The five women who rocked the gaming industry this year

An ode to industry icons on International Women’s Day

"It's a man’s world," so the saying goes, and while the men of the gaming industry might be better known, there are thousands of women working behind the scenes that make gaming great. While a rare few have experienced the spotlight shining on them, they are no less worthy of it. This International Women’s Day, we wanted to celebrate five women (and one non-binary person) who made the gaming industry amazing recently. While many women have made a huge impact on games over the years, these are the ones who stood out to us over the past 12 or so months.

Here’s our appreciation for the amazing women who have made our year.

Mari Shimazaki

Mari Shimazaki is an incredible character artist who has worked on a number of series, including Soul Calibur and Bayonetta. With the release of Bayonetta 3 last year – my personal game of the year – there was no way I could overlook Shimazaki’s work. When asked to design Bayonetta, one of the industry’s most fabulously fierce female protagonists, Shimazaki came back with over one hundred ideas for her design. The amount of detail that goes into each one of her characters is simply breathtaking. For die-hard fans, there are Easter eggs to spot in the smallest design decisions, like a shape in an earring, or a swirl on the back of a demon.

Manon Gage

Acting is difficult to get right. Immortality asks us to solve the mystery of missing actor Marissa Marcel, played by Manon Gage. See, this is where the game becomes very meta, because you are watching an actor who is playing an actor, blurring the line between reality and fiction. Manon Gage is, of course, never acting as Manon Gage, but her performance is so believable that Marissa and Manon blend into one on screen. Add into the mix that Gage is playing Marissa Marcel who in turn is playing Matilda, Franny, or Zoe in the footage you watch, and you realize that Gage is performing a parlor trick on the level that few actors could.

Yuri Stern & Barbara Wittmann

Signalis was one of the indie breakouts of last year. It’s so good that it’s hard to believe that it was created entirely as the dream of two people, Yuri Stern, and Barbara Wittmann. The pair worked together to design, direct, draw, program, and write a game that was considered one of the year’s best. Signalis is one of the most complex and touching stories of last year. It has a lesbian couple at the core, who attempt to stay true to each other despite the harsh environment they find themselves in.

Roberta Williams

Cygnus Entertainment

Roberta Williams is a name you should already know. She has been in the industry since the beginning, and shaped what video games were to become, designing and writing games such as Mystery House, Phantasmagoria, and the King’s Quest series. After selling Sierra Online and signing a five-year non-compete deal, Williams went into gaming retirement and sailed around the world. However, during lockdown, she had the idea to recreate the game that started her off in the industry, Colossal Cave. Coming out of retirement for its release, we can’t wait to see what she will do next. Check out our interview with Ken and Roberta Williams about how things have changed since they first started making games.

Ayako Furukawa

Plenty of achingly gorgeous games came out in 2022, but few were as beautiful as Triangle Strategy. As the overall art director, Ayako Furukawa’s ideas helped the 2.5D world of Norzelia come to life, while Naoki Ikushima could link the worlds of Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default, and Triangle Strategy together with his designs. To end this article with another saying, “behind every great man is a greater woman”, and in Triangle Strategy, you can see how Furukawa shaped Ikushima’s designs into a breathtaking world.