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[girlgamesnetwork]

Girl Games Network #2 (31/5/23)

Welcome back to the Girl Games Network Newsletter, a weekly roundup of games industry news and releases aiming to highlight the female and non-binary people working in games.

Summer Games Done Quick Returns!

From the 28th May to 4th June, 2023 the annual speedrunning fundraiser Summer Games Done Quick is back on Twitch raising money for Doctors Without Borders. Many of the runs are taking place at the Hilton Minneapolis, Minnesota for in-person attendees and VOD recordings of the runs can be found on GDQ's YouTube page afterwards.

Some runs and runners of note this time include :

31/5 Shadow the Hedgehog - Gamecube by MetalMedB (Glitchless Bidwar)

1/6 Golf It! - PC by Nichole Goodnight & Bathinjan (Classic First 5 Maps 100% Race)

1/6 Give Me Toilet Paper! - Switch by Asuka424 (Hand%)

2/6 VVVVV - PC by Metroid Crime (Any% Glitchless)

2/6 Pokémon Colosseum - Gamecube by Swiftalu and Sparkle (Any% Race)

3/6 Fire Emblem Engage - Switch by Claris (Any%)

4/6 Super Mario Maker 2 - Switch by TheRileyC, Aurateur, PangaeaPanga, TanukiDan, Shoujo, Caspur189, LilKirbs and Thabeast721 (Relay Race)

In addition to SGDQ, GDQ hosts charity speedruns throughout the year and gives a spotlight to female and non-binary runners in their Frame Fatale events. On-site and remote volunteer registration for the next FF event  "Flame Fatales'' will be open from the 9th-17th of June if this week's show inspires viewers to contribute.

As with every GDQ event for the last six years, programmer and artist lexyeevee (Fox Flux Deluxe) is hosting a game jam concurrently on itch.io, this time called "Games Made QVIICK??? HD REMIX", which will be running until the 5th of June.

https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

https://eev.ee/

https://itch.io/jam/games-made-qviick-hd-remix

Super Free Games Faces Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

Former Super Free Games (Word Collect) employee Haley Bowman (Sonos) filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court on the 11th of May, 2023 against the company for gender discrimination, unequal pay and being terminated while pregnant.

Super Free Games, formerly known as Super Lucky Games is a word and trivia game developer owned by the Stillfront Group and based in California with global remote employees, mostly across America. Although their careers page boasts a "flat management model" and insists on valuing a work-life balance, Bowman's case alleges "cronyistic" hiring practices, backed up by an anonymous former employee's review on Glassdoor.

In 2022, a Marketing Department Reduction in Force Committee was established at SFG and asked Bowman to leave her managerial marketing position for a position with a 20-26% pay cut in production on the grounds that she "had poor communication issues and created a level of mistrust with UA [the User Acquisition Team]". In her case, Bowman has said that there were no issues between her and UA. When she refused to take the cut and role change, she was terminated two months into a pregnancy she alleges SFG knew about and that her firing was falsely presented as a workforce reduction externally.

In addition to this, the lawsuit alleges an "unmistakable bias" against women, who make up less than a third of SFG, often being excluded from important meetings and social opportunities. Bowman also was not consulted on the marketing decisions that were key to her role in the Marketing division. SFG have not made any statements regarding the case as of two weeks after the filing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/discrimination-lawsuit-filed-against-san-franciso-game-developer/

https://superfree.com/careers/

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/super-free-games-receives-lawsuit-that-alleges-biases-against-women

https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-bowman/

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Super-Free-Games-RVW55119549.htm

https://www.stillfront.com/en/stillfront-group-acquires-super-free-games-a-leading-developer-of-casual-word-games/

News of Note :

Excellent fan-art of a new Zelda NPC https://www.tumblr.com/koyoriin/718151838948573184/so-she-might-not-be-a-major-character-but-violynne

Bandcamp United formed after a 31-7 vote by eligible Epic Games-owned Bandcamp employees https://linktr.ee/bandcampunited & https://blog.bandcamp.com/2023/05/19/bandcamp-and-bandcamp-united-release-joint-statement-on-union-vote/  

Layoffs at Brace Yourself Games (Crypt of the NecroDancer) https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-brace-yourself-games-lays-off-half-its-staff and Deck Nine Games (Life is Strange : True Colours) https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/life-is-strange-dev-deck-nine-games-hit-with-staff-layoffs

Gizmodo interviewed Patricia Summersett, Zelda's English Voice Actor https://gizmodo.com/zelda-tears-of-kingdom-patricia-summersett-interview-1850440189

A reminder of how easily companies can scrub out the name of some of their biggest contributors https://twitter.com/WeAreJoel/status/1661172665980276737

Playstation enters a partnership with the Women's National Basketball Association https://sonyinteractive.com/en/press-releases/2023/playstation-and-wnba-announce-multi-year-partnership/

COO of board game publisher Alderac makes sexist comments after designer Elizabeth Hargrave pointed out the gender disparity of the industry https://kotaku.com/board-game-sexism-women-designers-representation-1850472739

"Get in the Car, Loser!" lead developer Christine Love is getting back into streaming https://www.twitch.tv/christine_love

Guild Esports and Sky UK (TV broadcaster) launch their No Room For Abuse campaign to prevent women being harassed when playing online https://www.gamesindustry.biz/guild-and-sky-uk-launches-no-room-for-abuse-campaign

Marvelous Showcase announces two new Story of Seasons and Rune Factory game in development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMa-Aj3yF4g

Actor Grace Van Dien joins esports group FaZe Clan https://twitter.com/FaZeClan/status/1661809830221283347

Coming attractions :

Summer Games Fest returns online and in-person at the YouTube Theater, Los Angeles 8/6 https://www.summergamefest.com/

15/6 deadline to apply to the Canada Media Fund for up to $450,000 CAD for VR and AR projects https://cmf-fmc.ca/news/canada-and-france-launch-new-joint-incentive-for-virtual-and-augmented-reality-projects/

GDC Showcase 27-29/6 (book tickets before June to save $40) https://gdconf.com/

Thanks for reading this week's instalment and thank you for your patience - I'm not entirely settled on publishing these on Sundays yet as I find my feet with this. Also I'd initially wanted to write about the internal controversy that's come up from Grace Van Dien joining FaZe Clan, so I'd delayed this a little to try to do it justice, but the story's still developing, so look forward to a report on it next time!

#girlgamesnetwork #video games #women in gaming #women in games #games done quick #gdq #sgdq2023 #game news #newsletter #speedrun

[girlgamesnetwork]

Girl Games Network #1 (21/5/23)

Hello and welcome to the first instalment of the Girl Games Network newsletter. Each Sunday, I'll be sharing games industry news from a feminist angle and highlighting the games and women/non-binary people in the industry that you might not have heard about.

Riot Games paying out $100 million to 1,500 female employees

"It isn't everything you deserve. But it is an acknowledgement that you aren't alone, you are never alone, and we can stop this across the industry together."

US game developers Riot Games (Valorant) are paying out $100 million to 1,548 women employed at the company between 6th November, 2014 and 27th December, 2021. This follows a 2018 class action lawsuit for gender discrimination from former employees Melanie McCracken (Nuverse) and Jes Negrón (Retcon Games) that had its final approval hearing on 16th May, 2023.

After the initial $10 million settlement was objected to by California's Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH), the $100 million was agreed on in 2021, with $20 million covering legal fees.

According to the settlement Riot must pay out the following to those eligible  :

$2,500-5,000 depending on whether they worked as an employee or temporary agency contractor, and regardless of whether they exclude themselves (the “Minimum Payment”), and

$15,000-35,000 if they worked as an employee and do not exclude themselves, or

$5,000-10,000 if they worked as a temporary agency contractor and do not exclude themselves

Group/Class Members may also receive an additional $40,000 if they worked as an employee in or before 2015 and do not exclude themselves.

In statements on LinkedIn, Negrón and McCracken both expressed relief at the end of their four year journey. McCracken emphasised that "this is just the beginning" and talked about the importance of "inclusivity and belonging" in the workplace, while Negrón spoke about the stories of "disgusting bro culture" she and other women involved in the case had to endure and repeat throughout the process to get a "modicum of justice".

Any "current and former female employees and temporary agency contractors" at Riot in California between 6th November, 2014 and 27th December, 2021 can participate in the settlement and payment will be distributed in the three weeks following the final approval hearing last Tuesday. If you think you or someone you know might be eligible, go to https://www.riotsettlement.com/ for more details.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/04/activision-riot-settlement-payments

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/riot-s-100-million-gender-discrimination-settlement-granted-final-approval

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7064643428264857600/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melaniemccracken_toggle-navigation-activity-7064744567169822720-sS-t/

https://twitter.com/JesNx/status/1659212142829264899?cxt=HHwWhoDTxeWp2oYuAAAA

Streamer Alanah Pearce banned for watching Zelda trailer footage on Twitch

"It would appear that Nintendo DMCA'd me for watching approved Zelda gameplay"

When their long-awaited game The Legend of Zelda : Tears of the Kingdom leaked over a week before release, Nintendo's notorious legal efforts and takedowns only got more aggressive.

One person caught in the crosshairs was Alanah Pearce, a game writer for Sony Santa Monica as well as a YouTube video-maker, boxer, DJ and most importantly Twitch streamer. During a stream where she watched a TOTK preview video from SkillUp that only contained pre-embargo footage, Pearce's channel charalanahzard received a DMCA strike from Nintendo and was suspended. The SkillUp video has not been subject to any takedowns.

After 70 minutes, Pearce managed to appeal and reverse the Twitch ban and regained access to her channel. With over 163K followers on Twitch alone, the size of her audience may have sped up her appeal; smaller streamers may not be so lucky.

https://twitter.com/StreamerBans/status/1655817156553060353

https://twitter.com/Charalanahzard/status/1655799864457035776?cxt=HHwWgIDQwYbNyvotAAAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKc2_3-vRf8

Fullbright and Open Roads Developers Separate

"It's just no longer Fullbright's place to represent Open Roads publicly going forward" 

As of 12th May 2023, the developers behind Gone Home and the upcoming Open Roads have parted ways with their founder Steve Gaynor and the Fullbright name. This announcement comes not from what are now known as "The Open Roads Team" or from their publisher Annapurna Interactive, but Gaynor himself in his first Fullbright newsletter in years.

In the newsletter, Gaynor alludes to "serious turmoil" at the studio that came to light shortly after the announcement of Open Roads and acknowledges that events have shown his "own strengths do not lie with attempting to manage a large project or direct the work of others", but does not detail what happened at Fullbright.

Within a year and a half of Open Roads' announcement at the 2020 Game Awards, fifteen employees left Fullbright. Current and former members of the studio spoke to Polygon in 2021 about their concerns with Ganyor's behaviour toward them, specifically the women. They emphasised that the behaviour did not veer into sexual harassment or explicit sexism, but Gaynor's "controlling" behaviour and "demeaning presence" that wore many down, to the point of their quitting en masse. The overall impression was that Gaynor saw Open Roads less as the team's game and more as his; Fullbright as an extension of his auteurship. Indeed, his personal Twitter account was Fullbright until forced to change it by the unrest in May 2021.

By the time of the Polygon report, Annapurna were already aware of the situation and had conducted an internal investigation, but the team were dissatisfied. When speaking to People Make Games in 2022, the staff - again anonymous for fear of repercussions from either Annapurna or Gaynor - said that Annapurna "talked around" the issue when asking the staff what they would need to finish the project and the prospect of removing Gaynor from his position at the head of the studio and writer on Open Roads was not brought up.

After the report went out and news of Gaynor's misconduct was public knowledge, the Open Roads twitter issued a statement now deleted saying : "Fullbright's co-founder Steve Gaynor has stepped back from his role as creative lead and manager, and transitioned to a role as a writer". The statement could also be found on the game's website, which was a part of Fullbright's website and is currently down. A day later, Gaynor issued a statement on twitter saying much of the same and acknowledging his "hurtful" leadership, but also not giving details. Through all of this, Annapurna Interactive remained silent and continues to do so.

When the changeover from Fullbright to The Open Roads Team happened is unclear : Gaynor's influence on the game was gone from June 2021 according to the Game Informer interviews and Amy Fincher's job as executive producer on Open Roads changed from under Fullbright to under Annapurna in September 2022. The game's website and Steam page were both linked to Fullbright as recently as early May and the developer still hasn't been updated on Annapurna's website. Whether Gaynor's announcement was ahead of or instead of a statement from Annapurna or The Open Roads Team, the developer is once again in his shadow, hopefully for the last time.

Open Roads is a mother- daughter road trip currently in development by The Open Roads Team at Annapurna Interactive. In light of its rocky development, the release date is unknown.

https://youtu.be/xDPzZkx0cPs?t=1015

https://fullbright.cmail20.com/t/t-e-fhtudtt-pikikkhuk-k/

https://web.archive.org/web/20210806094550/https://twitter.com/OpenRoadsGame/status/1423071532952080386

https://twitter.com/SteveGaynorPDX/status/1423094322396762113?cxt=HHwWgsCsheKv7L8nAAAA

https://www.gameinformer.com/feature/2022/07/21/a-new-destination-how-open-roads-changed-direction-and-saved-its-turbulent-road

https://www.polygon.com/22610490/fullbright-steve-gaynor-controversy-stepped-down-open-roads

News of note :

Article by Lin Codega at Gizmodo collecting trans experiences with Link https://gizmodo.com/legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-link-trans-1850430832

Feminist Frequency is fundraising $20000 for the Game and Online Harassment, with donations matched by Landfall Games  https://givebutter.com/femfreqspring2023

Excellent art of Tear of the Kingdom's best returning character by @aurahack https://cohost.org/aurahack/post/1492484-purah

One day left for the Earthquake Relief Bundle on itch https://itch.io/b/1805/trkiye-syria-earthquake-relief-mega-bundle

Humble's first Black Game Developer Fund game "Protodroid DeLTA" releases on 25/5 with Day One DLC Armour Pack that goes to Girls Make Games scholarship fund https://www.humblebundle.com/store/protodroid-delta

New podcast "Confessions of a Gamer Girl" looking for female, Australian panellists https://twitter.com/Doomcutie_/status/1658130126683480065?cxt=HHwWgoC9hZWk7oIuAAAA 

"Blackpink The Game" management sim launched for mobile by TakeOne Company https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERl_J3b_ejI

Coming attractions :

Playstation Showcase 24/5 https://www.youtube.com/live/e9z0atV8VDk?feature=share

Summer Games Done Quick returns online and in-person in Minneapolis 28/5-4/6 https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/43

Summer Games Fest returns online and in-person at the YouTube Theater, Los Angeles 8/6 https://www.summergamefest.com/

GDC Showcase 27-29/6 (book tickets before June to save $40) https://gdconf.com/

Thanks for reading this far! If you're looking for latest news in girl games and girls in games, be sure to follow @girlgamesnetwork wherever good posts are found.

#video games #riot games #controversy #newsletter #games #women in gaming #games industry #game news