A little about me...● Educational Game

developer at Helen Doron English

● The illustrator of the english and hebrew comic “You Must Be Fun At Parties” ( למה

להרוס חייבת (את

Meet Helen Doron’s game and TV series character , Polly The Collie

Female Female Also female (of course !)

...which is a female. Turns out all these characters I thought were male ,

are actually female

How to create gender neutral games for kids

Toy aisles today

Girls:- pink and pastel colors- cooking , beauty, baby and animal nurturing- highly feminized from a young age

Boys:- blue and primary colors- adventure, building, science, racing, shooting

Boys

Girls

Lego in the 1970’s : Gender Neutral

But it wasn't always like that...Lego Today : Gender divided

Strawberry Shortcake Evolution

1980 2003 2007 2013

Today: Strawberry Shortcake beauty merchandise

Google play search: Boys vs. girls apps

boys

Girls

Cooking

Baby care

Boys

Building

Racing

2009

2014

2013

Angry Birds Evolution

Not gendered

Anyone can choose their own genders for

birds

Gendered

-All Birds are male except Matilda

-Matilda get a new “feminine” design

-stella added to cartoon

-Stella gets a separate game

- Main Angry birds games include mostly male

characters

But things are changing in the toy & gaming world...

Temple Run Has 60% female players

Minecraft Has 40% female players on PC/console and 58% female players on mobile

(1)Choosing your colorsOr : What’s wrong with a pink jeep?

Don’t use: gendered colors. why?

- Children prefer toys based on gender associations - color coding limits their game choices

- Teaches boys and girls they are so different, they can't even play with the same toy

- Girls playing with “boy toys” in feminine colors, see them as different than the “regular” toys or “adjusted” so they can play them.

Do Use: Gender Neutral Colors

Other Hair dressing apps

Toca Hair Salon

Color pallette:

Color pallette:

Other Robot apps:

Color pallette:

Color pallette:

Toca Robot Lab:

Abuzz Robot Lab:

...And one robot game for the girls:

(2) Letting girls be girls

Boy charactersLook like boys, age-appropriate

Girl charactersFeminine, have makeup and

curvy figure from a young age

Boy animals Girl animals: The dreaded pink bonnet...

- Start from character traits, like : size , color , personality - and not from his/hers gender.

- Avoid overused color combinations and gender markers

- Make sure the design is age appropriate

- Players can understand the character’s gender through dialogue and story

Making a good female character

Fruit Ninja Mari

- Doesn’t have too feminine features for her age

- A part of the team: Doesn’t have different-colored (e.g pink) or shaped uniform from the rest

Masha And The Bear

- Doesn’t have too feminine features for her age .Actually looks like a child

- Her clothing fits her activities (living in the woods)

*based on a russian tv series

Toss - Cut The Rope 2

- Looks like a monster/creature and not too feminized

- A part of the team:

Doesn’t have different-colored (e.g pink) , design or size from the rest

Kiko - Kiko’s Thinking Time

- Looks like a regular and not too feminized

- Her gender is revealed by

story and context

(3) Have a variety of characters

How To make sure the game includes a variety of characters?

- Add the character gender in the end of the design / don’t assign genders

- Make sure both genders are represented in “feminine” or “masculine” games

- Count your characters - you might find surprising things!

Subway Surfers

A variety of female characters Basic game has 8 male characters and 5 female . Expansions games have more than 10 other unlockable female characters Variety of boy characters

too!

Crossy Roads

Has a variety of female charactersHas a lot of gender-less / un-gendered characters ,that kids can imagine either way

Nurturing , baby care, beauty etc. games offering characters

?

And Remember : We are so much more than our gender...

That’s Nintendo’s Kirby!