Greetings, IGDA and other members of the game industry,

First of all, happy Women’s History Month! March 8th is International Women’s Day, and the IGDA would like to spotlight our some of the fantastic women that make up the IGDA. Please submit yourself or other women you wish to celebrate. This form will be open until March 4th at 11:59pm ET.

Lack of representation of women and other groups within the game industry is one of the biggest issues that our industry struggles with. In order to track these issues and evaluate the solutions for them, we need your help. Please take our 2021 Developer Satisfaction Survey (DSS) today here. We are partnering with Facebook Gaming and Western University to run the 2021 DSS and capture the state of our industry and the health of the development community.

We have many activities with groups planned throughout March to celebrate and support women within our industry, including a partnership with Dress for Success and WIGI for the Your Hour, Her Power campaign. We are asking you to make a donation equivalent to just one hour of your pay. Your donation to Dress for Success will empower a woman to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, and the development tools to help women thrive in work and life.

Finally, today is the start of the Game Design Challenge. This virtual experience consists of four lessons and four presentations to teach students about game development and will enable K-12 students to practice project management and practice critical thinking. We are excited to provide all learners with an opportunity to design a game, no matter their device-access, age, or previous experience. You can learn more about the challenge in our news article about it, on the official website, and tonight, March 1st, at 7:00pm EST for the opening ceremony on IGDA’s Twitch channel.

Warmest Regards,

Renee Gittins
Executive Director, IGDA