Video Production: Girls Make Games, Meet Your (Future) Makers

Background

There’s a whole generation of up-and-coming women and non-binary designers, creators, and engineers ready to carry the next generation of game design up the leaderboards. All they need is the right support to have their back. Girls Make Games is the non-profit organization that aims to fill that role.

Since its establishment in 2014, GMG has reached 6,400 students through summer camps, workshops, and game jams, and 23,000 students through its scholarship foundation, tutorials, games, and resources. The final level of each year is Demo Day, an annual international pitch competition where the top game creators from GMG’s summer camp present their games to industry expert judges.

Off Base has long teamed with Girls Make Games to support their quest to increase representation through social responsibility and increase opportunities for women in the gaming industry. Through our mutual partner, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), we first covered GMG’s angles in 2018 by creating a video package for that year’s summer camp which was hosted on the SIE San Mateo campus. The video package was shared at The Game Awards as well as SIE’s intranet to give GMG the prestige it deserves.

“We had an incredible moment at The Game Awards last night, thank you for your hard work – it paid off and we received tons of support on social media.”

— Laila Shabir, CEO & Founder of Girls Make Games

Challenge

Girls Make Games is the questline that keeps on going. Their annual summer camp and Demo Day showcase requires a sharpshooting video production partner that can stay active on the comms while syncing with GMG’s values.

Each year brings new challenges like dungeons with power-scaling raid bosses. (Remember when the pandemic ended everyone’s LAN party?) But we’re always hyped for the opportunity to support GMG and the campers – not only to bring more awareness to the program, but also to showcase the games with some fresh skins and decals.

Solution

Since the initial success in 2018, Off Base has crafted GMG’s annual Demo Day livestream and promotional assets. We began the journey by providing on-location video production support, capturing summer camp footage and brewing up a cohesive narrative unique to that year’s camp theme. During the pandemic, we adeptly swapped lanes to produce the first virtual summer camp, strategically leveraging video conference recording, creative editing, and innovative storytelling.

Throughout the years, Off Base has produced creative work that consistently secured three key objectives:

• Put together the best highlight reel of the girls’ projects and stories and show off their hard work and god-like talent.
• Transmogrify content from Demo Day judges, participant feedback, and gameplay footage into powerful, cohesive presentations.
• Cast a charm spell on audiences across digital platforms, including sponsors and current and future potential campers, so that they tune into the Demo Day livestream.

Results

Working hand in hand with Girls Make Games for the last seven years has been its own reward. It’s been Off Base’s vision to “promote the joy of play for everyone, leaving the world better than we found it” and our value to exhibit “Nothing but Love.” Nothing fulfills that vision and value like raising the confidence stats of young game creators and showcasing their unique ideas and stories for the world. Our work gives audiences around the world the chance to shower kudos and delightful emotes upon these wonderful aspiring wizards.

In 2024, Off Base CEO, Greg Off further helped the creators advance in their skill trees by serving as a Demo Day judge in the Junior division. Reviewing games for design, gameplay, and overall creativity as a judge in the Junior division, Greg drew on his valuable industry insights to buff the young prodigies of the GMG program to fuel their passion for game development. This collaboration continues to inspire and propel the next generation of game designers, reflecting a shared commitment to innovation and inclusivity in the gaming industry.