Women in the Italian video game industry: Nintendo gives a voice to the developers
There are over 17 million Italians who play videogames: this is the 39% of the population aged 6 to 64 years. These are the data of IIDEA, the Association that represents the video game industry in Italy, from the Annual Report I videogames in Italy in 2019, a balance that will be updated shortly with the new edition dedicated to 2020, but which for the past four years reports a constant growth in the number of players in the Bel Paese. A trend that demonstrates how video games are increasingly establishing themselves as a mass phenomenon. Certainly thanks to real blockbusters that have made people talk about themselves and the industry in general in recent years, transforming the videogame from an object of entertainment for a portion of enthusiasts, with a deeply topical theme, the mirror of an entire generation. In this scenario of continuous growth, women are 47%, representing almost half of the slice of Italian gamers. But when it comes to who makes video games for work, what is the situation and what are the possibilities for female gamers?
Nintendo, in collaboration with IIDEA, answers this question with a new appointment dedicated to independent video game developers. A digital round table entirely dedicated to the pink shares of the sector, which gave space and voice to some of the most important studies on the Italian scene. The developers told about the experience of working with the Nintendo Switch console and their stories, but also the daily challenges that this sector reserves, a dream for many young people, and above all everything that involves being a woman who works with video games.
The journalist Fabrizia Malgieri, who then gave the floor to Violetta Leoni of One O One Games, Alessandra Tomasina of Digital Tales, Domiziana Suprani of Studio Evil and Fortuna Imperatore (name of art Axel Fox), a real one-woman studio. All 100% Italian realities, authors of successful games such as The Suicide of Rachel Foster, acclaimed for the attention with which it deals with extremely delicate topics such as death and suicide, VR Ping Pong Pro, Fury Roads Survivor, all branded One O One Games, and Bookbound Brigade, a fun Metroidvania with historical and literary characters developed by Digital Tales.
"One O One Games is really pleased to be part of the Nintendo world and I am very happy to have been able to tell the my work experience as an Italian developer at today's event "says Violetta Leoni, Executive Producer of the studio. "There are three titles that we will soon be releasing on Nintendo Switch, products that have already registered a great success."
"I am truly honored to be invited to participate in this new Nintendo event dedicated to the Indies. I am happy to have had the opportunity to tell how Bookbound Brigade was born and how it is made, which is not only the first Digital Tales game for Switch but which is at home on this platform, given the long love story between the Metroidvania genre and the great N. "declares Alessandra Tomasina, joining the enthusiasm for the Nintendo initiative.
The protagonists of the round table are also Super Cane Magic Zero, a video game born from the pen of the well-known cartoonist Sio and developed by Studio Evil, and Freud's Bones by Axel Fox, an adventure about the father of psychoanalysis, winner of the Red Bull Indie Forge in 2020 as the best Italian independent videogame.
Studio Evil's Domiziana Suprani states: "Every Nintendo event dedicated to Indie is a wonderful opportunity to get to know Italian teams and developers better, adding new pieces to the panorama of our videogame industry each time. ", While Fortuna Imperatore, aka Axel Fox, adds:" Participating in a an event of this depth represents an extraordinary opportunity for me. The only idea of being able to combine the word 'Nintendo' with my name in the same sentence is a chimera. "
Almost four years after the release of Nintendo Switch, the library of the Nintendo home console is gradually growing, so much so that it has surpassed the milestone of over 2000 titles, and this also thanks to independent development companies , increasingly synonymous with quality. Nintendo has chosen to be at the forefront in supporting local development studios by providing, with these dedicated round tables, a great opportunity for media and public visibility for developers, so that they can continue to grow and evolve.
