Highlights
- 40 women game developers attended Game Jam Jaipur 2026.
- Increasing women participation due to 20 lakh expected jobs in the AVGC sector by 2035.
- Participants suggested methods to equalize the playing field.
Women make up 44% of India's gaming population, yet only 12-14% of the country's gaming workforce. In technical roles, that number drops even further to 6-9%. It's a gap that women game developers like Shreya Arora is determined to help close.
"As a fresher who is really into coding and inspired by games, I found this as an opportunity to learn things and showcase my talent," Arora says. Alongside her teammate Ananya Kumari on Team PIXEL X, she spent 48 hours doing exactly that.
They weren’t alone. Approximately 40 women developers attended the game development marathon, representing roughly 16% of all participants. For an industry where women hold less than 10% of leadership positions, that number tells a story of slow but unmistakable change.
Breaking Into an Industry That Doesn't Always See You
A study by the All India Game Developers Forum, Coral Recruit, and M-League noted that the disconnect between women gamers and women in game development is striking. Despite making up nearly half of all gamers, women remain vastly underrepresented in the industry that creates the games they play.
Megha Gupta, Director and Co-Founder of game development studio Wala Interactive and a jury member at Game Jam Jaipur 2026, believes that the disconnect starts with perception. “I think the more discriminating thing would be (that) men don't see women as gamers, which is a problem,” she explains. “If you don't think your counterpart is a gamer, or knows games that well, then it will be hard for you to have a good discussion with them.”
Outlook Respawn
This lack of acknowledgement, Gupta notes, impedes interest long before it can develop into any serious consideration of pursuing gaming as a career.
Turning Skepticism Into Fuel
For Diksha Tahilyani from team M3TIS, the extra scrutiny is frustrating. However, her response? Let the work speak for itself.
Her teammate, K Sravani Dhani Kameshwari, frames it even more simply. “I will learn about game development because I enjoy it, because I want to create a game, and want to join a future company that makes my dream games.” Being a gamer herself, Kameshwari wanted to understand how the games she loved were actually built.
Outlook Respawn
Shreya Arora echoes this sentiment. Rather than being discouraged by those who assume she lacks the necessary skills, she uses it as motivation to work better. It's a mindset shared by many women at the jam: the belittling isn't a barrier. It's fuel.
Why Events Like Game Jam Jaipur 2026 Matter More Than Ever
With a growing number of states implementing AVGC policies, India’s AVGC-XR Promotion Task Force projects that almost 20 lakh jobs can be created in India’s animation, VFX, gaming, comics, and extended reality sector by 2035. This means jobs in the gaming industry that were earlier considered a gamble are slowly stabilizing. At Game Jam Jaipur 2026, Gupta noted how this is beneficial for women who wish to pursue gaming.
Gupta underlined that, bound by social constraints, more women are often discouraged from pursuing high-risk jobs. But now, with more investments and studios coming up in India that are attempting to make good games, it is easier for women to join the industry. Events like Game Jam Jaipur, she went on to say, provide exposure that is desperately needed.
For many participants, including Kumari, the 48-hour marathon became a platform to gain valuable experience they couldn't find elsewhere.
A Room Where Everyone Belongs
Despite the Indian gaming industry’s documented gender gap, many women in Game Jam Jaipur 2026 reported being welcomed. They hadn’t been judged for any lack of knowledge. Male game developers in the room had been helpful, and even inspired female contestants to participate.
Outlook Respawn
While the percentage of women participating at Game Jams has changed dramatically for the better over the past few years, participants weren’t content with the pace of progress. Teams were full of ideas as to how to level the playing field further.
Some, like Jatin Sharma from Code Crows, suggest making women's participation a requirement. “If game jams mandate that teams have at least one female member, it will not only cause an increase in the number of women participants, but also encourage women to explore the field of game development,” he suggested.
Building Their Own Future
By the end of Game Jam Jaipur 2026, most of the women participants stated that they were interested in continuing to explore game development. For some, it was their first time building a game. For others, it was confirmation that this was the path they wanted to pursue.
The message from the event was clear: women in gaming are no longer waiting for permission. They are developing their way forward, one line of code at a time. And if the industry doesn’t make space for them, they’ll build their own path forward.
