Main promo art for Indivisible features Ajna in the front and center.

This topic comes up frequently enough in forums that I wanted to write an article summarizing my thoughts on the topic. To start, this list is not comprehensive and is in no way a “right” answer to this sticky question.

I want to start this list with a few prerequisites. As a developer, you must be open to feedback. None of these next few points will help if you turn down all the suggestions brought to you, even if some of the suggestions are hard to swallow. Since you’re making the attempt to reach out to this audience anyways, it would be beneficial for you to at least sit on these ideas for a bit.

It would also be easier to incorporate a lot of these points into your game early in the development cycle before you have story and art locked down. In fact, the earlier you start thinking about these things, the more coherent they will be in your game.

With all that said, let’s jump into my list! At the very end, I’ll include some example of successful games that have an inclusionary audience.

Write Strong Female Characters

D.Va from Overwatch is a StarCraft II pro player turned hero.

So what makes a strong female character? This doesn’t mean she has to beat up other characters (eg. Bayonetta, Tifa, fighting games, etc.), though that sure doesn’t hurt. It means you want to write a character who is fully fleshed out, has well explored motivations, potentially grows throughout your game and also identifies as a woman. Essentially, focus first on writing a good character. The gender of your character shouldn’t change your creative process, but you will need to keep in mind some character traits that make her female.

As a follow-up, I want to point out that it’s important not to damsel your character. Don’t let this character be walked over. Maybe make her the leader of an army. Don’t let other characters talk over her. Write her dialogue lines so she speaks in an assertive tone. In general, give her power and control over herself and her situation.

Also, don’t tokenize your female character so she ends up being the only female in a group of adventurers. In most JRPGs, you will see a good mix and both male and female party members (eg. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc).

Avoid the Male Gaze

Now that you have this great character, you need to create art and visual assets for her. Your character should be wearing clothing appropriate to the context. Is she running a marathon? She probably shouldn’t be wearing a bra that lets her boobs flop around. Is she fighting a battle? Her chest plate shouldn’t have protrusions specifically for her boobs. I won’t get into it too much here, but boob armor is probably a bad idea. I’m not saying it can’t be used at all, but most instances of boob armor are being misused. In general, give her clothing that is meant to fit her story, and not meant to be fan service.

Appropriate usage of a battle bikini — Phoebe from Indivisible

Context appropriate attire doesn’t mean your female character can’t be sexy. In fact, it’s great to have a diverse representation of female characters. Having a character who is in control and comfortable with her sexuality is always refreshing to see in games. Just don’t let her fall into the pitfalls of the male gaze.

The male gaze means posing your female character so she is trying to appear sexy for the viewer. To keep it short, it means to not draw your characters in a boob-and-butt pose. The boob-and-butt pose is where the female characters contort their body so you can see her boob and butt at the same time. The Hawkeye Initiative does a good job at demonstrating why it’s ridiculous by drawing male characters in those same poses. You should avoid that kind of imagery because it send the message that you’re trying to attract a straight male audience and female gamers have a harder time identifying with that.

Don’t have your in game camera leer at the female character either (eg. don’t specifically angle your camera for boob or butt shots). Bayonetta is notorious for doing this.

Promote Your Female Character

The newly announced box art for Overwatch. Source: playoverwatch.com

If you have a strong female character, you want people to know about her. Put your female characters in a prominent position on the cover of your game. Overwatch’s cover art is a great example. Tracer looks so badass! It shows that the female characters are valued in the game and women can identify with the game this way.

Diversify Body Size and Shape

Create female characters of all heights and sizes. Don’t let your female characters have one archetypal body type. Diversity makes your characters more interesting. I won’t go into it too much here, but if you lined your female characters up side-by-side, do their silhouettes have significant variance?

To end this off, here is a non-comprehensive list of games that each do great things for female representation in video games. You can learn from how they marketed their game and created promotional material.

Indivisible

Severed

Read Only Memory

Undertale

Jotun

Child of Light

Transistor

Overwatch

Gravity Rush

Mirror’s Edge

All of Final Fantasy

All of Persona

If you do these things, your game will naturally be picked up on news outlets with a large female audience (eg. /r/girlgamers or Polygon). Good luck!