Gordon Ross, CEO of Genuine Games, has a vision for tapping into that elusive female market. His small Scottish game company has its sights set on creating non-violent, family friendly game content that's easy to understand and easy to play. His goal is to make games the casual gamer (target market being ages 8-25 but includes all ages and both genders) can pick up and have fun with for a short time without a big time commitment.

The company's publishing a series of vocational simulations under the title of YooStar publishing, that he hopes will draw in a whole section of the public who currently doesn't play games. The first title, "Fashion Salon" is what you'd expect in a girl game; it's pink, it's got a simple interface (almost childlike actually in simplicity) and is extremely simple in concept. You get to make the "clients" over in a very simple way; makeup, hairstyle, hats, etc. by clicking on big pink buttons. There's unfortunately no way to do more complex alterations like say changing body type or a character's facial structure. You are then graded according to the level of success achieved through the makeover. And how is success determined?

Each client has some sort of soap-opera-ish backstory that's interesting but of limited depth, making the game seem perhaps for younger girls. The client comes to you in need of some fashion assistance in order to up the chances of social success. If dressed appropriately, good things happen - if not, someone loses an eye. (Ok, it's not really that dire but it might be more fun if it was!) It's a cute game but somewhat typical of girl-game fare. Other Genuine titles coming up entail the player acting as a news reporter (which is perhaps a more interesting concept) and "Dance Academy" which was described as something akin to PaRappa the Rapper.

So while the titles aren't breaking any ground, where Genuine games gets interesting is in their collaboration with colleges students in their country. The company is committed to encouraging new game industry talent and mentors students interested in earning degrees in game development. They allow these students access to their tech in the interest of teaching the students the game industry ropes.

While Genuine's titles so far don't look to start a revolution in designing for or marketing to women, their CEO's attitude toward cultivating new talent and making game development more gender-inclusive is certainly encouraging. I'll be looking forward to seeing what they do in the coming years.