Despite the insistence of some within the gaming community that women "do not belong", the truth is that women have been involved in making games from the very start. Women are behind the game design, m🔯usic composition, and scriptwriting of some of your favorite games.

RELATED: So, What Games Are Women Suppos🌺ed To Play, Exactly?

They continue to work in this field, even though issues persist and manꦜy workplaces continue to be riddled with toxicity. However, as we continue to work hard to close the gender gap within the gaming industry, it is important that we give recognition to the wome🌟n who are making great games.

10 Uncharted Series ꩵ

Nathaniel Drake stands holding a gun, while a crashed plane smokes and is on fire behind him

The first three installments of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted series were not only directed by Amy Hennig, but written in part by her as well - though she was only given a writer's credit on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.

Hennig actually got her big start as a designer with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Entertainment System for the game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. Her heavy focus on narrative and character development above all else has undoubtedly helped shape the Uncharted series into the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:cinematic masterpiece it is today.

9 Celeste

Title art for Celeste showing Madeline reaching for a strawberry with wings, while supporting characters float in fog around her

Fans have heralded Celeste as one of the best things to happen to the platforming genre. Originally developed in 2016 for the PICO-8 virtual console during a game jam, Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry fleshed the game out into the Celeste we know 𒁏and love today.

Celeste has a strong emotional backbone that many in the LGBTQ+ community have resonated with. Its platforming mechanics are so tight and well-crafted that speedrunners are still ta🌳ckling the challenge of Celeste Mountain to this day.

8 BioShock

A player aims a shotgun at a Big Daddy charging them in an abandoned hallway

Alyssa Finley is behind many of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Telltale Games series games you have probably played, including 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Games of Thrones and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Walking Dead: Michonne, working as both an executive producer and director of production. Perhaps most notably, however, Finley was a project lead for the first BioShock game.

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The narrative influence of the BioShock series cannot be underestimated, immersing us in the historically-inspired and yet fantastical dystopian world known as Rapture. Bursting with environmental storytelling and chilling visuals, BioShock left a deep footprint on the survival horror genre.

7 Journey

The main character of Journey stands in a desert at the base of a mountain, looking up at a glowing light at the top of the peak

The excellence in game design that the people behind 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Thatgamecompany have achieved is so renowned that its first game, Flow, was even put on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The company is perhaps best known for developing Journey, which was praised not only for its breathtaking musical score but for its deeply emotional gameplay.

Like most of Thatgamecompany's titles, in Journey you play as a non-verbal robed character, traversing a desert landscape towards a mountain crowned with a magical light. Throughout the game, you have the chance to run into another player who is currently playing in real-time. Although you can only communicate with others via musical notes, this miniature cooperative experience is like none other. Journey was produced by Robin Hunicke, who stepped into the role so that founder Kellee Santiago could focus on her responsibilities✱ as company president.

6 Portal

Portal title art showing a blue glowing companion cube beside Portal logo

Portal was one of the most innovative things to happen to puzzle games, and we have Kim Swift to thank, in part, for that. Swift worked on Portal as a team leader and level designer, and later she and the Portal team at Valve would be awarded the Game Developers' Choice Award for Best Narrative.

The unique level design and innovative puzzle mechanics of Portal earned it a spot as one of the games in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent design collection.

5 🧜 Butterfly Soup ꦡ

From left to right: Noelle, Arkarsha, Min-seo, and Diya standing in a circle deep in conversation

Sometimes industry change starts small, which is in part why we have seen so many standout indie games made by women. Butterfly Soup is no exception.

Though the game is a free-to-play visual novel 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:available on Itch.io about "gay Asian girls playing baseball and falling in love", its spot-on humor and nuisanced representation of AAPI people have garnered the game a small cult following. Its success even won the creator,🍨 Bri🦩anna Lei, a coveted spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

4 Centipede

Original game art for Centipede showing a monstrous green centipede monster standing over a beam of light

There are some in the gaming industry that would have you believe that the face of gaming is "changing", or suddenly becoming more diverse. Yet in fact, women have been involved with game development from the very start.

Dona Bailey collaborated on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the development of Centipede for Atari along with Ed Logg in 1981. Bailey was the only woman in Atari's coin-op team, but her work on Centipede helped make it one of Atari's best-selling games. The fixed shooter was monumental for arcade games, winning it a spot in gaming history, which is still played to this day.

3 Fran Bow

Fran Bow holds a black cat in a dim hallway, her eyes bleeding as a demonic creature peers around the corner

This incredibly 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:eerie point-and-click adventure game stood out among other indie horror games for its exploration of mental health, childhood trauma, and loss. Surprisingly the studio behind Fran Bow is actually only a team of two.

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Located in Stockholm, Sweden, Natalia Figueroa and Isak Martinsson are the married couple behind Killmonday Games. The story of Fran Bow borrowed heavily from Figueroa's own life experiences, and so it is no wonder that so many fans resonated wi🌼th the game despite its dark overtones.

2 🐻 Animal Crossing New Leaf

A split image from left to right: a villager holds a white chair out to llama villagers Reese and Cyrus, and villagers work on DIY projects on a lush island

The director behind the series that rescued us all from some tough times is none other than Aya Kyogoku. While Kyogoku also oversees development for the Splatoon and Wii Sports series under Nintendo, she is most well-known for leading the efforts behind Animal Crossing New Leaf and more recently 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Before she was brought on to the Animal Crossing team, she was actually a scriptwriter on both 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend o😼f Zelda: Four Swords Adven🌞tures and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Prince🍷ss. Truly legendary is an understatement.

1 ♏ Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider title art shows Lara Croft standing in a cave with waves splashing up, holding a bow

Rhianna Pratchett has worked as a writer on dozens of games, from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mirror's Edge to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Surgeon Simulator 2, but she is perhaps best known as the lead writer for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tomb Raider (2013). This addition to the ꦰTomb Raider franchise elevated Lara Croft to a whole ne🍒w level in terms of not only graphics and gameplay, but narrative prowess.

This reboot of Tomb Raider, along with the work she continued on Rise of the Tomb Raider, made it the most successful comeback for the series that anyone could have hoped for. Pratchett additionally wrote for a number of Tomb Raider comics in collaboration with Dark H𒆙⛎orse.

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