Girls on the game!

New media business development agency Wired Sussex is delighted to announce the resounding success and winners of the Game Girl Design Competition. The pilot scheme, which ran at City College Brighton & Hove, was designed to give students a real life taste of games development and help increase the number of women attracted to the industry.

The pilot culminated on Friday 28 November, when seven teams pitched their game ideas to a panel of industry experts. From these, the judges chose two winning teams – M.A.R.K. and Dark Horse – with each team being awarded a days work experience with global games service specialists Babel Media.

The single-sex teams produced an industry standard game proposal, and their final presentations were judged on the following criteria:

• Game concept
• Feasibility
• Artwork
• Visual presentation
• Project management
• Verbal communication
• Team dynamics
• Professionalism

All female team M.A.R.K. designed a dance mat-based health and fitness game called E-Workout, challenging the notion that game play is a passive and unhealthy pursuit. Course tutor Rona Innes from City College felt the game was "ambitious and had a good twist" and that it could "potentially convert non-gamer females, rather than appealing to serious gamers of both sexes."

Dark Horse pitched a fantasy, adventure game called Tallulah that featured several unique selling points. These included the fact that the Chinese storyline was supported with traditional Chinese music and artwork, which closely referenced buildings, scenery and plants from that era. This, combined with a highly professional design and pitch, swung the panel's decision.

Commenting on her experience of the pilot, Rebecca Burns-Izatt from M.A.R.K, said: "This project has taught me many things about why females don't participate in computer games, something I've never considered before. I was able use these reasons as a guideline around which to base our game, in order to make it appealing to girls."

Dan Chequer, designer at Wide Games and Game Girl judge, added: "Congratulations are in order for all involved in this pilot scheme, and it deserves to be taken further in the future. The industry is so male dominated at present, there is a risk that some women may feel too intimidated to even try getting involved in game development. Schemes such as this will hopefully let women know their input in the design and creation of games is appreciated and desired."

Following an initial approach by Wired Sussex, Babel Media was delighted to lend full support to the project. Paul Munford, Babel's director of communications, said: "We've been saying for years that gaming could do with a shake up regarding the lack of women in the industry. We were very pleased to welcome the winners to our offices and hope they were encouraged by their experience here."

Following the event, Wired Sussex's new media project manager, Tara Solesbury, commented: "We were highly impressed by the quality and creativity of all the designs, and the positive feedback we've received demonstrates that everyone involved found the project to be an enjoyable and valuable exercise. This success gives us an excellent basis from which to roll out the scheme, and we are currently investigating opportunities across the UK."

The Game Girl initiative will deliver elements of the Learning and Skills Council's (LSC) New Media Workforce Development Action Plan, as part of Learning Pays! Learning Pays! is the name given to the Sussex LSC Workforce Development Strategy, which aims to bring about a culture shift in education, training and staff development to achieve a more skilled local workforce.

More information on Game Girl, including supportive photography and screen grabs from the winning designs, is available upon request.