BIPOC women leaders in gaming: Be audacious, and don’t stop creating

This year’s Diversity in Gaming Lunch at GamesBeat Next 2024, presented by Xsolla, tackled game funding, and how developers from endemically overlooked groups have found success in an already competitive industry. Bridget Stacy, vice president, marketing at Xsolla welcomed Sheloman Byrd, CEO of Open Ocean Games, Jenny Xu, CEO of Talofa Games and Jessica Murrey, CEO and co-founder of Wicked Saints Studios for a candid conversation on the challenges they’ve faced and overcome to get their games made.

Right now, fundraising, getting hired, launching a game in this industry is hard no matter who you are, your background or your identity, Murrey said.

“But what tends to happen is that when things are tough and tight, people fall back to their safe place, the thing they’re comfortable with, the thing they know,” she continued. “We don’t even do it consciously, but that’s what tends to happen.”

That means the folks who have been traditionally players in the industry — overwhelmingly white, straight, cis men, will still have a better chance at getting to the front of the line.

In 2022, raising $1.1 million put Murrey in the top 100 Black game company founders; raising $5 million this year put her in the top 15, yet $5 million is peanuts for game ventures. The argument is that there could be any number of reasons besides discrimination. But also, in 2023, Black founders received only .5% percent of all venture funds that year. A pitch can get shut down in an instant, once the elephant in the room is addressed — a BIPOC creator’s identity, in other words — because no one wants to feel as if they’ve somehow been put on the spot, or sit in an uncomfortable issue.

“As soon as that happens, someone says something just slightly off, it’s over. There’s no chance of getting the job, getting the funding, getting anything like that,” Murrey said. “I cried my eyes out, get up, pat my face, do two more pitches, and then that night I had to go to a Griffin Gaming Partners event at the Four Seasons. I was just done. That moment, I realized, I just need to be comfortable and be myself and find the right people. There was no point in me trying to jump through all these hoops. Just be authentically and audaciously myself.

Xu, who identifies as member of Gen Z, knew from the start she wanted to make games and start her own studio. She made her first game at 12, and had made 100 by the time she was 18 — and the millions of downloads helped pay for MIT. But she still wasn’t sure she could make the cut, she said.

“This whole story of funding ties into my journey to finding self-confidence, being able to own my story,” she said. “As an Asian person growing up, I was always told to be humble. Downplay your achievements. Smile. Be nice. I also perpetually look 16. It’s hard to put myself out there and say, ‘I’ve made 100 games.’”

Scholarship and mentorship programs were her saving grace. She was able to attend her first GDC with support from the International Game Developer’s Association scholarship, and she had safe people to talk to, to offer advice and encouragement and a solid place to land throughout the opportunities she’s been fortunate enough to take advantage of.

“This is from the tailwinds of Sheloman, of Jess, of people who’ve raised money before me,” she said. “There’s so much support, scholarship programs, mentoring I’ve gotten from people that I think I wouldn’t have gotten if I did this five or 10 years ago. There are real people out there, platforms like Apple and Google, who truly put their money where their mouth is. They’ve gone to bat for me. I do think there’s real change happening here.”

That said, the backwards attitudes still linger, and can pop up at any moment, especially when you’re the only BIPOC person at the table, Byrd said, and it’s critical to know who you are, and to not allow that kind of disrespect to fester.

“Those are the moments when the person thinks it’s okay to make that kind of joke to someone else who may not react. Nope. We don’t do that,” she said. “So, just in terms of how far we’ve come as an industry, we ain’t come that far. We have a lot to go.”

But pushing back against these attitudes, whether in a networking situation or during a client meeting, is where wins for the industry come across the board, she said.

“When you have the moments to make an impact, to deliver a message of, ‘No, your ignorance is not tolerated here, even if you don’t know it’s ignorance, and I’ll explain to you how, so this is not a mistake you make in the future,’ that’s a part of inclusion for both sides,” she explained. “It’s about saying, what does this person need to feel comfortable expressing themselves, in every room? I’m unbelievably optimistic about that. When I look at Gen Z, when I look at the coming creativity, it’s not one that ignores race, but embraces it as a part of those identities.”

Getting heard, getting ahead

The industry is a big one, and there are plenty of folks who will go to bat for you, Xu said. Find the mentors, find the folks who understand, who will show up for you, and for whom you can show up for in return.

“VC funding is so much about who you know, putting yourself in the right place,” she said. “These people will be your support network as you’re going on any journey, whether it’s funding or starting up at a new job. I would find your core group and really do the work of following up, making friends.”

One of the hardest things about being a person of color or being someone underrepresented is that you don’t feel like you can fail, Murrey said. The stakes feel so high — that the first time you fail, you prove everyone right.

“I encourage you to do it anyway. Be audacious. Swing for the fences, miss, adjust, swing again,” she said. “That is where innovation comes from. You’re bringing something so unique. Keep creating. No one can stop you from creating. Someone can not give you money, not hire you, not promote you, fire you. No one can stop you from creating.”

The edge is the best place to be, Byrd added.

“It might not seem like it, but you can see everything in front of you, and the only thing you can do is fall back and die if you don’t succeed,” she said. “So succeed.”