Diversity & Inclusion reports and market data
Documents
How to make great games without crunch / mental health problems in the games industry
Burnout in the game development industry is a multifaceted crisis driven by systemic issues, including prolonged crunch, insufficient autonomy, and poor project prioritization.
- Sustained overtime beyond a two-week period leads to diminishing returns in productivity and a measurable decline in overall product quality.
- Studios must transition from an hours-logged culture to a goal-oriented efficiency model that prioritizes focused output over exhaustive labor.
- Preventing crunch requires rigorous project scoping and realistic planning at the management level to ensure timelines align with human capacity.
Finnish Game Industry Report 2018
The Finnish game industry has matured into a stable, two-billion-euro sector characterized by professionalization and a strategic shift toward long-term sustainability.
- The Finnish game industry has a strong history of significant international investments and acquisitions, including Softbank acquiring 51% of Supercell (2012-2014) and Tencent acquiring 80% of Supercell (2016), alongside numerous game studio acquisitions.
- Helsinki is a global leader in mobile game development, hosting over 80 companies, 1,600 employees (28% non-Finnish), and generating a 2018 turnover of 1.7 billion EUR, with 98.4% from exports.
- Finnish developers are rapidly adopting Nintendo (Switch) as a target platform, with its popularity growing from 4% in 2016 to 20% in 2018; chat games also emerged as a new focus (5% in 2018).
Corporate Responsibility Report 2019
The 2019 corporate-responsibility effort positions Modern Times Group (MTG) as a dedicated gaming and esports holding that integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into its core strategy.
- Modern Times Group (MTG) has integrated ESG considerations into its core business strategy to mitigate material risks and drive profitability among millennial and Gen Z audiences.
- The company identified health and well-being and gender equality as the top-tier priorities within its three-tier materiality analysis.
- MTG implemented nine new group policies, including frameworks for anti-bribery, data protection, and whistle-blowing, to standardize corporate governance.
The CVAA and Gaming: Your Legal Responsibilities
The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act mandates that all video games incorporating real-time communication services must be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
- Since the industry-wide waiver expired on January 1, 2019, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) legally mandates that all games with real-time communication features must be accessible to users with disabilities.
- Compliance requires developers to prioritize accessibility during the initial design phase rather than treating it as an afterthought.
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not mandate specific technical formats but requires companies to provide evidence of proactive engagement with the disability community.
Playing with Pride: When Game Culture and LGBTQ Culture Collide
The intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and gaming culture reveals a complex history of alienation transformed into a powerful medium for self-discovery and community building.
- LGBTQ players often use character creators as a safe space to explore gender identity, frequently projecting their own identities onto characters or utilizing non-human avatars to bypass rigid gender constraints.
- The gaming industry has historically been perceived as unwelcoming or hostile by LGBTQ individuals, leading many to abandon titles like World of Warcraft due to bullying or a lack of representation.
- Queer gamers are increasingly organizing into formal communities and physical meetups, such as the former Gamer X convention, to share resources and advocate for more inclusive game content.
PGC Helsinki 2018 Pecha Kucha sessions: King's Sabrina Carmona
The integration of diversity into character design serves as a critical responsibility for modern game developers, as the global reach of mobile and digital gaming necessitates broader representation.
- Modern game developers have a responsibility to move beyond the industry-standard 'white, male, and able-bodied' protagonist model to better reflect the global mobile gaming audience.
- Character design must intentionally challenge traditional tropes, such as the over-sexualization of women, the portrayal of elderly characters as villains, and the use of gendered color palettes.
- Developers should evaluate whether specific design choices serve a legitimate narrative purpose or if they are merely reinforcing outdated biases.
Looking beyond blindness: The important role of the disabled in product development
The integration of disabled individuals into the product development lifecycle is a critical, often overlooked strategy for the gaming industry.
- Accessibility must be treated as a foundational design principle integrated from the project's inception rather than an expensive, late-stage add-on.
- Inclusive design features, such as subtitles and high-contrast visuals, improve the user experience for the entire player base, including casual players and those in noisy environments.
- Developers should engage disabled individuals as a viable consumer demographic with significant purchasing power, rather than viewing accessibility through the lens of fear or prohibitive cost.
Sami in play: Building games on indigenous themes
The integration of Sámi culture into the Finnish game industry represents a critical shift toward authentic indigenous representation in digital media.
- Successful indigenous game development requires a collaborative framework that prioritizes direct engagement with community experts to ensure historical accuracy and linguistic precision.
- Developers must move beyond exoticized stereotypes and superficial mysticism to portray Sámi culture as a modern, evolving identity that includes both traditional practices and contemporary lived experiences.
- Initiatives like the Sámi Game Jam serve as a model for how developers can work alongside indigenous communities to create content that is both educational and engaging.
Building an Inclusive Tech Lab: How and Why You Should Too
The Inclusive Tech Lab serves as a strategic initiative to embed accessibility into the core of game development by fostering empathy and providing hands-on education for designers.
- The Inclusive Tech Lab transitioned from temporary pop-up stations to a permanent, purpose-built facility to move accessibility from theoretical knowledge to hands-on developer engagement.
- The facility hosted over 3,400 visitors in a five-month period, demonstrating that dedicated physical spaces effectively bridge the gap between technical development and user needs.
- Operational success is driven by prioritizing feedback from individuals with lived experience over internal simulations to ensure authentic validation of accessibility features.
Girl Games of the 1990s: A Retrospective
The 1990s marked a pivotal shift in interactive media as developers challenged the industry’s dismissal of female players by proving the commercial viability of games designed specifically for girls.
- The 'girl games' genre of the 1990s relied heavily on evidence-based design, with companies like Purple Moon conducting extensive research with thousands of girls to inform game mechanics rather than relying on developer assumptions.
- Barbie Fashion Designer (1996) was a pivotal success that proved the necessity of television advertising for the genre, despite initial skepticism from publishers who were unfamiliar with the market potential.
- The genre experienced a significant boom in the mid-1990s but largely collapsed by 2006, as many projects were viewed as short-term marketing phenomena rather than sustainable long-term business models.
A How-To Guide for Muslim Representation in Video Games
The video game industry faces a critical imperative to move beyond the reductive stereotypes and tokenism that have historically marginalized the global Muslim population.
- The global Muslim population of 1.6 billion is currently underserved by industry narratives that rely on reductive stereotypes, conflating the faith with conflict or monolithic Middle Eastern identities.
- Authentic representation requires moving beyond tokenism by integrating diverse Muslim characters across entire casts rather than relying on isolated, stereotypical portrayals.
- Studios should prioritize the inclusion of Muslim voices throughout the creative process by hiring Muslim professionals and utilizing cultural consultants to ensure accuracy in religious attire, rituals, and symbolism.
Dream Daddy: How Game Grumps Created Player Inclusivity and You Can Too
The development of Dream Daddy serves as a practical blueprint for integrating meaningful player inclusivity into indie game projects without requiring massive budgets or extensive production timelines.
- Meaningful player inclusivity can be achieved by prioritizing high-impact design choices, such as diverse body types and hairstyles, over resource-heavy, complex customization sliders.
- Inclusivity is a design-led process that benefits from integrating diverse consultants to refine narrative tone and ensure authentic representation.
- The development team utilized a custom tool called the DDML compiler to facilitate iterative script improvements and the seamless integration of gender-neutral dialogue.