2020: The Year in Review
What a year it has been. We’re all still reeling from the continued impact of Covid-19, and it’s impossible for us to imagine what this year has meant for kids all over the world missing out on daily life interactions. GMG’s entire year revolves around our summer camp program — we held out as long as we could in hopes of creating a safe space for the girls to meet in person, because no matter how hard we tried, no virtual experience can replace the human touch.
Every day my team and I continue to draw inspiration from our girls. They have shown incredible resilience and courage in the face of an unthinkable challenge. They were the first to assist GMG in testing our new virtual curriculum and enthusiastically offered honest (aka brutal!) feedback, brainstorming alongside my team. With their help, we believe we’ve managed to create something lasting with the GMG virtual summer camps and year round global workshops.
You wouldn’t think much of a summer camp, and to be honest, I didn’t either until I ‘went’ to camp and met these bright girls. A few weeks of being surrounded by love, encouragement, inspiration and validation can be immensely powerful. This transformative experience goes so much farther than simply learning technical skills — when you’re confident in who you are and what you believe in, you are unstoppable.
A big Thank You for being a part of GMG’s community; we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do without your support. With the vaccine on the horizon, console restocks, and renewed hope, the GMG team is looking forward to embrace 2021 and our friends with open arms.
With love and gratitude,
Laila Shabir
Founder and CEO, Girls Make Games
2020 Highlights
1. We launched a Virtual Summer Camp for girls ages 8–18.
You can read the full summer recap on the PlayStation blog: https://www.sie.com/en/blog/girls-make-games-2020-recap
Registration for 2021 virtual summer camp is now open: https://www.girlsmakegames.com/2021-virtual-summer-camps
2. And produced a digital Demo Day in partnership with Nintendo!
If you’re at all curious what the future of the video games industry will look like… watch the recorded stream and be endlessly inspired!
3. We just couldn’t stop making and playing games, so we went ahead and launched Global Virtual Workshops for kids all over the world :)
Further workshops are lined up for Spring 2021. Just look at these happy faces! ❤
4. We shipped not one, but TWO Demo Day Grand Prize Winning Games!
Find Me, the 2017 Grand Prize Winner by Team Invenio — Katie, Maeve, Avalon and Audrey.
Get your copy on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1263060/Find_Me/
Shredded Secrets, 2018 Grand Prize Winner by Team Sarcastic Shark Clouds — Crystal, Gracie, Isadora, and Keira.
Check it out on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1479000/Shredded_Secrets/
A big Thank You to our partners and sponsors who make the program possible:
And the tireless individuals, over 200 of them — our summer camp staff, Fellows, workshop leaders, game night hosts, speakers, game developers, working magic behind the scenes so girls everywhere have an opportunity to make the games of their dreams ❤
From all of us at GMG, Happy New Year! See you in 2021!!! ❤ ❤ ❤
The GMG Team
