Game jams have become increasingly popular over the years. It’s a format where participants are challenged to make a game from scratch in a short period of time, typically within 24 to 72 hours. But while thre have been many game jams around the world, few are doing it like Gamerella.
The non-profit was founded in Montreal in 2013 to welcome more women into gaming, and since then, that goal has expanded to include all kinds of marginalized communities, making it the world’s longest-running inclusive gam jam. And last year, Gamerella launched its first-ever mentorship program, the end of which it celebrated this week with an arcade event.
MobileSyrup sat down with Gamerella co-founder and co-director Gina Hara to learn more about the organization’s work over all these years, the importance of game jams and mentorship, navigating this difficult period in the video game industry and more.
You co-founded Gamerella way back in 2013. What inspired you to start it, and how did you go about actually doing that?
Gina Hara.
Gina Hara: The idea came from me trying to explore game-making. I always really loved games, but I ended up studying filmmaking. I feel like I’m old enough that some game-making was not a career choice that you could have thought of back in the day. But I went to participate in some game jams to see if I could make some games, but it was really an environment that I didn’t feel comfortable in. It was very crunch-focused and sometimes, I was the only woman there. And I was thinking, “Oh, it would be so nice [to have other women.]” And I knew other people who would also like to do the same, but in a more friendly, more chill environment.
So we organized the first Gamerella mostly focusing on women, because at that point, I knew a lot of women who wanted to do games, but jams are kind of intimidating. And a lot of gamer spaces to this day, unfortunately, are more male-dominated. And so we made the first Gamerella trying to make a space that is supportive. We brought in mentors. We hosted some free workshops to make sure everybody feels confident to make their first game. They don’t feel intimidated or unwelcome. And then as the first year concluded, we realized it wasn’t just women who came; there were many, many people who didn’t feel welcome in the game industry, in game spaces. So we very quickly opened up, and we’re like, “Okay, we’re a game jam that focuses on trying to alleviate as many barriers as possible when it comes to the game industry.”
We started in Concordia University, so we have a background in research as well, and every single year, we always look at what is going on in the game scene. What are the current barriers that people face — not just women, but people of colour, people with low income, people from rural areas, queer, trans folks? Maybe trying to do too much sometimes, but trying just to make a space that is friendly and supportive.
13 years is quite a long time to have been doing this. What are some of the biggest ways that the organization has evolved over all that time?
Hara: In the beginning, it was mostly just me or one other person helping. And then, around year four, was when I met Milo, who has become our support worker, and that has really changed the way we have been able to take care of people. Because when you’re the organizer, you’re running around, and, yes, you’re making sure that there’s enough computers and chairs and the Wi-Fi is working and there’s food and all that kind of stuff. But when someone is having a crisis or a problem on their team, you’re not able to be there for them. And while we had mentors, they were focusing on helping with bugs in your game or overcoming a technical difficulty.
So it was the support worker that really transformed the jam and opened the door to thinking of, “How else can we replicate this space, this inclusivity?” And then our team has grown since, of course. We don’t have to do everything as two people. Many mentors have been returning for many years now. We also have many jammers who came and made their first game jam 10-plus years ago, and now they own their own game studio, or they work in AAA, and they come back to mentor the next generation.
Image credit: Gamerella
One other big shift we had was during the pandemic, and we shifted online, and we did a worldwide jam, which we ended up calling Gamerella Global Jam. And we reached out to the Global Game Jam people to be like, “Is this okay?” And they have been very supportive. We are community partners now and everything. And we have people come in to the virtual jam side from 32 countries. And since then, we do the jam hybrid, so people can join in from anywhere. And then our location is Montreal. And another big shift in the past two years is we started to finally have the ability to do some other programs that support our mandate of creating a kinder games industry. And so last year, we started our first long-term mentorship program, and now we’re throwing our first arcade. So we are growing very quickly now, and we’re very excited.
Game jams — for people who aren’t necessarily aware of what those are and how those work, what is it about that format that’s so appealing to you, and why is it so effective in bringing people together?
Hara: That’s a great question. I think there are some very smart people who have studied that for years. [laughs] My take on it is accessibility. It’s one weekend, and it is fun. It is stressful, but your adrenaline goes up, you meet some strangers, and you maybe make a game together. If you were lacking some skills, your teammates will compensate for those skills with their skills. And you basically have a weekend — 48 hours, usually — and you have to make a game from start to finish. So you don’t have to do any prep; you can just show up. And by the end of the weekend, you have something. Or, if not, then you learned a lot, and hopefully made some friends and connections. So it’s very appealing, and I think it can be a very accessible way to take your first step in the game industry, or to think of game-making as a hobby or a craft. There are people who all they do is go to game jams every month or something, and this is like a creative hobby for them.
With the mentorship program starting in 2025 — looking back on that past year, what are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned and how do you hope to evolve or expand it going forward?
Hara: We decided to run the mentorship program nationwide to welcome mentors from all across Canada. And while this has been amazing, and we are so happy with our mentees, and I think it really created a cross-Canadian community. It was very demanding on us, the team, to bring everybody together in person. Because while much of the mentorship is virtual, we also have been doing what we call “retreats” where we come together for a couple of days. We do workshops, prototyping sessions, mentoring in person and so on. And that was definitely a lot, but very enjoyable.
We’re definitely going to continue it. From the feedback from our mentees, the feedback from mentors and industry is that it really makes a difference. As I mentioned, we have researchers around us and people in academia who actually do look into the games industry and various barriers equity-deserving people face. And mentorship seems to be one of the biggest answers to overcoming many, many problems that are often systemic or very miscellaneous, and so we really want to continue the mentorship. That is definitely a goal.
Of course, we are dependent on funding. We are a non-profit and the Canada Media Fund allowed us to run the first year. We hope it will happen again. And whatever happens, we might do a smaller version that is focused on maybe Montreal or Toronto. But we do really want to continue doing a nationwide one, figuring out how we can make that work. Because there are so many people who don’t live in big cities, many people up north in very small towns that deserve equal chances to people who are around Toronto or Montreal. So yes, we’re figuring that out, and we’re excited because we have been running the jam for 13 years now, and it has overall become so much better than the first one. So we’ll just keep iterating on both the jam and the mentorship and maybe the arcade, too. So keep watching, because we’re not going anywhere.
With this arcade event, specifically, how did you decide that was the particular way you wanted to commemorate the end of this mentorship program?
Hara: We wanted a celebration. We’re all gamers, so we love a game arcade, and how else, if you want to show off your games, your prototypes, the work you’ve done for a year? It just made sense that we do a game arcade. It’s been a long-time dream of ours to showcase games that people participating in our game jams made, or maybe create an arcade that is about Canadian game developers who come from equity-deserving backgrounds and make alternative arcades. And Montreal has a really long and cool history of alternative arcades. There was Prince of Arcade a million years ago, I was organizing Arcade 11 with Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre at Concordia for a couple of years. So I loved organizing that kind of stuff, and I think it’s just a lot of joy — both for the participants and the people who come visit. And of course, they can put it on their CVs. Like, “I showed up at this cool thing,” and show off their skills and their games. And maybe it will lead to a job or an internship. Because that is our ultimate goal with this iteration.
I speak to a lot of Canadian game developers, and lately, especially, they’ve talked about getting funding. In Canada, we have funding opportunities like the Canada Media Fund (CMF) or provincial grants or tax credits, that sort of thing. And I know you get some backing from CMF, and then you get support from some development studios as well. But in general, what have been the sorts of challenges of sustaining this program over the years, especially as a non-profit, and how do you navigate all that? What are maybe some of the gaps that still need to be filled?
Hara: Yeah, we have been very lucky receiving the Canada Media Fund grant. And this is a really rough landscape, especially in the last few years. The game industry is struggling with arts funding, and we fall into the category of arts and media. Arts funding is also struggling. We are an extremely dedicated team. None of us is doing this for the money. But of course, we all need to pay rent. So Gamerella, from the very beginning, we had this mandate, I don’t know why it was so important for me, that we never ask anyone to do any work for free. So even if it’s very little money, we always pay our mentees or mentors and people who help around the jam. And, of course, ourselves, too. Sometimes it’s very little, but we make a point of no free labour. Nobody’s doing anything for exposure here. So that has been hard.
There’s especially a lack of operational funds. There is not a lot of operational funds, and there are so many non-profits and charities in Canada that, of course, all deserve it. Project funds are a bit easier, but that also leaves uncertainty between projects. Okay, we have the jam always in November, and we’re pretty sure we’ll get funding for that every year at this point. The mentorship, we’re confident we’ll get funding for that, too. The arcade is very new, so we’ll see what happens with that. But then, what’s in between the months of those? Because we’re still working, we’re still prepping things and writing grants and collaborating with other partners and trying to support other initiatives as well that do similar work. So yeah, it would be nice — maybe an extremely rich person could use us as their tax write-off. So I’m sending out an ask. But we’re not giving up, and so far, we’ve made it work.
In general, a lot of people don’t necessarily realize just how massive Canada’s video game industry is — especially Quebec being one of the biggest development hubs in the world. Being a part of it for so long, what would you say makes it unique or different compared to counterparts in other parts of the world?
Hara: Oh, I don’t know if I could compare it, because I’ve lived here for so long, and it almost feels natural, like every second person works in gaming. Is that not normal? [laughs] But I think it’s really wonderful because it creates such a vibrant community or scene. Especially the indie scene, I think, is amazing in Montreal, and that’s partially thanks to the government grants. But there’s just such a concentration of really talented, very skilled game creators in Montreal that is really exceptional. I wish everybody had better job security, and I wish for better funding for the indie and co-ops and so on. But to me, it’s so joyful that there are so many people who all love the same thing and all work on the same thing, and I think the city should support these things more. Maybe the City of Montreal should be supporting our arcade! [laughs]
That would be good! In addition to the work of organizations like Gamerella, what more should be done in Canada overall to better support women and other marginalized groups in the gaming industry?
Hara: There’s lots to do. There’s lots that’s already been done. I know this is maybe a controversial thing to say, but as my background is in film, I always compare it to the film industry, and I think the game industry has been doing well. There’s been a lot of good progress, and we have to keep doing that. I attribute it to the gaming industry being a fairly new industry compared to film, for example. And I think there is still a level of flexibility where we’re still figuring things out, like how unionizing gaming workers is this new thing that hasn’t happened everywhere. And so I think that leaves opportunities for growth, and I think it’s doing really well. We’re doing well, and there are so many amazing organizations that are pushing for this. So we have to keep doing it.
And we have to acknowledge a lot of hurt that has happened in the past, whether that comes to Indigenous people, what’s happening to trans people across Canada, especially in certain areas… We have to acknowledge those things in order to heal and do better and I think that’s the way forward. I always tell people: “Don’t make assumptions, and if somebody calls you out, be happy, that’s a compliment. That means they felt safe enough to tell you how you screwed up. And then you learn something, and then you do better next time.” And I think in every part of our life and our society that should be the mentality, and it will just save us so much pain and suffering.
This interview has been edited for language, clarity and length.
More information on Gamerella, including how to take part, can be found on the group’s website. Its annual game jam will take place in November, while a sister event, the experimental games showcase Ludodrome, will be held in Montreal in June. Finally, Gamerella has a ko-fi page through which you can support the non-profit with donations.
Image credit: Gamerella
