\n<\/p>\n
G<\/span>amescom, the annual video game convention held in Cologne, Germany, is a unique event. It not only draws hundreds of thousands of players to pack out vast convention halls each year, but it also hosts professionals, offering them a chance to get their games into the hands of fans, and gives industry hopefuls a shot at passing their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s to developers. For those based outside the US, it is the biggest event of the year by far. It is the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Foundation\u2019s first year here, and executive director Alyssa Walles is excited.<\/p>\n The IGDA Foundation provides professional development for underrepresented and marginalised people hoping to enter the video game industry, a crucial service considering the many barriers prospective producers, developers and writers face. Though Walles is fairly new to the IGDA Foundation, having joined three years ago, she is a video game industry veteran. She knows how crucial it is to help those who aren\u2019t born into privileged situations, who can\u2019t afford to travel across the globe to conventions, or have not had traditional schooling in computer design or coding.<\/p>\n <\/span>Gamescom hosts video game fans and industry professionals. <\/span> Photograph: Imago\/Alamy<\/p>\n \u201cI was part of the launch team of PlayStation in Europe, and I was the only woman in the room most of the time,\u201d Walles says. \u201cSo I am so happy to see that change.\u201d But she knows there is more work to be done.<\/p>\n The IGDA Foundation started by funding trips for a select group to the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, an expensive endeavour that often excludes hundreds of developers from marginalised communities or more remote regions of the world. When the Covid pandemic redefined video game events, the IGDA Foundation had to get creative \u2013 that\u2019s when former executive director Nika Nour came up with the Virtual Exchange, a six-week online programme that pairs grantees with a veteran game industry coach. Out of hundreds of annual applications, the IGDA Foundation selects grantees from three main pillars: games career professionals looking for more senior roles, professionals trying to transition into the games industry and recent graduates.<\/p>\n <\/span>Alyssa Walles of the IGDA Foundation.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy IGDA Foundation<\/p>\n Walles says: \u201cMy favourite example of someone in our cohort who has work experience but is trying to break into the games industry is this young man from Nigeria. He\u2019s a home builder, he\u2019s project managing every day, building houses \u2013 and he codes. He wants to take that project management experience and become a producer in video games.\u201d<\/p>\n For Walles and many other industry veterans who become mentors with the IGDA Foundation, it is about using their experience to ensure the industry has a strong and diverse future. \u201cI\u2019m 65, I\u2019m not afraid about saying that \u2026 I\u2019m on the back end of my career, and I\u2019m here to give back,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But the IGDA Foundation, like so many other programmes dedicated to making the video game industry and tech spaces more equitable, has faced frustrating challenges in the last few years. After meteoric growth during the pandemic, the industry has seen record redundancies. Companies are telling Walles they don\u2019t have money for the foundation, which she finds hard to believe (\u201cI know you have $5,000\u201d), and though the IGDA Foundation isn\u2019t government-funded, the Trump administration and Elon Musk\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge) have attacked diversity, equity and inclusivity institutions, which forces them to rethink how they market their programme and how to approach potential donors.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been several nonprofits that have had to close in our space. So far, we are not close to that. I worry about it every day,\u201d Walles admits. \u201cI think, how do I get to the people who have made a lot of money in video games and want to support that next generation?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>2025\u2019s Virtual Exchange in action.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy IGDA Foundation<\/p>\n But the IGDA Foundation, with Walles at the helm, is not afraid to get creative. Last year, she saw a story in a newsletter about how a solo developer made significant money from a single piece of downloadable content (DLC) sold in a Steam bundle. \u201cI reached out to the IDGA Foundation\u2019s alumni network and said, \u2018I want to do a Steam event with DLC,\u2019 and someone stepped forward to manage it. We created Download for Charity, an event we had in May \u2013 we had 24 games participate and raised $24,000,\u201d Walles says. She has also organised game jams with unlikely collaborators and a recent porting initiative to help developers get their games on to Android phones.<\/p>\n This dogged pursuit of funding is a testament to Walles\u2019 dedication to the programme and to the marginalised people it serves. Walles\u2019 hope for the future of the IGDA Foundation is simple: \u201cWe just want enough money to sustain us so we can provide these programmes for the people who need them around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gamescom, the annual video game convention held in Cologne, Germany, is a unique event. It not only draws hundreds of thousands of players to pack out vast convention halls each year, but it also hosts professionals, offering them a chance to get their games into the hands of fans, and gives industry hopefuls a shot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[10950,413,378,9532,2275,364,3877,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-27107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-developers","9":"tag-game","10":"tag-games","11":"tag-helping","12":"tag-nonprofit","13":"tag-people","14":"tag-successful","15":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}