Women’s History Month Spotlight: Mitu Khandaker
Mitu Khandaker is living the dream. She had a hobby and turned it into a career where she can make meaningful change. As a game designer, she holds a PhD on the aesthetics of interactivity in videogames and most recently founded a new studio, Glow Up Games. Her and her team are motivated to tell stories through mobile games and AI. If you’re into gaming, you’ll want to read our interview with her below.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the gaming industry.
I’m a game designer, programmer, scholar, and entrepreneur. I’m a professor at NYU Game Center and CEO and Co-Founder of new studio, Glow Up Games. I have a PhD in the aesthetics of interactivity and designing for virtual reality, and I do consulting across a range of creative and technical projects across games, AI, and immersive storytelling
I think that I have the typical story [after] I found out that creating games was an actual job. That actually happened thanks to an episode of my fave TV show when I was 13, The X-Files, which featured a storyline featuring a female “entertainment software developer’”—who, incidentally, happened to be a woman! Since then, I knew I wanted to do that, but the route I took was also typically a little unusual and eclectic. I studied Computer Engineering to Masters level at university (my other aspiration was to build cool robots), and for my final project, I designed a videogame and controller which used stress levels as input. Then I was offered the chance to do a PhD in game design and creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth, and while I was doing that, I was building all kinds of games and projects—from a location-based games startup I worked on briefly, to my first indie hit, Redshirt, which sparked my interest in social simulation and AI.
I was then part of the founding team of a game AI tools company called Spirit AI, until more recently, when I left to start a new studio, Glow Up Games. [Now I] focus on telling beautifully crafted systemic stories through games, mobile, AI, and emerging tech, and, particularly, building games for a diverse and underrepresented audience, by a diverse and underrepresented and underestimated team.
Games are such an interactive medium. How do you think game developers and their teams can create a positive, inclusive shared experience?
Games are indeed interactive, but also, they’re always about telling stories, whether through implicit systems or more explicitly. As always, I think that the key to telling better stories lies in tapping into the wider wealth of human experience. That means building more inclusive and diverse teams.
How do you see gender disparity occurring in the gaming industry? How can we change the male-dominated narrative?
Women have always been in games, but they perhaps haven’t been afforded the same platforms as our male counterparts. We need to shout about the accomplishments of women throughout gaming history, for one thing. Another is to create cultures within gaming companies where, as women and minorities, we’re truly included. For me, as a woman of color, that means building our own structures—one of my missions with Glow Up Games!
What advice would you give to aspiring women who are just starting out or wanting to join the industry?
Find mentors in people who are women or non-binary. Find peers, allies, and find people who will remind you that you’re not alone in this. I can’t underline strongly enough the value of having a good network of support.
Thanks for the interview, Mitu!
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