Girls Make Games 2018 in Review
4 years ago, we embarked on a journey to bring the magic of game making to girls everywhere. We’re nowhere near done, but 2018 has been an incredible year of growth supported by the video games industry and GMG’s community — you!
We wanted to share some of our most favorite things that took place this year (Laila aimed for a top 5 list but without Kristani’s supervision, she ended up with twice as many).
We hope these stories, photos, and videos warm your hearts and inspire you to do all the things you dream of in 2019.
Here’s to another 365 trailblazing days!
Much love,
The GMG Team
1. GMG Launched in Canada
2. GMG published the cutest and most lethal game of all time — BlubBlub: The Quest of Blob
The 2016 Grand Prize winning game by Beatrix, Jordan and Manaira (Meme) launched this year to rave (and rage) reviews!
If you’re looking for a way to let off some steam before the year ends, BlubBlub is available for download (free) on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/853780/BlubBlub_Quest_of_the_Blob/
and itch.io: https://girlsmakegames.itch.io/blubblub
3. We landed on the freakin’ Google Homepage
Needless to say we didn’t get much work done that day….
4. Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo came together to support our girls @ Demo Day!
Read the full Demo Day Recap on the PlayStation blog: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/08/16/girls-make-games-2018-recap-celebrating-girls-in-gaming/
5. GMG’s Founder received the ESA Foundation’s 2018 Visionary Award
About the award: ESA Foundation’s Visionary Award recognizes an organization or individual who is leveraging entertainment software to inspire and support kids.
These honorees exemplify the outstanding applications of entertainment software. We are proud to celebrate the tremendous work being done to improve our own industry and to achieve meaningful social impact.
6. Girls Made AWESOME Video Games — no surprises here.
Registration for 2019 is open (first come first serve, 100% financial aid available through support from GMG’s partners): http://girlsmakegames.com/registration.html
7. Team Sarcastic Shark Clouds Shredded some Secrets on Kickstarter
The 2018 Grand Prize Winning game, Shredded Secrets (designed and developed by 6th graders Isadora, Crystal, Gracie and Keira) raised nearly $38K on Kickstarter ($32K during campaign, additional $6K post).
The game went on to become the most funded GMG game ever — and for good reason. Shredded Secret’s powerful tagline, Be Kind, Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle, resonated with and inspired Demo Day judges and KS supports alike.
We can’t wait to develop the full game w/ Team SSC and bring it to life!
8. We developed and published 5 games in partnership with Google Play’s Change The Game
From Google Play’s CTG website:
Change the Game is an initiative from Google Play to support women in the gaming industry and improve representation in the mobile gaming world.
Google Play chose five finalists from thousands of teens who wanted to bring their unique voices to the gaming world. We worked with Girls Make Games to produce, develop and launch their game designs on Google Play.
Meet the five winners and hear the inspiring stories behind each of their games: https://play.google.com/about/changethegame/designchallenge/
Download and play the games (free): https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=LearnDistrict+Inc
9. GMG was featured @ Video Game Awards
In a room full of gamers and game creators all dedicated to making this industry a more inclusive place, GMG was honored through a special feature during the program, viewed by nearly 11 million around the world!
For the non-games industry folks, VGA is the closest thing we’ve got to Oscars night — except BETTER ;)
Watch the full video here, made possible through support from PlayStation and the Game Awards.
10. GMG made news on Fox News.
Totally unexpected and totally AMAZING :)
