Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
APPENDIX
Particular Groups
In the concept stage of game design, you must choose a target audience for your
game, and throughout development you must keep that audience in mind. This
appendix briefly addresses some design considerations you should take into account
if you want to appeal to three groups long underserved by the game industry: adult
women, children generally, and girls specifically. We also briefly discuss accessibil-
ity issues for players with disabilities of various kinds, as well as resources for
further research. If you plan to design with these groups in mind, it pays to give
extra thought to, and do extra research on, their needs and interests.
Reaching Adult Women
But what if the player is female?
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ENDER
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NCLUSIVE
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AME
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ESIGN
Women represent a gigantic portion of the gamer market. Audience research
shows that in the United States, more adult women (34 percent) than teenage boys
(18 percent) play video games, a statistic that may surprise you (Entertainment
Software Association, 2009).
Men and women don't differ nearly as much as various works of pop psychology
would like us to believe. Few individuals conform completely to traditional stereo-
types of masculinity and femininity, and men's and women's interests overlap
considerably. In
Gender Blending
, Holly Devor (Devor, 1989) quoted studies showing
that as many as 50 percent of heterosexual women identified themselves as having
been tomboys as children. Unfortunately, far too many game designers (and prod-
uct designers in general) treat men and women as entirely different species with
little in common.
Gender Inclusiveness
To attract women players, you don't have to make the game about stereot y pically
feminine interests such as fashion or shopping, any more than you have to make
games about monster truck rallies to attract men. Rather, to make a game of interest
to both sexes, you only need to avoid including material that discourages one group
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