On this episode of en(gender)ed, our guest is Nicole Lazzaro, founder and President of XEODesign, Inc., As a veteran of the video gaming industry, Nicole leverages her twenty years expertise in Play Experience Design to help companies such as Disney, Lucas Arts, EA Electronic Arts, build memorable and entertaining experiences for their players/customers. Nicole is widely recognized as one of the top women working in video games and a leading figure in mobile and social games, considered one of the 100 most influential women in high tech and voted one of the top 20 women working in video games by Gamasutra. Nicole is also known for designing the first iPhone game called TiltWorld and the players have planted 16,000 trees in Madagascar through the points that they’ve earned in the game..  In our conversation today, Nicole and I will be addressing women in tech, and sexism, misogyny and harassment in tech, her advice to women and founders starting out and GamerGate.

During our conversation, Nicole and I referenced the following resources:

• Women and Minorities in Tech, by the Numbers
• Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code
• Ruth Bader Ginsberg's documentary, RBG, and the legal drama about her life, On the Basis of Sex
• DICE award winner, Christopher Judge of God of War and male allyship
• How "Funding For Female Founders Stalled at 2.2% of VC Dollars in 2018"
• XEODesign games: Follow the White Rabbit and Aladdin's Cave of Wonders
• WXR Fund for female entrepreneurs in computing
• XEODesign's Four Keys to Fun
• Brie Code's "tend and befriend" approach to game design for women
• The disconnect between Senator Klobuchar and her parental leave policy
• Nicole on Samantha Bee and "Gamify the Midterms"

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