We are women from Jagex, the studio responsible for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, and female content creators that play these games professionally. Help us celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 and ask us anything!

How did yall get into this industry? Have you faced a lot of challenges/obstacles in this career because of your gender?

Thanks!

I studied something Computer Science related and during this figured out that I really wanted to work in games. After I finished, I applied to all kinds of jobs: QA, Game Design and also translation and testing. Turns out, reading a lot of fantasy books as a kid and having a deep running love for English and puns is actually quite a useful skill and I got the job in Localisation as a Tester and Translator!

I stuck around longer than I originally anticipated, still with Jagex after 5.5 years!

The Localisation Team I am in has a pretty good gender balance, so in my immediate circles, I did not notice a lot of problems. During Uni, I remember a few awkward discussions though where I was the only women that had to weigh in one some weird discussions and clear up some misconceptions!

With being in development, how do you feel about the way the female body is displayed in most games? Some games are very revealing, do you try to limit the exposure?

Hmm, tricky one! Personally I dislike it if there is an imbalance between and the male and female version of the same armour. If the male one is super protective and the female one is ultra revealing, that is not great. If you give everyone the same range and choice, I think that is cool!

What is your professional advice and real advice for young people wanting to make games?

Hi! It depends a lot on the discipline, but if I had to give general advice I would say: Stay on it and don't be discouraged. Find a mentor if you can. If you want to work on a game you are passionate about, ask yourself: Can I prioritize my job over my interests as players?

Are there any examples of other women and/or their work either in Jagex or beyond in the larger gaming industry that inspire you/you aspire to be like in your own work either as creators or the games industry in general?

I have to say I've been impressed by the relentless positivity our very own Mod Loiosh has displayed in the office. She's had to deal with a fair bit of flack in her life and her previous experiences in the industry, and her energy and wit have really driven the point to me of why she is where she is now. She's an inspiration.

Also, I've been a long-term fan of u/prezleek's work and always have a giddy fangirl moment when I bump into her at Runefest!

This said there are loads of very talented people out there and this was by no mean an exhaustive list.

<3

Can confirm! I am always looking forward to the next one :D

Oh, so many! Gaohmee (Twitter) is an amazing game designer and I do look up to her a lot. In this company, there's a whole bunch of bold and awesome ladies who I aspire to be more like :) I love the persistence and passion of many of our content creators.

And if I could draw only half as good as Dagna (one of our artists) my life would be complete ^^

What is your favorite part of designing games?

Hiding eastereggs and little jokes and waiting to see how long it takes for people to find them!

What's your skin care routine?

Water and a microfibre cloth... I don't have that much patience for these kind of things in the evening.

What are your pets?

I don't have of my own at the moment but I keep eyeing the cat and dog adoption pages and I catsit for a lot of my colleagues :D

what is your favourite piece of content/contribution to the game made by someone else?

That is a tough one, there is so much stuff in there that I loved. But probably Violet is Blue - a lot of heart went into it (translating it and going awwww the the dialogue was a really lovely memory too!)

What is the one thing you do like and one thing you don't like about the Runescape community?

My favourite thing is our awesome art community! I love seeing the creativity and love that players pour into their art pieces.

One thing that sometimes makes me a bit sad is how extreme some of the comments can get, especially when specific people are targeted. I think feedback is such an important part of game development and it can be so helpful and contribute a lot to making the game the best it can be, but having to filter through a lot of nonconstructive negativity can make it really hard.

How many employees does Jagex have? Is it a typical "gamer" atmosphere or is it the vibe no different to any other office job?

I think we're coming to around 400? It is definitely a fun mix of office and gamer vibes! There are open plan office spaces and regular desks, but then there are also godswords and pieces of armour strewn around in between and we have lots of amazing artwork up. Plus there are some nice gaming areas for break times, definitely more chill than some other offices I have seen!

Which God(s) would you follow if you lived in Gielinor and why?

Brassica Prime - for the deliciousness!

What is the very best cheese?

German mountain cheese or Gruyere type stuff!

What is your proudest gaming achievement?

And off the back of this, what is your most embarrassing gaming moment?

Getting the gold trophies in all levels of Catherine! So much swearing was involved in this one :D

The most embarrassing one? When my mum absolutely smashed my Tetris Highscore as a kid!

What has Jagex done to combat sexism both in studio and in game? And how can as women (players and developers), we all continue to influence change within the industry?

Like @JagexJZ already said, we do have an internal Diversity group that was started up by a bunch of us. We are running employee driven initiatives (like this AMA) and offer people a platform to share ideas for improvements!

There are a lot of ways to tackle this from different angles: - Get support! We have buy in from lots of high level people in the company that stand behind our initiatives, which helps a lot. - Elevate others: See open job positions and know a woman that would be perfect for the role? Encourage and champion women you know! - Inspire new generations. My favourite day at work this year was definitely when we hosted a work shop together with Girls' Game Lab and taught 8-12 year old girls how to make their first game in one afternoon! We also went to a few school career days and talked about our jobs. I wish someone had told me early on this was a possible career path, so I could have learned many of the required skills earlier on! - Offer platforms and ways that allow people to safely point out bad stuff.

Sneakily using this to ask our content creators: What was your favourite stream/video you made?