else myself ^^

Jun 8 2014 Anchor

brightskul wrote: In a male dominated industry, with many games focused almost entirely on fulfilling the male fantasy. There is a need for games in general to evolve from both gender perspectives. I think this contest is a great way to see what women can come up with in terms of the next gaming experience. I think many people would be surprised by the variety of games that could be produced. Should this contest be female only? Sure! why the hell not!


Agreed. You the hit the nail on the head. I see no problem with this idea. The gaming industry is dominated by males, so a project like this, making more females get involved, is certainly something people should support to eventually lead to the supposed "gender equality" they claim to support.

Edited by: KnightofEquulei

Angel@BigRoundEyes
Angel@BigRoundEyes Nexionode co-creator
Jun 11 2014 Anchor

As a woman too, I agree with Eliza above.
I 100% support projects to help women get into technical field and fight prejudice. GirlGeeks is a community of girls.
This offer above is a contest, not a community. That's why shutting men off from it sounds really strange. It's like hiring people saying "only apply if you are a woman because we want to support women".

On the other hand, it's probably just the way the contest is introduced. I see that the company's director is a woman. Maybe if she was the one openly doing the communication, introducing herself as a woman and explaining her project, it would look better.

--

Angélique Villé @ Big Round Eyes
Currently working on: Nexionode, Sci-Fi puzzle game.
Nexionode

Jun 30 2014 Anchor

KnightofEquulei wrote:

brightskul wrote: In a male dominated industry, with many games focused almost entirely on fulfilling the male fantasy. There is a need for games in general to evolve from both gender perspectives. I think this contest is a great way to see what women can come up with in terms of the next gaming experience. I think many people would be surprised by the variety of games that could be produced. Should this contest be female only? Sure! why the hell not!


Agreed. You the hit the nail on the head. I see no problem with this idea. The gaming industry is dominated by males, so a project like this, making more females get involved, is certainly something people should support to eventually lead to the supposed "gender equality" they claim to support.


Not really, you don't achieve equality this way through discrimination. It is a pretty poor approach to the situation. Personally I have no problem with them choosing to do this, but it isn't really helpful towards female game developers in the long run. I find player types and there motivations are far more useful to focus on as audiences than gender. It's certain player types and there motivations for play which are misrepresented not genders in my opinions, it just so happens gender has a small influence on that.

Edited by: StormAndy

Nov 20 2014 Anchor

FineYoungCapitalist wrote:
We are running a contest where any woman can submit an idea for a video game. We take the top 5 ideas and get real concepts artists to visualize the game. We then put those pitches online and the internet votes on the best one. That pitch get's turned into a real game with the profits going to charity.

Sorry about necroing this thread, but I was instantly reminded of it when I read this:
News.slashdot.org

Reply to thread
click to sign in and post

Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.