u/TheP0e

I'm curious about other gamedevs stance on fem protagonist - I identify as female. I have grown up in the 2000's where almost all fem game characters were overly sexualized, but I still looked up to character like Lara croft (because she lived alone in a giant mansion, had an underground pool and a badass attitude). I then worked on AAA productions with only male protagonists, and now I'm in an indie studio where I make new prototypes with a colleague (very cool gig) and actually get to choose!

The Last two prototypes we did both had feminine protagonists, but I never personally pressed it - I think it's awesome, but I'm worried people might think I'm pushing an agenda. I have actually made a bit of a deal about asking my colleague to choose the one he prefers.

How do you choose what kind of protagonist to go with ?
I know there is a million different identifiers that are much more important than gender, but I just often end up feeling completely insecure about that specific subject.

I would love to hear from everyone, but especially people who are a minority in the business (it's wild that women count as a minority in anything, but here we are).
What has been your conclusion?
How do you choose?
How do you deal with the worry of being put in a box?
and how are the numbers looking? Are games with fem protagonist doing OK?

(Actual game context: Latest we ended up making a nun, and based the name of the game on Hildegard Von Bingen - look her up if you don't know her! she is badass. This is the game: https://funday-games.itch.io/battle-healer-hildegard )

I made this danish Tabletop RPG for kids - it's just been translated to english and now I'm not sure what to do next. I worked so hard on it and I really want the world to know that it exists. How do I take this to english speaking countries?

(I hope I found the right community + flair - I am not a seasoned redditer! I apologize if this is completely off track)

I bit about it for context:
It's called "The Heroes of Avadore"
It consists of three scenarios (each 45 -60 min)
I designed it for 4+ year old kids + one adult as the Storteller (GM)

A picture of the box art for the English version of the game. There is a coastal medieval village with a white keep at the top of the hill. The Village is surrounded by green and lush forests and a dark castle is visible in the far distance.

I'm a solo designer/illustrator/writer - I have two kids and my "real job" is video game designer/director

Just a little back story:
When I became a parent, I remember looking at my 1 year old and thinking - how will I ever introduce this little guy to roleplaying... I have been playing since 9th grade and had just started my first DND campaign and was a biiit overwhelmed by all the math. I grew up on more story/investigation heavy stuff so the math and the open world mechanics where amazing but really hard to translate to kids. Luckily I knew I had a bit of time. I wanted it to be ready for when he was 4-5 years old.

I started painting first - Kids are really visual! - first the heroes you could play. I wanted them to have recognizable classes, but as gender fluid as possible. Then I started writing, layout-ing, testing, printing... all that stuff. I realized at some point, that I wasn't just making this for my son - it was a LOT of work to make something very kids friendly - so I changed my focus slightly. I was now writing for OTHER parents - helping them tell a story and propose challenges and guiding THEIR kids. I was basically teaching parents to become GM's. I started doing tests and surveys. I tried to create different layouts to make it easier for parents to read, analyse and so on. I knew how tired they were (because I was tired!) and I wanted it to be fun for them as well.

Skip forward: I ended up taking my project to Kickstarter. The response was overwhelming. The goal was hit on the first 4 hours, and I ended up reaching 400% funding.

I sent out 300 boxes of roleplaying kits to families in Denmark and sold the rest to a few specialized stores. It got some more traction and I signed with a small distribution company - keeping all my rights and getting royalties on sales.

I won the danish boardgame innovation award and I made a sequal. Both have been (or are currently) in stores across Denmark.

So we are at present day. The distribution/production company in charce of Avadore had descaled (it was a small company running on sheer will) and now it's just me again. I have just had it translated to english. I have met a few wonderful people in the industry, but I have no idea how to bring this game to the rest of the world. I feel like I am sitting with the wonderful, polished, nerdy box of adventures, and I just want people to have it already.

I have printed out a few test kits - Would anyone like to try it?
Should I do a kickstarter again? Should I take it to the US ?
Does anyone have any experience with this?
All advice/comments are welcome!

Here are a few more pictures for context:

A crowded image of a Master screen showing all the playable heroes, a d6, a stack of item cards, the hero cards in a6 size. an a4 sized picture book with a spirral binding, filled with images of all the scenes and characters in the game. (very important for kids! It is the most central element in the game) In the back the old kickstarter box is visible..

A picture of two pamplets - A large a4 sized one called \"The Adventure book: The storyteller's guide\" and a smaller a5 sized one called \"The Heroic Guide to Role-Playing\". The Story tellers guide is basically the whole adventure layed out for the parent to read and play. The Heroic Guide is a comic book styled pamphlet that explains roleplaying to kids.

Feminine protagonist in games

I made an RPG for Kids (And Adults learning Role playing)