Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Cristina Amaya, President at Latinx in Gaming and Director at DreamHack Festivals, America. She gives us insights into unique marketing activation events and her work in supporting a more diverse global gaming culture.

Read more about Cristina in this interview:

Hi Cristina! Could you give us insights into your work at Latinx in Gaming?

I started Latinx in Gaming alongside co-founders Juan Vaca, Elaine Gomez, Judith Barbosa & Joe Tirado after I had noticed that Latine/x/o’s never had set representation at events which were things like happy hours or maybe panels. We started with a panel at GDC in 2018 entitled “Latinx in Gaming you belong here”. From there we grew and now we focus on getting latines hired.We just finished our career fair, we plan on having networking happy hours & providing scholarships for folks.

Talking about how many people work in the gaming industry that are Latinx, unfortunately a lot of the top companies that do this research don’t have up-to-date stats since 2017 with the Latam federation having the most recent survey done in 2018 and ourselves having done a report in 2020. What I will say is larger companies usually have between 2 – 5% that consider themselves Latinx/Latine which is a pretty low number and sometimes even non-existent in certain companies and entities. I think that a lot of Latinx/Latine folks stopped pursuing gaming as a career for a lot of reasons and not just education. I think not seeing yourself in the career makes it hard for you to imagine that profession. Gaming as a hobby too is expensive, so being up to date or being able to travel to gaming events or shows can be pretty difficult. Finally, there can be a stigma especially in LATAM that working in gaming isn’t a real career which can stop people from actively pursuing it especially without parental or guardian support.

If you’re a student looking to get into the gaming industry we do have grants and scholarship programs that can help uplevel students. We also have networking opportunities available to students during hispanic heritage month in September. Feel free to reach out!

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Alicia P. Méjica, Senior Business Development Manager at Tilting Point. She speaks about user (re-)engagement and how to expand into SEA markets. Read more about Alicia in this interview:

Hi Alicia! What do you think are the most important factors to keep players engaged with your game?

Tough question! A lot can be said about best practices around community management, retention mechanics and others, but since those depend so wildly on your type of game, distribution platform and target audience, let me give that question a twist. My area of expertise in this regard is actually attrition prevention and re-engagement, and I don’t think these two are discussed enough. 

Behavioral pattern detection is a fascinating rabbit hole, but most of the time it is not easily accessible to small studios due to the price tag that comes with external tools and/or internal talent required. That being said, if you happen to have a portfolio of games and resources available, I would highly encourage you to consider using machine-learning to set up a gifting program to ease the users’ progress and a cross-promotion strategy to keep players engaged within your portfolio – thinking of the LTV of your studio as a whole and not on a per-game basis can be a game changer.

Luckily, there are other tools available for free to most developers: Live Ops Cards (Google Play) and in-app events (App Store) allow you to highlight new content or key events and will algorithmically show your game to users that have played it.  They are by design re-engagement tools that will automatically target the audience you want to go after, so don’t forget to use them! 

If your budget is tight and your game is available in platforms such as Microsoft Store or Steam, I would also recommend participating in their special sales beats: Summer Sales, Halloween, Black Friday, Christmas. All of these seasonal celebrations are an easy to access and free marketing opportunity to boost your game’s organic traffic via brand-awareness. I am sure I’m not the only player out there that simply forgets how much I was enjoying a title until I see it again as part of a bundle or collection in those stores! 

Last but not least: don’t forget to answer reviews on the stores (especially negative ones!) and keep a customer-centric attitude. Sometimes the simplest actions go a long way!

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Jasmin a.k.a., a Content Creator, Youtuber and Streamer in the field of gaming at INSTINCT3. She was the first female German Youtuber to reach 1 million subscribers. Here, Jasmin talks about the adventurous journey of making a hobby one’s profession and shares insights into her recently released first book. Read more about Jasmin in this interview:

Hi Jasmin! Could you give us some insights into your journey of becoming one of Germany’s most famous gaming video creators?

Everything started with YouTube in April 2015. At the time, I was studying New Media with a focus on gaming and wanted to have a channel that I could share with gaming companies in the future. I’ve always found YouTubers like Gronkh, Markiplier and PewDiePie (and others) so cool and just felt like getting started on streaming games, too. A friend encouraged me to take the leap and I finally dared doing it. 

It used to be a hobby for around three years while studying and then afterwards I was working for a year. At some point, my channel started to explode (positively) through the game “Fortnite”. I decided to switch my main job to part-time and did events and streaming on the side; but very quickly realized “I either have to do this full time or not at all”.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Athena Z Peters, Chief Creative Officer at Rainbow Unicorn Games. Athena speaks about the need and benefits of founding and supporting employee first, equitable, diverse workplaces. Read more about Athena in this interview:

Hi Athena! You’ve initially done studies in the area of acting and theatre, do you feel this is still beneficial in your day to day job?

Everyday! LOL… I became a theatre kid at 6 to fix a speech impediment and chronic shyness. It has completely shaped how I see the world. Everything is a potential story to be told, every group of people is an audience with a different set of expectations and ways to be engaged. I also started playing games at the same time, bit card and board games with my family, as well as my first computer games, “Oregon Trail” and “Super Mario Bros.”.

To me games are just another form of theatre. When I was in school for my degree I was frustrated by the limitations of the proscenium. I wanted to reach out and more directly engage my audience, to create interactive experiences that required them to influence the story being told. So I left traditional theatre and sought out game studios to work for that were doing just that. My first job was working as an actor in Shadowbane running players through live quests as various characters in that world. Also on the side I also participated and now run immersive theatrical companies that do site specific work. Site specific refers to works that are created for a specific venue. I still set a stage, define and guide the throughline of plot, and find new and interesting ways to engage an audience, my audience is now millions at a time vs hundreds. And is reached through a small piece of glass in their pockets vs a stage.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Betsy Abendroth, Director of PR at Devsisters USA, INC. Betsy tells us how the Cookie Run game series has been created to reach a diverse audience and how PR evolved throughout the years. Read more about Betsy in this interview:

Hi Betsy! How did you decide to move into games after 16 years of working in the film industry?

I have been interested in the gaming industry for over a decade. My passion for film is never ending, but I have always been excited about how players connect with games and form passionate communities around them. I am also an avid mobile gamer and paid close attention to the marketing and PR side of the industry. I noticed many similarities between film and video games, which made me realize I could leverage my experience in this new field.

Previously, I worked at Pixar Animation Studios during Covid and was laid off in January 2021. I was given a generous runway to think about my next move, which was a perfect time to revisit my interest in the gaming industry. Also, it was paramount that I work for a company that aligned with my core values at this point in my career.

When I applied for the job at Devsisters, USA, there wasn’t a lot of information about the company (we run like a start-up within a larger company) online. Still, after my first call with HR, I knew that there was something special about this opportunity. I had never worked in a “start-up” environment before, but I knew that there would be tremendous room for growth which was exciting.

Since I started, I have been able to utilize my experience in the film industry in thoughtful and impactful campaigns and have been able to collaborate across all departments. Though we are a small team, we can move mountains when we all work together, and at the end of the day, that’s a pretty good place to be.

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Cristina Neamtu, Head of Studio at AMC RO. A studio that provides digital art creation, content solutions and technical tools for the games industry. She speaks about the importance of culture, strategy and servant leadership.

Hi Cristina! How would you describe the game culture in Romania?

Hi! In my opinion, Romania is the top emerging Europe location for game development after Poland, and the industry’s turnover has been steadily growing. In recent years, Romania has become a real hub for game companies, and the business successes enjoyed by the sector leaders (Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Gameloft) have led to several smaller studios raising growth capital. So I think at the moment, it is relatively easy to raise capital for new companies, even those only working on their first title. There is a robust network in Romania doing its best to make things happen, and there are a couple of active associations putting together the gamedev ecosystem’s efforts to promote the industry, such as the Romanian Game Developers Association (RGDA) and Women in Games Romania.