Zwinzler Games

Why Zwinzler Games?

While the gaming industry is growing in popularity and reach, most of the games in the market today are formulaic, shallow, and don't represent the diverse community of people that plays them.

Games, by nature, provide a unique opportunity for players to step into the shoes of someone else and immerse themselves in experiences they may never encounter in real life. We think that this is a great opportunity to help people gain empathy and understanding for different points of view in a way that isn't possible any other way. 

We are creating games that will help players to empathize with people that are oppressed, marginalized, or hurting. We want to make games that show, not tell. And we want to make games that present people with illustrative, rather than pedantic, experiences. 

We believe that this empathy will lead to progress and aid for the people represented in our games.

We also strive to have diverse representation within our company, and uplift voices that are often muffled in the game industry. 

In 2017, only 21% of game developers were women, and an even lower percent held leadership positions. On the other hand, almost half of the people that play games are women. In Zwinzler Games, 3 out of our 4 members are women, and our CEO is a woman. We want to give women more representation in both this industry and in leadership.

Who are we?

Our team isn't made up of just business partners -- we're four friends! We all met in the marching band at Miami University (OH), and from there, we grew into a cohesive team and family.

We wanted to use our skills and creative energy to make a difference in the world, and we thought: what better way to do that than through a game company? Then, Zwinzler Games was born.

Our team is currently made up of four people:

Audrey - CEO, programmer, graphic designer. Audrey leads the team and keeps us energized and on track!

Katie - COO, programmer, web designer, and occasional graphic designer. Katie makes the buttons, and they're darn good ones. 

John - CFO and lead animator. John provides us with awesome animations, information about tax forms, and amusing faces during our company Skype meetings. 

Heather - Lead audio engineer, and lead researcher. From design to delivery, we want our games to be well-researched and sound amazing, and Heather makes it happen. 

What is this campaign for?

We currently have two games in development, using the free tools we have available to us. 

But, in order to release our games and continue to grow our business and our game production, we need two things: 

1) In order to release our games on the App Store, we will need an Apple Developer account

2) We want to purchase audio and graphic software so we can make our games look and sound even better in the future

3) Any money leftover will be used for marketing our games, so we can spread our message to more people and continue to grow our company!