WOMEN IN GAMES AMBASSADOR LAUNCHES PHILIPPINES MENTORING PROGRAMME

We are delighted to highlight the amazing work that one of our Ambassadors has been doing in the Philippines.

Luna Javier, who is also Creative Director and Co-Founder of Altitude Games, announced in June that she would launch a mentoring initiative, taking up to three women Filipina game developers to help them with career development. Luna promised to give three months of mentoring, with regular meetings to help them achieve their goals.

She explained: “I wanted to offer the membership to celebrate my first year as a Women in Games Ambassador, and also to provide opportunities and connections for those who normally wouldn’t have them.

“In my 20 years of being in games, all my bosses and mentors were male; I wished I had a female role model to look up to and ask questions, especially in my early days. And while I’d mentored others before at work or for organisations, I’d never opened it up to anybody – and definitely not to strangers on the internet. It was my first time to put myself out there and didn’t expect many women to apply, but figured I could help maybe at least a few then it’d be worth it.

“I ended up receiving 62 applications! Everyone was indeed at different stages in their career (from students to founders), and it became clear that we Filipina game devs really needed support. I chose three mentees and have already started helping them with their goals.”

But Luna still wanted to help the others, so invited the other applicants to a group mentoring session on Zoom.

She added: “The most surprising thing from the session was how enthusiastic and driven the attendees were. They were so happy to meet other female game devs that they used the chatbox to organise themselves! Before I knew it, they’d created a Discord server so everyone could keep in touch after the session; they even made a channel called #ask-luna where they continue to ask me questions about the industry.

“What started as an idea to do something small as a Women in Games Ambassador for three other Filipinas has now become a full-fledged community. I’m thrilled and honoured to be part of their journey. They are all going places and I can’t wait to see where they go.”

Women in Games CEO Marie-Claire Isaaman offered: “This is a brilliant example of what we want to see from our Ambassadors. Luna’s drive, initiative and passion for helping other women in her community is to be applauded and we look forward to hearing more from her – and our other Ambassadors – about such ventures.”

If you are a Women in Games Ambassador and would like to share your activities with our audience, please email lisa.carter@womeningames.org.