Toya is centering girls in gaming

Anyone who has played a game knows it’s hard to take lessons away from what they observe in the virtual world, including the characters, the space, and what’s in it. But who dominates these spaces? What roles do women and men play in them? Such questions led Tel Aviv–based entrepreneurs Anat Shperling and Yifat Anzelevich to found Toya, a female-led digital studio that aims to “transform the gaming experience for girls around the world.”

While, according to a 2019 survey, 46% of American gamers are women, the games they play don’t reflect their experiences at the same rate. Shperling told the FBomb she founded Toya to “offer non-stereotypical gaming experiences for girls.” Every game, she added, aims “to include female characters, and not just American, but multicultural, multinational female characters, so that everyone can see themselves in the game.”

Toya uses various methods to tackle its ambitious objective, but first and foremost is the choice for all of the company’s games to be led by female protagonists. According to one survey, 75% of female gamers rate female protagonists as “very” or “extremely” important, with little significance to the gamer’s age. Generally, girls and women feel more welcomed into a game when there is a female protagonist to choose — as if the game was designed having them in mind. According to the same survey, having customization options “helps to enhance these gamers’ sense of being immersed in a role in an alternate world and engaging story.” It makes the world of the game feel more complete.

“The mere presence of female characters enables girls to express themselves more, to dare more,” Spherling added. “And the friendlier the environment is, the more girls and women will experiment just like boys do. So an environment which includes females is fundamental to us.”

Featuring women who have achieved amazing things in real life in these games also plays a very important part in shaping young women’s dreams for themselves; players can establish a reality in which they can play, and therefore be, whatever they want. That’s why some of Toya’s games are inspired by the life stories and achievements of pioneering women, like ape researcher Dian Fossey in “My Gorilla Adventure” (Toya’s first game on Minecraft). Another game features Junko Tabei, a Japanese mountaineer and the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Toya also created a three-part game series in collaboration with Dr. Jen Welter, the first woman to coach in the NFL.

Toya’s most recent game to come out is a farm game. “Farm games are a very popular genre, but almost none of them feature female farmers,” Shperling said, adding that few also feature nonwhite farmers and/or farmers who cultivate anything other than Western crops. This game represents different cultures through various farming styles and aims “to create a choice in terms of ethnic and national representation,” Shperling said. “This variety of cultural identities is our next step.”

What’s more, Toya released a female cover for “Old McDonald Had a Farm” to accompany the game. “Young McJane Had a Farm” is sung in several languages and represents female farmers from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Instead of simply rejecting stereotypical depictions, they used the international kids’ hit song to convey empowering messages to an even younger audience.

Whether we like it or not, screens are very present in our lives. If we want girls and women to feel stronger, safer, and more able, it starts with some old McDonalnds making room for some young McJanes.