Everything Featured at the Dames 4 Games 2023 Showcase

The first ever Dames 4 Games showcase has now come to an end after sharing a ton of wild and wonderful games, critically important interviews, and trailers highlighting women creators in the gaming industry.

The two hour long showcase was full of exciting reveals from all different genres and was kicked off with a message from host and co-creator Destinee Cleveland.

“Dames 4 Games was created to give women in the gaming community a chance to share their story, contributions, and love of games,” she said.

“I wanted this show to highlight some of the things women have done in the industry and continue to do in the gaming community itself and as technical artists, as producers, as art directors, all the things we have done because we love games.”

The show opened with a deep dive of Wrestle Story, a wrestling game where players can build an all-star faction of fighters full of wild and wacky characters, each with their own unique abilities. Art director Zoe Serbin joined the showcase to talk about the game and her journey within the industry, sharing how other women could get involved in the industry.

In a Star Players segment, the Dames 4 Games showcase then highlighted different women in video games including journalists, developers, and all sorts of other jobs to showcase their work and raise awareness that these positions exist for women looking to join the industry.

The stream then flashed through a ton of new trailers for different games including the spooky farming sim Everholm, the heartfelt slice of life and coming of age story Fishbowl, and the creepy hand-painted adventure game Flawless Abbey.

Also shown was the absolutely bizarre looking Space Boat, the chaotic inn management game Innchanted, and a half farming, half baking sim Sugar Shack. Sanya, a playful narrative adventure about the warmth of childhood memories, was also shown during the showcase alongside cosy farming sim Echoes of the Plum Grove, fantasy merchant simulator CraftCraft, and puzzle automation game Star Stuff.

A spooky looking deck-building rogue-like called The Spirit Lift was shown off next, followed by nomadic survival game Homeseek, the farming sim that takes place on the back of a giant beastie The Wandering Village, and traditional RPG creator Super Dungeon Maker.

Closing out the sizzle reel was magical farming sim Grimoire Groves, a reality show parody called Romancelvania featuring “the world’s sexiest monsters”, and the Vanity update for town creation game Catizens.

IGN’s personal favourite from this part of the showcase was the unabashedly feminist Dead Pets Unleashed, a rad looking narrative-led slice of life and management-lite. The game follows a struggling punk bad, Dead Pets, who are still looking to break through after 10 years of trying.

The trailer looked absolutely chaotic in all the best ways, and really needs to be seen to be understood (and maybe not even then). While it doesn’t have a release date yet, developer Triple Topping has created a Steam page with a downloadable demo.

Moving on from these quick hit games, Corina Diaz took to the stage as a special guest to talk about WINGS, a business that invests in indie games in which women and marginalised gender developers hold key positions. This goes beyond financial support too, as Diaz explained WINGS also helps developers make important connections in the industry and offers other advice and experience.

This was followed by an appearance from Chloe Lussier, CEO and producer at Lowbirth Games, who also spoke about her experience in the industry and how she came to found her own development studio. Lussier also showed off This Bed We Made, a third person mystery game where players take on the role of a 1950s maid who uncovers the deadly secrets of her hotel’s guests.

The show then closed after hosts Cleveland and REDinFamy gave their final thanks to everyone who watched along, and made clear once again why it’s so important to support women in every part of the video game industry.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.