create video games, get careers advice, and Making connections that last a lifetime: These aspirations have become a reality for students at Gameheads, a nonprofit organization that provides instruction, resources, and mentorship for young people creating the next generation of video games.
Despite advances in improving representation in the gaming industry, many avenues to careers in gaming remain inaccessible to youth of color and low-income backgrounds due to lack of resources or connections. Executive Director Damon Packwood co-founded Gameheads in his hometown of Oakland to solve this problem.
The Gameheads program combines video game design and development, educational and career guidance, industry exposure, and hands-on training. Over the course of a year, students learn all aspects of video game development: coding, design, project management, and teamwork—skills that are invaluable not only for working in the video game industry, but for pursuing a career in a variety of fields. Upon completion of the program, students will have a finished game or prototype to add to their professional portfolio and a mentor to guide them on their journey into the gaming industry.
And Gameheads’ methods have a proven track record of success: many Gameheads students have received paid internships or employment at prestigious video game studios, and several projects have been created from Gameheads – like the stealth platformer camino — be available from 2023.
Last year, Xbox Publishing — the team that works with independent development studios to release first-party Xbox games — gave gameheads $100,000 to help them invest in resources for transgender, queer, and other minority students of color. With these funds, Gameheads is expanding its services to reach an even greater number of young women, femmes, and gender-biased youth. With women of color and LGBTQIA+ individuals severely underrepresented in the gaming industry, Gameheads aim to ensure young people from these cohorts have the support they need to thrive in their careers in the near and long term be .
Executive Director Damon Packwood explained that as part of Gamehead’s inclusion efforts, the team will hire a full-time program manager to focus on this new initiative and hire a therapist who specializes in mentoring transgender and queer youth to support with skin color.
This is just a small part of the deep, long-standing relationship between Gameheads and Xbox: the Xbox publishing team currently solely includes a Gameheads alumnus (Narrative Designer Casey Ramos) and a longtime mentor and board member (Design Director Marcus Montgomery). They see the teams working together as perfect as the focus is on empowering students to not only achieve their career goals but also their creative ambitions.
If you are interested in helping Gameheads realize his vision of a more inclusive gaming industry, visit Gameheads Twitter and website for information on upcoming student games! Xbox gamers can help too by donating their reward points to Gameheads.
