Q: What advice would you give to females who wish to join the gaming industry? Is there anything you wish you had known when you were starting out that you'd like to pass on to gaming industry newbies?

A: Boy, I’m just not 'in' the industry right now - by my own choice, however:>) I guess, though, my advice would be that in order to be successful in the gaming industry, you not only have to be a good game designer, but, you also have to be a good marketer. You have to have a good idea of the market, who's there, who's not, what are the niches being filled, what are the niches not being filled, where can empty niches be best filled and how. Once you have figured out the answers to those questions; i.e., you’ve figured out a niche that needs to be filled, where it needs to be filled, and generally 'how' it needs to be filled, you then need to figure out how best to accomplish the goal of getting the project completed and on the market. (That's the hard part:>) However, a great design fitting an obviously large, but unfilled niche can oftentimes convince someone to invest in your idea. One tip, though: If it were me, I wouldn't just think only in terms of designing a computer product for women alone. I would think of something that BOTH women and men would like. It's difficult, but it can be done. I've done it.

Q: Do you have any ideas about how to recruit more women into game development?

A: As long as most of the games being developed are for male players, it would be difficult to get more women into game development. I know that the answer I'm about to give will not be popular, but…

I think that women themselves will have to take the bull by the horns and figure out some computer games that women (and enough men) will want to play and then (somehow) get them done. Once those products have proven themselves popular and good-sellers, then women would have more doors opened to them. Sound difficult? Sound impossible? Maybe not impossible, but difficult, yes. Nobody said it would be easy. And, it’s not just convincing those 'guys' to move over and let you in, it's also convincing all of those women out there to plunk down their money and sit at their computers and actually take the time to play a game!

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