The humanitarian organization UNICEF wants to increase the number of female game developers. Together with GameLab, the video game development and research laboratory at the Kazakh-British Technical University, she prepared a free course on video games.
The course is called “LEVEL UP: Introduction to Video Games and Gamification”. Everyone can take the course, but it is focused primarily on high school students. According to the organizers, it is usually in high school that girls “give up under the pressure of gender stereotypes and choose a career along the path of least resistance.”
Judging by the course program, schoolgirls will be told about the gaming industry and professions in it, the principles of gamification and the basics of game design. They will also be taught to develop games at a basic level.
At the end of the course, girls will be able to get advice from female developers as part of the girl2girl mentoring initiative (GameLab is currently looking for female mentors to participate in the initiative).