Question about "Team" page

So... this might sound a bit odd. And this is not an attack - but where are your female developers on the Team/Contact/About Us page of your website?
I'm sure you have women on your team - I remember seeing at least one in the Kickstarter campaign videos. I'd just like to know you've got some representin' going on at Nerd Kingdom. I'd be pretty shocked if the answer was "they were all let go in the recent down size".
So...?
I'm sure you have women on your team - I remember seeing at least one in the Kickstarter campaign videos. I'd just like to know you've got some representin' going on at Nerd Kingdom. I'd be pretty shocked if the answer was "they were all let go in the recent down size".
So...?
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Again, I can't claim to know, but I'm betting we're seeing an unfortunate coincidence instead of malicious intent.
TUG modder (at least in the ounce of free time that occasionally flits by)
Had to leave? They were fired/let go. That's what a down-size is. Dunno how NK run or if people opted to leave - but most down-sizes occur in a top-down fashion. As well as 'cutting the fat' quite often.
It's not a coincidence. Choosing who you let go is an active choice - just as is who you hire. You, this community and the Devs can invent and spin a thousand reasons why it was justified - but it was still a choice to make the Nerd Kingdom team basically a sausage party.
The IT industry and games industry doesn't have a lot of female representation - sure this makes it hard. But I'm just always more and more shocked at how little 'front' time they get when they are there. Even in Indie Game: The Movie - not one female indie developer was highlighted or show-cased. In fact I spotted one female developer - at the Tigjam event, and she was always in the far background, usually in the peripheral. Sure she may not have wanted to really be a part of the documentary - but who knows who made the choice to relegate her to this spot on the footage.
But rather than invent reasons as to why it must have been the "damnedest luck" - I'd prefer to hear a Dev reply to this. I definitely want to see more women in IT/VGs/Indie Dev - but if they are constantly given "unnecessary positions" which provide poor recognition, poor job stability (I'm sure Indie Devs are a poor stability industry in general) and let go. Well that's not exactly going to help anything.
I'm not going to get into the social and political nightmare that currently is happening on the Internet and VG scene for women in general. But I know two of my friends who do Indie Dev games are considering quitting the industry entirely over it. So there is a bit shit-fest happening.
Side note: One of my mates is a noise musician - and there are very few women in that genre making music, however one event runner has made it their mission to have 50/50 male/female representation at gigs. So far most of his gig's have had about a 40/60 and some have had 20/80 , but the fact he gets at least one female performer in every gig is an achievement in itself.
I am genuinely interested in a Dev response. BTW - I'm not 'raging' I just would like to know what went down, and if NK recognise the poor female representation in the industry - and if they care about this, and want (and will) to do anything about it within their team. NK's response could be "who cares, who cares, no, no and no" and I would simply be disappointed.
I hope everyone that was let go (men and women alike) can rejoin the team after things pick up again.
TUG modder (at least in the ounce of free time that occasionally flits by)
Its unfortunate that this is even a topic of issue, I would have liked to have thought that we have always been a very open, forthcoming and transparent (progressive?) group that does not take into consideration any notable difference of who the member is. The dynamics of how many women we have on the team, is about the amount of women (or talent in general) that are available for us to work with. We have only ever interviewed 4 women, of them, the one that was NOT hired, was because she was leaving the country in 3-6 months to live with her husband in another state and we needed someone in house.
Lo was a concept artist, sadly we just did not have the luxury of keeping her on going forward, as she did not work on direct game art or texturing in any form outside of concepts. Meryl worked on narrative and helped with videos and was a bit of my own counterbalance (kept me really questioning and challenging myself). And Jessica was a particle/effects artist. Those roles were not "critical" (i use that word loosely) for the things we had to focus on getting things done. But all of them have found other work, as they are VERY talented and we had and still have nothing but amazing things to say about them.
Also, on the state of the industry and women's representation: We are aware of it, its a bummer, and its not an easy solve. For us, we just do not have resources to do anything but build cool stuff, and we bring on the team anyone who has the talent and capability to help us reach our goals. But you better believe, that when we can, you will see us make those efforts where we can... you would be amazed the mass of BRILLIANT female social scientists out there who have NO idea how powerful they are are potential game designers, that we will be dragging into this industry. I need this to be an industry that looks at everyone the same, because I want my daughter to fall in love with this industry when she is old enough to make games, not be saddened by it.
Follow me on the twitters, why not? @inoritewtf
I'm an apprentice electrician; and in the last two years I've seen a positively enjoyable small spike of women hit into the construction industry; companies being more open to hiring them; as well as pro-female endorsement and spokesperson groups and incentive/awareness programs.
I love that there is encouragement; it is the only way to start tipping the scales and see more women contribite to industries they have mostly been locked out of or discouraged from being a part of.
Thanks again.