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Girl Games Network #2 (31/5/23)

Welcome back to the Girl Games Network Newsletter, a weekly roundup of games industry news and releases aiming to highlight the female and non-binary people working in games.

Summer Games Done Quick Returns!

From the 28th May to 4th June, 2023 the annual speedrunning fundraiser Summer Games Done Quick is back on Twitch raising money for Doctors Without Borders. Many of the runs are taking place at the Hilton Minneapolis, Minnesota for in-person attendees and VOD recordings of the runs can be found on GDQ's YouTube page afterwards.

Some runs and runners of note this time include :

31/5 Shadow the Hedgehog - Gamecube by MetalMedB (Glitchless Bidwar)

1/6 Golf It! - PC by Nichole Goodnight & Bathinjan (Classic First 5 Maps 100% Race)

1/6 Give Me Toilet Paper! - Switch by Asuka424 (Hand%)

2/6 VVVVV - PC by Metroid Crime (Any% Glitchless)

2/6 Pokémon Colosseum - Gamecube by Swiftalu and Sparkle (Any% Race)

3/6 Fire Emblem Engage - Switch by Claris (Any%)

4/6 Super Mario Maker 2 - Switch by TheRileyC, Aurateur, PangaeaPanga, TanukiDan, Shoujo, Caspur189, LilKirbs and Thabeast721 (Relay Race)

In addition to SGDQ, GDQ hosts charity speedruns throughout the year and gives a spotlight to female and non-binary runners in their Frame Fatale events. On-site and remote volunteer registration for the next FF event  "Flame Fatales'' will be open from the 9th-17th of June if this week's show inspires viewers to contribute.

As with every GDQ event for the last six years, programmer and artist lexyeevee (Fox Flux Deluxe) is hosting a game jam concurrently on itch.io, this time called "Games Made QVIICK??? HD REMIX", which will be running until the 5th of June.

https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

https://eev.ee/

https://itch.io/jam/games-made-qviick-hd-remix

Super Free Games Faces Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

Former Super Free Games (Word Collect) employee Haley Bowman (Sonos) filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court on the 11th of May, 2023 against the company for gender discrimination, unequal pay and being terminated while pregnant.

Super Free Games, formerly known as Super Lucky Games is a word and trivia game developer owned by the Stillfront Group and based in California with global remote employees, mostly across America. Although their careers page boasts a "flat management model" and insists on valuing a work-life balance, Bowman's case alleges "cronyistic" hiring practices, backed up by an anonymous former employee's review on Glassdoor.

In 2022, a Marketing Department Reduction in Force Committee was established at SFG and asked Bowman to leave her managerial marketing position for a position with a 20-26% pay cut in production on the grounds that she "had poor communication issues and created a level of mistrust with UA [the User Acquisition Team]". In her case, Bowman has said that there were no issues between her and UA. When she refused to take the cut and role change, she was terminated two months into a pregnancy she alleges SFG knew about and that her firing was falsely presented as a workforce reduction externally.

In addition to this, the lawsuit alleges an "unmistakable bias" against women, who make up less than a third of SFG, often being excluded from important meetings and social opportunities. Bowman also was not consulted on the marketing decisions that were key to her role in the Marketing division. SFG have not made any statements regarding the case as of two weeks after the filing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/discrimination-lawsuit-filed-against-san-franciso-game-developer/

https://superfree.com/careers/

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/super-free-games-receives-lawsuit-that-alleges-biases-against-women

https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-bowman/

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Super-Free-Games-RVW55119549.htm

https://www.stillfront.com/en/stillfront-group-acquires-super-free-games-a-leading-developer-of-casual-word-games/

News of Note :

Excellent fan-art of a new Zelda NPC https://www.tumblr.com/koyoriin/718151838948573184/so-she-might-not-be-a-major-character-but-violynne

Bandcamp United formed after a 31-7 vote by eligible Epic Games-owned Bandcamp employees https://linktr.ee/bandcampunited & https://blog.bandcamp.com/2023/05/19/bandcamp-and-bandcamp-united-release-joint-statement-on-union-vote/  

Layoffs at Brace Yourself Games (Crypt of the NecroDancer) https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-brace-yourself-games-lays-off-half-its-staff and Deck Nine Games (Life is Strange : True Colours) https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/life-is-strange-dev-deck-nine-games-hit-with-staff-layoffs

Gizmodo interviewed Patricia Summersett, Zelda's English Voice Actor https://gizmodo.com/zelda-tears-of-kingdom-patricia-summersett-interview-1850440189

A reminder of how easily companies can scrub out the name of some of their biggest contributors https://twitter.com/WeAreJoel/status/1661172665980276737

Playstation enters a partnership with the Women's National Basketball Association https://sonyinteractive.com/en/press-releases/2023/playstation-and-wnba-announce-multi-year-partnership/

COO of board game publisher Alderac makes sexist comments after designer Elizabeth Hargrave pointed out the gender disparity of the industry https://kotaku.com/board-game-sexism-women-designers-representation-1850472739

"Get in the Car, Loser!" lead developer Christine Love is getting back into streaming https://www.twitch.tv/christine_love

Guild Esports and Sky UK (TV broadcaster) launch their No Room For Abuse campaign to prevent women being harassed when playing online https://www.gamesindustry.biz/guild-and-sky-uk-launches-no-room-for-abuse-campaign

Marvelous Showcase announces two new Story of Seasons and Rune Factory game in development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMa-Aj3yF4g

Actor Grace Van Dien joins esports group FaZe Clan https://twitter.com/FaZeClan/status/1661809830221283347

Coming attractions :

Summer Games Fest returns online and in-person at the YouTube Theater, Los Angeles 8/6 https://www.summergamefest.com/

15/6 deadline to apply to the Canada Media Fund for up to $450,000 CAD for VR and AR projects https://cmf-fmc.ca/news/canada-and-france-launch-new-joint-incentive-for-virtual-and-augmented-reality-projects/

GDC Showcase 27-29/6 (book tickets before June to save $40) https://gdconf.com/

Thanks for reading this week's instalment and thank you for your patience - I'm not entirely settled on publishing these on Sundays yet as I find my feet with this. Also I'd initially wanted to write about the internal controversy that's come up from Grace Van Dien joining FaZe Clan, so I'd delayed this a little to try to do it justice, but the story's still developing, so look forward to a report on it next time!