Representation in Video Games Industry – Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez – Gamedev Insights #9

Representation in video games industry is an increasingly critical topic, and for good reason. Our latest Gamedev Salary Pulse report highlights a well-known disparity: only 22.4% of respondents identify as women, 2.1% as non-binary/non-conforming, and just 0.7% as transgender, leaving a substantial 71.4% identifying as men. Clearly, we are still navigating a male-dominated field. In this episode of Gamedev Insights, we’ve invited Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez to discuss her observations and the actions she’s advocating for a more equitable and inclusive industry.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

Welcome to Gamedev Insights, the podcast where we delve into the stories behind the screen by talking to the experts who make the gaming world turn. Today we are super excited to chat with Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director of Organizational Development at PLAION.

Miroslava is all about embracing what makes each of us unique and she has championed this approach since her early days in the games industry. She’s consistently focused on bringing out the best in people and enhancing team dynamics. Let’s dive in and learn more from her journey.

What sparked your interest in games and what actually led you to pursue a career in the gaming industry?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director of Organizational Development, PLAION

Since a young age, my dad introduced me to video games. I think this was the key. So what started as a way to connect with him and later on with friends actually turned into a very important part of my life as it is right now.

During my childhood, I was into point and click adventures on the PC. Growing up I was into strategy games, with Starcraft. I was all about games. I really played a ton. But one big reason for this was that I actually could not resist trying out different consoles and controls because I was very curious. I spent hours figuring out which game to play on which console, understanding the differences. I likely clocked the most amount of hours on the Sega Dreamcast. I also played a lot on all sorts of Nintendo consoles.

And there were a lot of family tournaments, a lot of friends tournaments for sure. Then came the Wii, which was a whole different experience. And at that time I was in Venezuela, I went a lot to the arcade with my friends, had a lot of great time there.

Those are memories I really cherish. And later on in my 20s, I got to experiment with the Xbox Kinect Sensor. You know, this technology to sense depth and movement in a space. And that really got my attention how to use games and to have an experience with gaming in a non-traditional way.

Since a bit more than a year now, I’m hooked to the VR glasses with the Quest, because it’s a different way to interact with games. And it’s much better than it was in the past. There’s no more motion sickness and nothing like that. It’s really nice experience. So basically, that’s what it was. Each console brought to me a different experience, a different opportunity to play with friends and family. That’s what games were for me, fun and joy. After earning my Computer Engineer degree in Venezuela, I went to Barcelona, Spain. There I studied and obtained my master degree in Digital Arts and it was there really where I immersed myself in the world of innovation, creativity and interaction. Through the creation of interactive installations, I got to see more non-traditional gaming experiences, with VR, AR, with touch controls that were working with sensors. My perspective shifter from a player to someone who could create experiences for the players. And I gained insights into how experience is crafted the way we empower people to use it and to interact with it. That was the turning point for me and my career, that showed me that gaming is not only my source of enjoyment, a field where I could have a meaningful impact. With the exception of my first job at Microsoft, my entire professional career has been in the gaming industry. First as a software developer, then leading software development and game development teams, publishing teams, studio relations, now comms teams. I’m all about this industry, I like it a lot to be here.

Ljubica Garic, 8Bit

I one of our coversations, we’ve discussed how your educational and professional paths led you to different countries, different environments. We tackled the topic of a multilingual environment. Could you share more insights about these experiences?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, PLAION

Yes, definitely. Working in multicultural environments, it’s both challenging and amazing. Most of my career has unfolded as well as an immigrant, I have to say. And so I’ve had the privilege to work in different countries, but also that means working with different languages and people with different backgrounds.

From a small company, a web design company, two giants like Microsoft or right now at PLAION, you get to experience these environments always. That has been a constant. I would say three key insights of this is firstly effective communication.

I think that is crucial because the cultural nuances can significantly impact the way a person with a different background understands the expectations towards them. Or how they are empowered to perform at their best. This is really key.

Second, celebrating and recognizing differences really is a must and it matters. I know that reconciling different points of view can be challenging. It demands openness, it demands empathy. You have to have a genuine interest in understanding the experiences of people that you collaborate with. But it’s worth it. Being welcoming of someone different and inclusive gives really a team an advantage.

Third is the exposure to these environments really allows you as a professional to grow for personal development. In terms of adaptability and resilience. For me, learning how to embrace these multicultural settings not only has shaped my understanding of adding value as a team member, but it really helped me become a more effective leader with a more inclusive approach to teamwork.

It gives an advantage to be able to explore areas of knowledge that you don’t have in your own career, but with everyone around. Yeah, I think this is what I’ve taken with me from these experiences and I keep taking, of course.

Ljubica Garic, 8Bit

I’m sure that you are still implementing a lot of those lessons in your current role at PLAION as Director of Organizational Development. So could you break it down for us? What does that exactly what does that exactly mean?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, PLAION

At PLAION, my focus is really on driving a strategic realignment of the of the company’s culture, structure, processes and talents around a shared vision. PLAION is a global entertainment company.

It covers game development, publishing, films, partner distribution, merchandising. This means in this role I get to see every area and every aspect of the business and I get to work with a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them.

I’m reporting to the CEO right now and I work with the VPs of the organization, the managing directors of the different game studios and entities. And my job with all of them is to enhance efficiencies and foster sustainable growth for the company.

In the position where I am, I create programs and initiatives on a global level that have the potential of touching everyone in their different areas. Talking about those multicultural environments that you just asked about.

This is something that is always in the back of my head. I would say my job consists of three main pillars. The main area is what is organizational efficiency. And instead of doing it, really just relying on numbers and numbers for the sake of an amount. I take a more holistic approach and I drive these global programs and initiatives to support the development of the talents, the global climate, the organizational climate, the culture, and drive positive change in the organization.

The second part, I am a member of the game studio relations management team. So here my job is to foster interstudio knowledge sharing, drive synergies, capitalize on the global experience we have with these 8 game studios that we have worldwide.

There is where I, for example, get to implement game studio summits, dev days, to really work with people with different disciplines.

And the third pillar, I am leading two departments, the corporate comms team, where we cover internal and external comms. This is like, for example, corporate social media channels like LinkedIn or the website of the company. And where we, I think this is a beautiful job that we do there is to turn employees into ambassadors.

We let them tell the story of their journey at PLAION. And of course, we also take care of press releases and announcements, which has not been at all beautiful or at all fun in the last year, with the challenging period in our industry. This has unfortunately been keeping us busy with the heartbreaking announcements.

In the second department, I oversee PLAION’s HR on the global group. I’m leading our People and Talent Management, Strategy and the Staff. I was recently named one of Embracer Group’s, our parent company, sustainability ambassador. With a group of great colleagues at PLAION I get to support people sustainability initiatives at PLAION. It’s a universe of universes and it’s a very nice experience to be in this organization.

Ljubica Garic, 8Bit

Can you tell us more about how specifically you have contributed to shaping this global culture at PLAION and the talent alignment with the company’s vision? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, PLAION

I have been at PLAION not really long, one year, four months. And in that time, I have been trusted with the mission of designing and implementing very interesting programs of these people’s framework and these people’s strategy goals. For example, I have assessed the adoption of technologies that support the people goals.

I have been in charge of the group-wide rollout vision and values, hosting a series of workshops and kicking off group-wide programs. Recently I started the leadership development program with trainings and online and in-person workshops.

Also authored and kicked off the diversity, equity and inclusion framework and designed and hosted this wonderful game studio summit. It was a really nice experience after being offline with the pandemic for some years, everybody got together again online. And I’m preparing hopefully for this year, the women’s summit. I also look forward to it. 

I’ve also worked hard in improving this global onboarding experience for the digital employee experience. We are globally distributed and it is important that employees that do not sit in the one office and are behind four walls also feel part of that global company.

And with it, I founded communities program along with some group benefits.

So yes, I get to contribute to PLAION’s culture, because for me, a culture that lives up to its values requires practices and systems that empower people to foster that culture over time. 

This is not something we put a sticker on, but you need people to live and breathe it that way.

My job is to design those practices that empower people to keep a positive culture and a culture that allows for change and for positive change. Practices that support continuous learning, talent development, that foster appreciation and inclusive environment, all of that.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

You have done so much in just a year and a half that you’ve been in PLAION. Are there any projects that you could single out as closest to your heart or that have resulted in something that you’re really, really proud of that you want to share with us? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, Organizational Development, PLAION

It’s still in the making, let’s say. But it’s something I’m proud of, it actually has to do with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. When I joined PLAION, there was nothing in that area. And the organization is really intriguing because some territory offices have more women than men.

Certain areas of the business are entirely male dominated. Some regions have super-interesting programs for people with disabilities. Then others have only higher national and the same language. It’s a whole contrast of different things.

When I joined, I said, OK, we have to formalize that commitment to understanding and learning from each other on a group level to make it more official that we are a diverse company and we support equity and inclusion.

At the end of the day, that is not a destination. We know that. it’s a journey. It never stops. It’s a daily effort to reflect our intentions with our actions. It is vital for the benefit and advancement of the global team. 

When I set up this framework, that was my way to do this. It’s a way to set up goals to make the journey sustainable, efficient, effective and successful. And once we put it in place, what I drove was the commitment to have a yearly objective. 

So each person would have a commitment to do in their own scope, in their own area, their own effort to contribute to this. Basically, that framework, what it said was, we make it a priority, we promote the benefits and we share the responsibility. 

We have seen very nice things happening, we have highlights of people behind the scenes. We have people fostering peer-to-peer. 

peer recognition. We’re creating way more awareness about accessibility and cultural celebration. And of course, I’m all about promoting female leadership. That’s something where we have to keep encouraging in the company. But all of these little steps contribute to that. And of course, it didn’t come without challenges, and it has not come without challenges. I can only say that this framework is my response to all of those who say it cannot be done. Because I always say that those who say that something cannot be done should never interrupt the people actually doing something. And if I get more people doing something,  then we just prove a point that we can have that step forward.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

Awesome. Sounds very empowering, Miroslava. I’m glad that you have surrounded yourself with people that share this attitude with you that actually enable you to take something that is not set in stone. And it’s not like a linear process.

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

It’s a daily effort and we need everyone to contribute with their part. I have found really great, positive allies along the way, this is something that continues and that we all take with us and also encouraging new employees and in our context with people outside and our partners and in the industry.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

Miro, what is actually the most groundbreaking technology or innovation that you have supported and how has it positively impacted the people in the organization? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

One of the most groundbreaking things I contributed to was probably the introduction of Unity for game development, when we were doing mobile games at Travian Games, in my previous company. This company used to focus on making browser games on PHP and switching to Unity was a big step forward in how we approach the whole game development thing. But guess what? We did all of that in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

I went on and I had to hire a full remote team and restructure our entire game development department. I created a multi-leadership structure. We had four teams, development, detection and prevention, experience assurance and design, and it definitely improved our efficiency and collaboration. It helped us navigate change in a completely different way. We were facing this challenge of changing the way we work, but at the same time, we knew we were aiming for a huge improvement in something really cool and nice for us to make games. This shift opened up the capacity for other projects.

We took the leap of moving our game to the Cloud and it not only streamlined our internal processes, but it made the end user experience much better because we had more reliable services. We could take more care about what our thing and let the game perform good and be there for the players. We got to improve our team dynamics day by day. That was a groundbreaking change for that company in that period of time.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

Awesome, and could you share some highlights from the project that you worked on at PLAION?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

I guess nowadays we cannot talk about innovation without mentioning AI. AI is no stranger to the tech world. I grew up in and, and I studied, but it is certainly no stranger to games. AI has been part of games right from the very beginning and nearly all of them use it to some extent. But it is the fast adoption rates that games, films production and publishing have witnessed in the last two years. This has been raising some flags and their undeniable benefits and efficiencies, but as well, there are challenges more in the area of ethical adoption.

And the moral responsibility of providing education around AI. So at PLAION, I am a member of the AI committee, with a small group of director of technology, digital commerce, legal counsel, myself and the CEO. We are basically championing the adoption of practices and accountability and helping employees get on board with this AI change in the entertainment realm. We don’t want to stay away from it.

We want to help people adopt it and adapt it in a responsible way. I support the rollout and adoption of our policies and our guidelines in the PLAION group and the risk management and championing a human centric approach to the implementation and the decision making. That’s very close to my work in this organization and in this role, because it is always about managing the people side of things. 

In fostering a culture that embraces innovations and capitalizes on the benefits of groundbreaking technologies, it’s not about being afraid of it. It’s how do we become adaptable and welcoming of them.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

You mentioned the importance of female leadership and leadership overall. You’ve been talking about your leadership style, which you say focuses on strengths of a person. What has inspired your leadership style?

And how do you actually ensure its effectiveness across all of these multicultural, diverse teams?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

The way I see it is just as complex engineering systems that I studied about, with components working in harmony to fulfill a purpose. Teams are basically systems of individuals with different roles, with their own strengths and put together to do something right. I see the role of a leader as the one in charge and the one responsible of figuring out, understanding those strengths, empowering them, and fostering harmony so that the teams can achieve a goal.

I’ve been lucky to lead these multicultural, multidisciplinary teams from software development, game production, comms team, but every interaction, no matter the different discipline, reinforces the concept that someone always has something to bring to the table.

And I deeply believe in creating awareness about these authentic strengths and sharing the responsibility of leveraging these different views, experiences, traits, qualities, skills. It is okay to see different, and it’s okay not to agree on it. 

We’re seeing it through different lenses. As an immigrant throughout much of my professional career, I had to discover and focus on my own strengths. That was crucial for my ability to perform, to deliver, to thrive in everything that was unknown around me and in the system of a new city, of a new team, of a new organization.

In all cases, professional and personal observation, being in the present, having strategic thinking and self-awareness have been key for me to identify those strengths and balancing them. And that is what inspire my leadership style, that is humans behind this,  and these humans together working towards a goal.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

So how to make the best out of this? Your bio, your interviews, it definitely reflects a deep passion for celebrating uniqueness of people. Can you share an experience when this empowerment actually made a tangible difference in the realm of video game development?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

Let’s start from the beginning. I’m used to nothing other than diverse teams working towards a goal, because at the end of the day, that’s how games are made. The fact that to make games and to bring them to players, there is a huge orchestration of many different areas of expertise. 

There is game design, art, and programming, but this is only covering game production. To make games, you need a business strategy, marketing efforts, localization, community management. You need to know about global distribution deals. You need to know about subscription models, data analytics.

And it is all about harnessing the different expertise for the successful outcome. Celebration of uniqueness in this context, it isn’t about shouting from the rooftop or putting a sticker on something. It is really about asking, what can I learn from this person? 

It’s about mutual recognition. It is about a culture where everybody’s contributions adds a value. Every team I’ve led, every team member’s unique strengths complemented one another. I strive to continue doing this. There are team members excelling in areas where I might fell short. And that’s worth celebrating in teams. That’s how teams are made, where we all complement each other. 

So I noticed in my career that to truly celebrate uniqueness, we really need to be more open to it. We need to welcome it more. We need to open more doors to really see something different happen. And another thing that I’ve learned is that one instance that comes to my mind where I think I made a tangible difference many years ago was when I was supporting job interviews for developer positions. 

And I realized that my company was missing out on a lot of talented people. I also noticed who I was missing to work with because our hiring processes were not adapted to be welcoming of specific characters and specific neurodivergent candidates. 

We started having a conversation about changing things. And I couldn’t see any more seasoned software developers falling through the cracks of the interview. They were correctly answering everything, but they were being disqualified because they were not able to communicate under that interview format, so I changed that. 

I participated in the change and I put it in place. And this is an instance where I had a positive impact to make a difference in this company. 

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

Throughout your professional path, you’ve had many roles, from participating in job interviews, managing teams, in your role at PLAION, you’re tackling many things. How have you actually leveraged diverse perspectives and talents to enhance games or projects? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

One common denominator in all of those different roles I have had through my career was the way I leverage diversity. So I deliberately invite and include diverse views in creating a solution. 

I normalize that effort on inclusion. I buckle up for the challenge and just be ready to collect the fruits of it because it’s not easy. But that is the one thing I have just incorporated in my process. 

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

So how does it look in reality? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

I have designed roles together with employees based on their work preferences, on the assessment of their strengths. The scope of their work is within their strengths. Within their realm of where they feel comfortable and where they’re good at. 

I’ve redesigned the hiring processes to be more welcoming of neurodivergent candidates. I have asked and helped answer the question, how do you add value to a project, to a team, to a company and work with people hand in hand to answer these? 

I have created the diversity within inclusion framework. I have reassembled stakeholder task forces and processes to enhance capabilities and efficiencies. And I have sat down with stakeholders, developers and clients in the same table when composing a sprintfor a developer to commit to. 

So I have done everything in my power to increase representation of different points of view and put them together to come up with a solution together. And I think that once you get to experience working with someone you were missing out to work with and have them participate in creating the solution, there’s no turning back.

I feel genuine joy in being surprised by an unexpected view, a non-traditional approach, the learnings that come with it.

It is worth to sit down on a table with people who think different, who sound different, who look different than you do. 

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter

How has being in different roles altered your perspective on the gaming industry? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

The years I worked at Travian publishing and developing games for browser and mobile is something I hold close to my heart. Those years gave me really insights in the key role of collaboration, well-defined responsibilities, how important they are for the success of a project.

And I got to meet and work with some really great industry veterans. In US, in Germany, we built relations with partners like Microsoft, Amazon, AWS.

What happened is that I wanted to have a bigger impact. I grew with the mindset that I set my limits and no one else. I know that organizations bring people together and we can learn from each other. How we do it, has a great influence on the results. So what happened is my ex colleague, the ex-CEO of Travian, told me that there would be an opportunity to contribute and influence the culture of this big global company plan full of diverse and uniquely powerful game studios and I could help shape that journey with like-minded game producers and interesting people and all of the diverse universes. 

And so I turned down a couple of other offers and I joined PLAION and the scope of my work has changed and expanded since I joined, I was more focused on talent empowerment, and team dynamics. Now I help craft the way people feel at their work, the empowerment they are given to it, how people experience their journey in, in the global organization and in their multiple territories and how they do that while building the beloved franchises worldwide.

I think all of this happen at the same time where I contribute to be the change I want to see in the industry. The moment I joined, I was the first female director of the company that is 30 years old. I definitely understood what was at stake, the perspective change from leaving one project to have the project.

That was a possibility of shaping people’s journey and having an impact in that moment in history for making a positive change in the industry. Now I have been recently promoted to senior director, and I’m not only leading the corporate comms team, but also the global HR staff and, and strategy. I get it that each of our roles in each of our areas of scope in this industry, no matter where we are in the gaming industry, has an impact and has a result and, and it’s an opportunity to contribute to this.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

Can you recall a time when you had to adapt swiftly to the changes happening?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

I do remember clearly one very important experience. Managing teams, especially in areas of game production and, and developer relations is challenging.

There is no one size fits all, there was a time where we were in the previous company, supporting publishing efforts to bring an AAA title from us to Europe. I oversaw all facets of that publishing business. From the customer service payment, legal marketing, development, community management, internal development for the solutions.

Each of these areas were their own universe. We had to adapt our approach from creatives and game producers to service oriented experts, where the challenge suddenly was beyond the scope of the project. 

It needed navigating communication status, work culture, stakeholder management. So the journey became a profound learning for me about being there. Being flexible about active listening to understand how to deliver the best value from each of our roles.

I saw how implementing feedback loops played really a crucial role in this process. These were the mechanisms to address concerns at the right time and make the necessary adjustments. It reinforced the importance of continuous improvement. Nothing has to be perfect at once. It is about how do we keep improving on what we did. And it’s of course with this agile mindset. But it is the responsiveness. It was about how do we become more open to it and understand that it’s not just out, but it is give and take. And to me personally, this helped me reinforce the importance of situational leadership. I saw how I needed to tailor strategies to the unique dynamics of each team because each area was a different universe. And together we were a whole universe faced with adifferent universe of the game with a developer from US. So it was quite interesting.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

Miro, you mentioned the fact that you actually are the first female director in PLAION’s 30-year history. So as a leading woman in the gaming industry, what significant changes, shifts have you noticed in women’s representation in video games industry over the years? And what more needs to be done so we would see more female leaders?

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

I personally think that there has never been a better time to be a woman in this industry. And of course, sadly, there’s still so much to be done. But I have seen very important steps towards the improvement of this. I have noticed growing acknowledgement of the importance of equity and inclusion. Gaming companies are really recognizing the value that women bring to the industry, not just from a demographic standpoint, but also in terms of fostering creativity, innovation, the ability to cater to the interests of female players.

Games are played by everyone, all individuals, and brands, individuals, organizations refusing to accept these are simply losing space in the market day by day. That’s just like that. Just the last year, I read that in the US, women represented 46% of the gamers. In Germany, it’s 48% of the gamers. 50% of the population is women. 50% of players of video games across the world are women and girls, more or less. And yet, under 25% of those working in the gaming industry are women. So increasing representation is just a must. Initiatives and organizations focused on supporting women are really expanding globally with allies.

You’ve seen nonprofits like Women in Games International, they have started this mentorship program in cooperation with companies like Amazon Games, and they’re taking place all over the world. They’re making a huge impact on the gaming industry.

You have also Women in Games manifesto with their events and their programs. They’re advocating to bring a culture of fairness and safe spaces. And they’re doing conferences and educational resources. They’re way more and more accessible every time.

That’s just to name a few. And in terms of actually addressing systemic barriers that have historically limited women, I think the credit goes to a company like Microsoft, where for the first time Xbox is majority female-led. 

We see the incredible Sarah Bond now as president of the organization. This is clearly encouraging young girls to step into this industry and in their career.  And for sure, the representation in video games of women in leadership roles remain an area that requires attention. 

We continue to face gender bias and lack of equal opportunities. But I see a change taking place. And there is definitely an increase in advocacy. I’m truly convinced that it’s thanks to the noise in the community who actually knows and treasures the contribution women have had throughout the decades. 

That’s how changes will continue to be made. I remember at the end of last year, the very recent PC Gamer article on the 30 years retrospective of games. The absurd move of not having a single woman to celebrate in their issues. 

Many individuals rallied around that, inviting everyone to name an amazing woman who was key in developing the game they’re passionate about. That was huge, that made a huge difference. And that proves that is how to do it. That’s how change is going to be made.

All in all, I think while there has been progress in improving women’s representation in video games, we have to keep the effort. We have to create the environments where women can thrive both in the gaming community and in the workforce so that we can really increase properly their representation.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

And what advice would you give to these young girls and young women who are aspiring to make their mark in gaming and IT sectors? 

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

My advice to all female identifying individuals is to never forget that your experiences, your knowledge, your insights is exactly what is missing and what is needed and what makes you invaluable in this tech and gaming industry.

We need more women pursuing their careers in these fields to create a more balanced and equitable industry and to affect positive change. So it is you, it is every one of us who is needed to co-create that world we desire, the games we want to play, the workplaces we want to have.

Invest in self-awareness, invest in emotional intelligence so that you can harness your unique power to overcome any obstacle. Because there will be obstacles on the journey. But the exciting career path in the gaming and IT is no other than that path being walked by you knowing who you are and how to make the best of you. And maybe it’s important, take my story. I earned my bachelor’s degree in system engineering when I was 21 years old. I guess you can imagine I was not many of, I was one of not many females in the math and physics and chemistry and software development class.

I entered the workforce, I quickly noticed the gender imbalance continue and unfortunately years of experience in the industry and I still see environments that are exclusively male dominated.

I continue to be the only female professional in many rooms. So what might seem as my privilege to be now the first female senior director in this company is actually a daily effort I take. 

And it is my daily commitment to be the change I want to see. It is not easy, but I’m here also to contribute to be the change we want to see and to welcome more and support others as well to join.

Ljubica Garic, Senior Recruiter, 8Bit

Miro, thank you so much for being a part of Gamedev Insights and sharing this very inspiring and empowering story of yours.

Miroslava Moreno Rodríguez, Senior Director, PLAION

Thank you so much for having me here today. I really enjoyed talking with you and I always enjoy collaborating with you.