A Special Thank You from the IGDN Diversity Sponsorship
The 2020 IGDN Diversity Sponsorship has come to its conclusion after two amazing months of mentoring, information sessions, playtests, and meetings for the winners. This year we were able to provide $2000 to each winner, one-on-one sessions with industry leaders, playtests with industry professionals, and information sessions with industry companies to each winner.
None of this would have been possible without the dedication, kindness, and generosity of our corporate sponsors. Over the last two months, the winners have met various industry leaders, playtested their games, and been part of corporate seminars. It’s been an exciting and very busy two months.
As the program draws to a close, we want to thank our corporate sponsors for their generosity and kindness in supporting the 2020 Diversity Sponsorship. Each of our incredible sponsors went above and beyond to help make this year the best, most robust year yet.
Thank you to our amazing sponsors for their time, generosity, and support! We couldn’t have made such an incredible program with you! Thanks to you, eight new designers are making connections, investing in themselves, and changing the industry for the better!
Check out our amazing sponsors!
9th Level Games
What excites you about the future of gaming?
9th Level Games believes that we all need diverse games, and to get more diverse games we need diverse viewpoints. The world of games and gaming still has a long way to go, but things like this scholarship are how we get to a brighter tomorrow.
DriveThruRPG
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
OneBookShelf is one of the bigger ones by our RPG industry's standards, but it is certainly not a big company. We number around 30 people, and nearly all of us are lifelong gamers who have worked as publishers in one capacity or another before coming together under the OBS banner. We know that new representation with fresh ideas and perspectives on the games we love is good for us and good for the hobby, and it's something that I think everyone here at OneBookShelf is proud to be part of on a personal level.
Evil Hat Productions
What excites you about the future of gaming?
After seeing how the hobby adapted to a global quarantine shutting down in-person game-play by moving online and keeping the connections and campaigns alive, I'm simply excited that there is a future of gaming. The hobby is robust, the options are better than ever, and more and more we're seeing companies make strides to include people the hobby has historically left underrepresented. Bottom line, the next generation is going to be amazing, its form as yet unknowable... I'm quivering with antici—
The Game Crafter
Why does investing in this program matter to you and your company?
When we launched The Game Crafter in 2009, we never wanted to just be a transactional business where you give us money and we give you board games. Instead, we wanted to foster an amazing community of board game designers and be a place where anyone can turn their ideas into real board games that can be enjoyed. We've now reached almost 300,000 users worldwide, but this is only the beginning. New people and new ideas are always welcome in our community and it's opportunities like this that allow us to bring them to our hobby and the industry.
Haiduc Games
What excites you about the future of gaming?
Games offer a unique shared opportunity of growth, joy, and coming together. They tell stories and help us become better people through shared experiences. Having more and more designers from marginalized communities means more important stories are being told, and that’s incredible.
Indie Press Revolution
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
The future of role-playing games, both as an art form and as a business, lies in the cultivation of new talent. We here at IPR are happy and honored to participate in that process through the IGDN Diversity Sponsorship.
Magpie Games
Why does investing in the program matter to us?
Magpie Games was founded on a core belief that coming together can create spaces for marginalized designers. The diversity sponsorship is an incredible opportunity to continue to support and nurture emergent voices that may otherwise become drowned out in our industry. We’re excited to work with the winners and see all the amazing things they do!
Meijia Games
What excites you about the future of gaming?
Tabletop gaming has gained more popularity over the past decade and it is exciting to see many creative minds jumping into game design nowadays. We look forward to seeing innovative games to bring us fun and engaging experiences in the future. We want to promote more diversity in the tabletop gaming community and empower more indie designers to help make their dream projects into reality.
Metal Weave Games
Why does investing in the program matter to us?
I am a terrible person with words and announcements, but our investment in the IGDN Diversity Scholarship matters to me because there is a clear lack of diverse voices in the industry. If we want to grow, thrive, and expand past being a small hobby and become a robust industry, we need to not only support more voices to enter, we need to help enable them. We find ourselves lucky to be fortunate and successful in this industry and as we are committed to the health of the industry, we are happy to support this program.
Monte Cook Games
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
We believe gaming has the power to change the world. It's a small change, maybe, in the grand scheme of things, but to every single life that gaming touches, it can be huge. So the more people who can play and create games, the better it is for everyone.
Programs like IGDN do so many things to bring new people to gaming and to offer support to those already involved, whether from a player or design perspective, in a safe, inclusive, supportive environment. One of the hardest parts about being a creator, I think, especially a new creator, is the feeling that you're alone, that you're the only one who's struggling, that you have to figure out all the answers yourself. But there are so many great resources out there, particularly other people who've done it and are doing it, so finding ways to bring people together to share information, struggles, and successes is vital. So many people over the years have reached out a hand to help me get to where I am; paying that back feels like one of the best ways to ensure gaming as an industry and as a hobby continues to grow and thrive.
One Shot Network
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
Our cour mission statement at OSN is to make games more accessible and inclusive. That's exactly what this project does. We believe providing direct financial support and industry opportunities to people who need it will lead to better games and a safer community.
Restoration Games
What excites you about the future of gaming?
From the very beginning, we've been committed to increasing diversity in the hobby. This takes many forms, from illustration to convention staffing to game design. The more diverse voices we can bring into gaming, the richer gaming becomes for all of us.
Roll20
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
One of our primary goals at Roll20 is to make barriers of entry as few as possible when gathering around a table for camaraderie. As an extension of that goal, we believe the games we offer and the creative teams behind them should represent the diversity, voices, and identities of the community of players who find their gaming home on Roll20. While we actively seek to expand our marketplace offerings to reflect this belief, there is still work to be done. IGDN’s hard work to seek out, support, and empower diverse game developers contributes to eradicating barriers of entry into game development, leading to a future in gaming where the worlds, characters, and encounters we bring to our tabletops are all the richer for the experiences and ideas of the creative minds that sparked them.
Unicorn Motorcycle Games
Why does investing in the program matter to us?
As a company whose founder was one of the winners, the Diversity Sponsorship is a life-changing opportunity. It is integral to our company that we continue to support and create spaces for marginalized designers within the industry. This is one small way we can continue to do that work.
Van Ryder Games
Why does investing in the program matter to you and your company?
We at VRG believe anyone that wants to play and/or design games should have that opportunity. This program is a great thing in our eyes as it helps remove some barriers, like lack of resources or connections, that could dissuade someone from pursuing their passion for games. When people of all walks of life join one another at the game table it is a powerful thing. The more people of diverse races and backgrounds get involved, the more others like them will be inspired to want to get involved as well. Looking at your list of previous winners is all we needed to see the impact your program is having.