By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
The female-focused game creation platform Dorian has partnered with global content leader Lionsgate for a licensed Blair Witch game contest.
But beyond that limited partnership is a much greater goal to increase female representation in the video gaming industry.
Dorian is a no-code game creation and streaming platform focused on empowering women and underrepresented creators in the game industry. It allows fiction creators to transform their stories into playable games. The platform has recently unlocked game monetization worldwide for its predominantly female user-base.
Following the platform launch and its recent partnership with Lionsgate, Dorian has proven to be a game-changing platform for creators and fans. It is reimagining game development and revenue potential for marginalized creators.
“Joining the game industry changed my life. Coming from an economically underprivileged background, I owe my success to the inherent social connection of games that empowered me to collaborate, grow and succeed in a global industry and eventually start my own company in the US.” said Julia Palatovska, co-founder and CEO of Dorian.
“With Dorian, our goal is to pay it forward by providing millions of women with a similar opportunity to grow into game business owners.”
One of the fastest growing industries in the world, the video game industry has been overwhelmingly male-dominated throughout its history.
Although women make up an estimated 47% of the audience for video games, only 24% of those working in the industry are women and only 3% identify as non-binary. Among 144 executives in the top 14 game companies, 121 are men and only 23 are women.
When it comes to race and ethnicity, just 2% of developers are black while 69% identify as white.
This is where Dorian is changing the game. Female owned and operated, Dorian is allowing underrepresented creators to tap into this growing industry for a female-focused audience.
The platform plans to give independent writers a clear path to sustainable income. With a 90% female and 45% people of color creator base, Dorian is committed to elevating underrepresented voices to tell their stories.
Users are able to leverage the expansive virtual game economy that Dorian has developed. This includes game creation, practices and lectures, community and social features, analytics, and revenue generation from anywhere in the world.
The platform recently launched the Blair Witch Fest contest in connection with Lionsgate, giving creators the opportunity to develop their own games tied to the Blair Witch franchise, as well as the potential to monetize those games.
The grand prize winner was Naomi Laeuchli, a new creator who started with a minimal social following and was experimenting with self-expression using Dorian.
“Coming to Dorian without any sort of social media following, I appreciated that I could organically build a readership of 65,000 based solely on the story and interaction with readers through the app, and that I could actually generate revenue based off of those reads,” said Laeuchli.
“Getting to watch pro London-based theater actors and TikTok stars read my story live has been surreal and delightful. Also, as a longtime lover and writer of fanfiction, the ability to participate in the official Blair Witch Fest contest was so much fun and I’m grateful to have won, amongst many fantastic submissions in the contest from so many talented authors.”
With her submission titled Survive the Witch, Laeuchli proved to be a talented writer and game creator. Since her win, she has been successfully growing her community of fans while earning revenue. She’s also become a living example of Dorian’s social goals.
With partnerships enabled by Dorian, female creators are building a connected storyverse of games with IP holders, influencers and brands. Over 500 women are creating games on Dorian, with over 300 of them turning into first-time streamers.
The Blair Witch deal with Lionsgate was the first IP that unlocked this collaborative creativity between IP holders, creators and fans. More IP partnerships will be launched for Dorian creators in 2022.
Since the launch of Blair Witch Fest on Dorian in mid-October, both the number of released games and the number of watch hours have doubled month-over-month. Dorian has released more than 3,000 games on its platform made by female creators, and that number continues to grow daily.