Women in Gaming: An ARC Academy Series
The gaming industry is a very dynamic and promising field. The gaming business is outpacing cinema, TV, and music and beating even the most optimistic analysts’ forecasts. More and more people are getting hooked on video games and being tempted by the opportunity to create games. A significant number of them are women – according to statistics, 44% of players worldwide are ladies. Female characters occupy leading roles in popular titles such as the classics Tomb Raider, Bayonetta, as well as modern Horizon, The Last of Us, Life is Strange, the Bulgarian Elea, the DLC of Troy: A Total War Saga, etc.
At the same time, the number of women working in game studios is also increasing at a steady pace. If in 2009 women were only 6% of those working in the game industry, in 2021 their share is already 30%.
It is very likely that this percentage will continue to rise in the coming years, given the interest of more and more girls in careers in the gaming industry. We at ARC Academy are part of this trend – 40% of our students are girls who want to develop in Concept art, Game Design, 3D Modeling, and others. At the Academy, they begin their journey to a career in the exciting field of video games.
On the eve of International Women’s Day – March 8 – we meet with several ladies who are part of the game industry in our country. They hold different roles at leading studios and have different experiences. What unites them is the love of games and the desire to create titles that entertain players.
In a series of videos, we introduce Maya Georgieva, Art Director at Creative Assembly, Hristina Georgieva, Concept Artist at Gameloft, Ivana Gigova, Level Designer at Snapshot Games, and Anastasia Zheleva, Concept Artist at Gameloft. They tell more about their work in the game industry – why they chose this field, what challenges they face, and what brings them professional satisfaction.
But before that, meet Krasimira Manashfi, program coordinator at ARC Academy and part of the Academy’s alumni community, who shares what motivates her to work with students who have chosen game development as their vocation.
