The panel discussions aim to explore diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry and seek to cater for people interested in e-sport, game development, and game like applications.
This panel discussion explores the work of women involved in the e-sports community and game development space. The panel is made up of women who play various crucial roles in the development and playing of games. The challenges, but also possible ideas and methods to support African women in the gaming scene will be discussed.
Moderation
Limpho Moeti is a business developer for Nyamakop, which is developing African-inspired video games for a global audience. She has previously worked at Free Lives (Broforce, Gorn) and was deputy festival director of South Africa's playful media festival, Playtopia. In her spare time she thinks of ways to smash the patriarchy, topple capitalism and what her true Dungeons and Dragons alignment is. She is definitely not a robot sent from the future to destroy human but her boss did call her the nuclear bomb of bizdev.
Twitter ∙
Website
Panelists
Sithe Ncube has been a part of the African game development scene since 2013 beginning with small community events in her hometown Lusaka, Zambia. Her participation grew locally as a regional organiser for Global Game Jam in Sub-Saharan Africa, various talks and events focused on game development in Africa. She is currently an Associate Producer at Nyamakop and a strategic advisor for Humble Games' Black Game Developer Fund. Sithe also documents African Women in Games through her website.
Website
Rohun Ranjit is a game designer at Free Lives, an indie game development studio based in Cape Town. He is currently working on Stick It To The Stickman (a physics brawler where you fight billionaires) and a bunch of personal projects that he’ll probably never finish.
Twitter ∙
TikTok
Bethlehem Anteneh is a game-thinking expert with an architectural design background who uses games as tools to build and activate communities, establish new industries, support local economies, design environments, frameworks and processes that elevate society’s perception, experience and problem-solving-instinct. She is the pioneer in bringing recognition to the potential of games locally and a major player in this industry in the African context. This allows her to support the pan-African movement where games can support development and the sustainable development goals. So far she has supported the gaming scene to foster the local economy. For her contribution in the gaming industry, she has recently won the name ‘People of the Year’ in 2021 for games industry and also the GI 100 | Game Changers award.
Nkateko Nompumelelo Kubayi is a young black female developer at Southgame Studio and leads the web content management system in her capacity as a qualified computer programmer. She is conversant in various programming languages including JavaScript, C++ and C#. She also has a 2-year experience with VR (Virtual Reality), 8 years in Web Development. In the year 2021, she was part of the ITTHYNK Game Academy and later that year, entered a game hackathon together with her team, hosted by Tshimologong in partnership with Telkom. They were the only female team and won third place. The studio is now currently under an incubation programme at WITS Tshimologong. In her spare time, Nkateko also troubleshoots the software used by Southgame and is an avid game developer.
Register to attend the #EveryGamerCounts: African Women in E-sport and the Gaming industry panel discussion
here.
About the project
#EveryGamerCounts aims to strengthen the inclusion, networking and visibility of underrepresented groups in the South African gaming scene and creates platforms that put the issue of diversity up for discussion.
By organising game jams and panel discussions, where experts from all over the world discuss current issues in e-sports and the gaming community, it seeks to challenge existing stereotypes and raise awareness of obstacles faced by women, minorities and people with disabilities in the industry.
Together, we are thus working for more equal opportunities to contribute to a higher proportion of women, minorities and underrepresented groups in the computer games industry and to more diversity in computer games in the medium term.
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