Delivered at Casual Connect Tel Aviv. In 2015, women and girls held over 50% of the mobile games consumers market. Yet, many games don't have any female representation or still feature a very limited image of female stigmatic colors and style. This talk will discuss statistics about the quantity of young female games per casual game genre and how to make games that appeal to young girls and have diverse and original female characters.

1. A little about me...
● Educational Game
developer at Helen Doron
English
● The illustrator of the english
and hebrew comic “You
Must Be Fun At Parties”
( ‫למה‬‫את‬‫חייבת‬‫להרוס‬ )

2. Meet Helen Doron’s game and TV series
character , Polly The Collie

3. Female Female Also female (of course !)
...which is a female.
Turns out all these characters I thought were male ,
are actually female

4. How to create gender neutral games for kids

5. Toy aisles today
Girls:
- pink and pastel colors
- cooking , beauty, baby and animal nurturing
- highly feminized from a young age
Boys:
- blue and primary colors
- adventure, building, science, racing, shooting

6. Boys
Girls
Lego in the 1970’s : Gender Neutral
But it wasn't always like that...
Lego Today : Gender divided

7. Strawberry Shortcake Evolution
1980 2003 2007 2013
Today:
Strawberry Shortcake
beauty merchandise

8. Google play search: Boys vs. girls apps
boys
Girls
Cooking
Baby care
Boys
Building
Racin
g

9. 2009
2014
2013
Angry Birds Evolution
Not gendered
Anyone can choose their
own genders for birds
Gendered
-All Birds are male except Matilda
-Matilda get a new “feminine”
design
-stella added to cartoon
-Stella gets a separate game
- Main Angry birds games
include mostly male
characters

10. But things are changing in the toy & gaming world...
Temple Run
Has 60% female players
Minecraft
Has 40% female players on
PC/console and 58% female
players on mobile

11. (1)Choosing your colors
Or : What’s wrong with a pink jeep?

12. Don’t use: gendered colors. why?
- Children prefer toys based on
gender associations - color coding
limits their game choices
- Teaches boys and girls they are so
different, they can't even play with
the same toy
- Girls playing with “boy toys” in
feminine colors, see them as
different than the “regular” toys or
“adjusted” so they can play them.
Do Use: Gender Neutral Colors

13. Other Hair dressing apps Toca Hair Salon
Color pallette: Color pallette:

14. Other Robot apps:
Color pallette: Color pallette:
Toca Robot
Lab:
Abuzz Robot
Lab:

15. ...And one robot game for the girls:

16. (2) Letting girls be girls

17. Boy characters
Look like boys, age-appropriate
Girl characters
Feminine, have makeup and curvy
figure from a young age

18. Boy animals Girl animals:
The dreaded pink bonnet...

19. - Start from character traits, like :
size , color , personality - and not from his/hers
gender.
- Avoid overused color combinations and gender
markers
- Make sure the design is age appropriate
- Players can understand the character’s gender
through dialogue and story
Making a good female character

20. Fruit Ninja
Mari
- Doesn’t have too
feminine features for her
age
- A part of the team:
Doesn’t have different-
colored (e.g pink) or
shaped uniform from the
rest

21. Masha And The
Bear
- Doesn’t have too
feminine features for
her age .
Actually looks like a
child
- Her clothing fits her
activities (living in the
woods)
*based on a russian tv series

22. Toss - Cut The Rope 2
- Looks like a monster/creature
and not too feminized
- A part of the team: Doesn’t
have different-colored (e.g
pink) , design or size from the
rest
Kiko - Kiko’s Thinking Time
- Looks like a regular and not
too feminized
- Her gender is revealed by
story and context

23. (3) Have a variety of characters

24. How To make sure the
game includes a variety of
characters?
- Add the character gender in the end of the
design / don’t assign genders
- Make sure both genders are represented in
“feminine” or “masculine” games
- Count your characters - you might find
surprising things!

25. Subway Surfers
A variety of female characters
Basic game has 8 male characters and 5 female .
Expansions games have more than 10 other unlockable female characters
Variety of boy characters too!

26. Crossy Roads
Has a variety of female characters
Has a lot of gender-less / un-gendered
characters ,that kids can imagine either way

27. Nurturing , baby care, beauty etc. games
offering characters
?

28. And Remember : We are so much more than our
gender...
That’s
Nintendo’s
Kirby!