Sheri Graner Ray, president of Sirenia Software, Inc., is former head of product development at HerInteractive.com and is the designer of HerInteractive’s Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill. Sheri has been in the girl games business since its inception, as she produced the first computer game designed specifically for girls: HerInteractive’s McKenzie and Co. She left HerInteractive.com in 1998 and started her own gaming company, Sirenia Software. The folks at Sirenia are dedicated to producing "technically sophisticated, fun games for girls." Sirenia boasts a team of industry veterans, with a combined experience of over 20 years in the software and computer game industries. With their stated mission of becoming the industry’s "premiere developer of games for females," this is a company to watch.
Q: Tell us about your background and what motivated you to become involved in the girl games industry.
A: I got into the computer game industry because it was the only job where I could list 15 years of playing Dungeons and Dragons as actual work experience! LOL!
I started at Origin Systems, Inc in 1991 where I was a writer and designer on the Ultima Series of games. It was there I first became interested in girls and computer games. The Ultimas had a large number of female players (relative to other RPG’s) and I thought that by figuring out what they liked, why they liked it and how we could apply that to the computer games we were making we could expand our market share.
Q: What went into your decision to leave HerInteractive and start your own company, Sirenia Software, Inc?
A: The opportunity actually sought me out in the form of investors and agents. I simply couldn’t turn it down.
Q: Tell us about the staff at Sirenia Software.
A:We are currently working under a contractor model as we are still fairly new and just getting our legs under us, so to speak. However, the contractors we use are close friends as well as extremely competent. The fun part is they are all what you would call "hardcore" game developers with titles such as Wing Commander, Ultima Online and "This Means War" on their resumes. So we have top notch technical fire power that is excited about putting that knowledge to work for the girls’ market.
Q: What distinguishes Sirenia from the other girl games companies? Do you view other girl games companies as your competition, and/or is there a sense of a common goal?
A: Our overall game industry experience and gaming background is probably what sets us apart. I’ve always said, "I’m a gamer first and a girls’ game developer second." We truly understand what makes a game "fun" as compared to just "cool" or just "for girls." We develop games the girls really *want* to play, not games we think the girls *should* play. That’s a very fine but very distinct difference.
As for the other girls game companies….absolutely, we are all working together to make this market work. That’s half the fun of being in this particular niche in this industry. There aren’t that many of us, and the market has such HUGE potential. And, in some ways, we HAVE to work together because if any one of us fail, it casts doubt upon the validity of all of us.
What’s really neat is that the games each of us produce are so different… from my "Vampire Diaries" to Girl Games’ "Let’s Talk About me!" to Barbie. And the market loves all of them! That’s because the "girls game market" isn’t just one style of game, it’s a whole new audience that is as diverse in their likes as the traditional market is.
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