Cerise Magazine

Miriam Ruiz is an engineer hailing from Spain. She is a game developer for Debian, a Linux operating system, and is currently the only female blogger at the Spanish tech blog Barrapunto.

Ariel Wetzel: Can you tell me a little bit about the current projects in which you’re involved?

Miriam Ruiz: The project in which I’m more actively involved is Debian. I started getting involved there through Debian Women and, as it has happened to most of us who started then, we’ve been gradually moving inside the areas of Debian that each of us are more interested in. I’ve always been quite interested in game development, since I was little, and I’m also conscious that the games are one of the main entries to computers for many people, thus as an additional point I can try to do something to reduce the gender gap from there. You know the “think globally and act locally” saying, I guess. I’m starting to get a bit involved in Ubuntu too, mostly to help Ubuntu Women a bit.

Some months ago, Alexander Schmehl (”Tolimar”), seeing that I was quite committed to games stuff inside Debian, suggested that I found a Debian Games Team group, so I did it. The games are one of the areas that need more improvement in Linux distributions and in Free Software in general. The group has being improving since then and we’re maintaining quite a lot of games packages and related stuff in Debian. We met in Edinburgh in June this year to set the main lines of what we want to do for the future, and in the next release.

A big part of the work we need to do in the Games Team is not as interesting as it seems. A big effort has to be carried about clarifying licenses, making games behave properly in different architectures, replacing non-free stuff and so on. Game developers, at least in the Free Software world, seem to be a bit careless and unknowing about legal stuff, licenses and so on.

I wouldn’t really call my weblog a project in itself, I mean I just don’t have any definite goals with it, just telling about stuff I do, or things that interest me. Of course there’s quite a lot of Free Software, Debian and Games related content there, as those are the areas in which I’m moving the most lately. I tend to write a lot about Gnash, the free Flash player from the Free Software Foundation, as I’m maintaining it for Debian. It gives quite a lot of work, as it is currently yet in an alpha state (I wouldn’t really recommend it for end users yet), even though many of the smaller Flash applets, as well as YouTube and Lulu.tv does work now. It’s gonna be a nice player when it’s finished.

You might somehow know Barrapunto, the Spanish version for Slashdot. I’m an editor there too. Not that it takes too much time away from me anymore, but it’s kinda nice. I’m the only female editor there for the moment, and, as it happens with Slashdot, that weblog itself (one of the most important ones in the geek world in Spanish language) is not really very female-friendly. Anyway it’s nice to be doing stuff there and showing all of them that a woman can be as much of a geek as them, and that this is not a male-only club in any way.

Apart from that, I’m slightly involved in some feminist-oriented groups, such as ChicasLinux, LinuxChix, Systers, WikiChix or Indymedia Women, but I scarcely do much there apart of being in the mailing lists and answering sometimes.

AW: Between Linux, gaming, blogging, and being an engineer, it looks like you’re an all-around geek. How’d you get into your hobbies?

MR: Yup, I guess I’m kind of geek. I guess having being surrounded by boys most of the time might have helped. I don’t have any sisters, only brothers, and my parents bought us our first computer when I was 9-years-old. I guess that I’m the most geek of all my siblings, and in any case, the only one that has joined the Free Software world. In high school I got involved in the demo-scene, as there were some minor groups in my town around that and it was nice. Some of those people are currently in the game developing world, in a bigger or smaller degree, but not too much into Free Software. Of course there weren’t many other girls around that either. When I started university I got interested in computer security, as did some of my friends, and some of my brother’s friends too, were moving into that. I later discovered Internet, and then Linux and the Free Software, and started using it. As you can imagine, there were not too many girls in my degree either, probably about 9%.

Apart from that, I’ve always counted with the support and encouragement of my local Linux User Group, AsturLinux, which by the way is one of the LUGs I know with highest female members, and also Debian Women, which has been such a successful project that it has in fact changed the whole structure of Debian, which is now a really great project to get involved in, being female.

AW: What games are you currently working with the Debian Games Team? How does Linux game development differ from designing commercial games?

MR: Right now I’m mostly doing small cute games. I’m trying to finish patching and packaging fenix which is a tool to create 2D games, and in which I’m interested as a way of packaging some small games I like, but it’s getting a bit more difficult than I expected because there seems to be endianness and word length issues with it. It’s quite common among game developers to forget that there’s more than i386 computers out there. My To-Do list also includes nikwi, which has endianness issues too, or vulcan, in which I have to find a free replacement for its not-free-enough 3D chess models, as well as some remakes of older games. There are also 3D games such as dominoblast or Sturmbahnfahrer, which apart from any technical issues, will have to deal with a name change, as the current name of the game seem to be a bit offensive to Germans (because of its intended similarity with the name Sturmbannführer, even though the game is a car game and has nothing to do with war or anything like that).

Among the latest games I’ve been involved in packaging, SnowballZ, Bouncy, Cultivation, Hex-a-hop, Frets On Fire or Ultrastar-NG.

I’m sure to be stating the obvious, but the main difference I see between the free games (free as in speech, meaning the games inside the Free Software world) and the privative games is the amount of money involved in their development. The rest is a consequence of this. I’m pretty sure I’m not saying anything new when I mention that there are non-free games in Linux, and also that a free game can also be commercial. In fact, the “non-commercial” clause is an unacceptable usage limitation according to Debian Free Software Guidelines. In any case, it’s somehow true that companies have not found a clear economical model for free games, as they already have for other free software, like servers, databases, management tools or things like that. The most clear economical model suitable for free games right now will probably be based on multiuser games.

Contrary to what many people think, there are many free games out there, and ranging in their type from old-style games (2D platform games, remakes), puzzle games, children games, 3D games, or experimental/indy games that would really be hard to find in the commercial world, like those from Kenta Cho or Jason Rohrer. We also have many free versions of games that have been a real success in game consoles, such as pydande or stepmania (for DDR) or Ultrastar-NG (Sing Star). It’s difficult to make an overall global analysis, because the Free Software world is, by definition, decentralized, and it takes a lot of time just to be up to date on what other people are making. One of the main points in the current situation of Free Software games is that we have a really huge amount of engines that really get the best of every machine and, in fact, are really professional-level, competing and really going over many commercial titles, and what we’re missing the most is people creating interesting titles with those engines.

My personal view on free games is that their market niche is to be something different to that of the commercial game market. A good analogy might be the film world. A commercial game, or film, is developed by many people based on a commercial idea and a lot of money. Thus, impressive technical results can be achieved, but the ideas themselves are quite conservative, because no big company can afford risking so much money into something than can be a total failure. Free software can be a really good platform for developing indy games, explore new ideas, or target people that are not being taken into account by mainstream commercial producers. More or less what the short films can be regarding to commercial films. But obviously that’s just my view of the future, it’s not an accurate description of what is there now. In any case I would like something like that, as it would be a good way to get fresh air into the gaming world.

Regarding my part in the development of games for Debian, it’s probably less impressive than it sounds. Once you find a game that you think is suitable to be included in Debian, you often have to clarify the copyright and licensing issues for that game with their authors. It’s quite common to reuse stuff you get from the Internet when you make your game, mostly sounds, images, backgrounds, fonts, textures…, so my first task is to make sure that everything is free enough to be included in Debian, or replace the non-suitable stuff if needed. Once this is done, the game usually has to be patched to make integrate it into Debian softly. We have quite a strong quality policy in how things are to be done in Debian, and even thought that’s a good thing, and makes Debian quite famous for being high quality, it gives us a lot of work to adjust some games to it. Many game developers in fact develop their games for other architectures than Linux, like Windows or Mac OS X, and as their philosophies are different, some things have to be changed. Also, many game developers just care about their own architecture, mostly i386, sometimes also amd64 or powerpc but not so often. We have to make our games work in 12 official architectures, as well as many other unofficial ones. Games as coded by their authors usually have serious problems regarding different word size of the CPU (32 vs 64 bits) or word endianness (little endian vs big endian).

AW: Do you have much time for gaming? What were some of your favorite titles growing up, and what are you playing nowadays?

MR: I love playing games. I’ve been playing with computers since I was very little, and thus my favorite style of games have changed a lot. When I was a little kid, I could spend hours playing some tricky games that I guess I wouldn’t be patient enough for finishing today, usually 2D platform games, fighting games, adventure games and so. I’m talking about 8-bit Z80 games, I guess we were really a minority of computer gamers back then, and I guess female gamers were really really scarce. There are really a lot of titles I remember with a lot of affection. In PC, I guess the first game I played that really touched my heart was Loom, then Monkey Island. I remember spending really a lot of time playing Tetris or Pang. My favorite game in game consoles still is Mario 64. I can spend hours with it. I’m not much into FPS (first person shooters). Strategy games, I’ve liked some of them a lot, like Z80’s Elite or Civilization, but I haven’t seriously played anyone recently.

The games that are more attractive for me nowadays might include a broad range. I play quite a lot puzzle games (you shoud try Hex-a-hop, it’s really addictive). I don’t play them for so long, but it relaxes me to go though a couple of puzzles. When I have time, I love playing games that just jump outside of the computer. Stepmania is great, I’ve played a lot with it, and I can have fun for hours with it, especially if I’m playing with other friends. When I’m a bit stressed, shot-em-up’s are so great. I just sit here, kill a few hundred alien spaceships and end up much better. I’d really love to find a graphical adventure that got me as involved as those from Lucasfilm or Sierra, it’s a style of game I like a lot but I haven’t recently found anything that attracted my attention too much. And, of course, Playing tennis or baseball with Wii just rocks! I love it.

AW: How’d you become an editor at Barrapunto? What is it like being the only female editor at one of the most popular Spanish blogs?

MR: Well, to be honest Barrapunto doesn’t have many readers that publicly shown themselves as female. Most of my friends hide the fact that they’re girls to avoid being attacked and harassed, which is unfair and it’s a pity. In any case, it’s not only us women that get attacked in those kind of massive weblogs, as they seem to be very attractive to trolls and to harassers, the fact is that other groups of people are also attacked, such as South American people, people from the Vasque Country or from Catalonia, people who have or haven’t studied certain degrees at university and so on. In any case, whoever else is attacked too, women are always.

It was really hard staying in Barrapunto as a reader at the beginning, my friends know how many times I ended up crying, or angry, or swearing I’d never go back again, but you finally discover that the noisy attackers are not that much, and in fact most of the people are nice, even though shy or scared enough for not getting involved in those riots, or it might just be that it doesn’t really matter too much to them. In any case, during the worst periods, I received many private emails supporting me.

I guess it’s just a matter of staying there, writing stuff, showing that you can be trusted and that you have knowledge on what you write about. I guess being in Barrapunto has made me stronger, and I’ve learnt how to cope with online harassers and trolls in a more effective way, so in the long run I guess it has been good for me.

Anyway, I’d really love more women getting publicly involved in Barrapunto and other geek-oriented weblogs. Some time ago, I read an article published by the Washington Post titled “Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers” and written by Ellen Nakashima that made me worry about what might be happening in the blogosphere. The same way that, throughout history, women have been thrown out of the public life and shut in domestic life due to some kind of sexist violence, and that being still exactly what happens in many countries all across the world, I’m a bit concerned that something like that could also become a reality in cyberspace, making us go away from the public spaces and hiding in some safe refuges. I guess we should try to be as visible as possible and tell the world that we’re here to stay.

AW: Do you have any advice for women interested learning Linux or getting into free software development?

MR: Go ahead, be proactive and have fun. Mostly the same advices I would have for males interested in getting involved in the Free Software Movement. Most of the people involved in those groups are really cooperative and willing to help. Of course that doesn’t mean they will do the stuff for you, but if you’re willing to learn and do stuff, you’ll definitely have a lot of support. Be proactive, do what you feel it needs to be done, and what you feel you’d like to do. There are so many people out there saying that they want to help and asking what they could do that it’s quite hard to tell. In fact, who am I, or any of us for that matter, to tell them what they should do? The best way to start is to join the mailing lists, forums, irc channels or whatever means of communication of a project, politely introduce yourself (yes, that helps a lot, please do it) and lurk a bit on the project until you decide what you would like to do. And don’t just think about coding, there is really a huge amount of work to do aside from coding, just be imaginative.

Of course, you must have fun with what you do, or you’ll end up burning yourself out. Read a bit about burnout and prevent it, it’s a pity that some people that were really proud of what they were doing and were happy doing it just became so quite-depressed. Don’t let that happen to you.

And, mostly to females but also to males, if you join a group and don’t feel comfortable in it for whatever reason, for being harassed, for having to cope with sexist jokes (or racist jokes, or ageist jokes or any kind of -ist jokes for that matter), just go away from it and join another one. There are lots of marvelous people out there, why do we need to cope with that? No way!

An advice I’d seriously give to any female that wants to join the Linux world is to join LinuxChix mailing lists, or getting in contact with Debian Women, Ubuntu Women or whichever group it fits them better. You end up learning and sharing a lot of things in those groups that are worth it.

AW: Anything else you’d like to say in closing that we haven’t covered already?

MR: I’d really like to see more gaming stuff in the Free Software world, I’d love to see people exploring new ideas and games being developed within the bazaar style of development, that is, more community-oriented. There’s a lot of things I’d like to tell to game developers, ranging from caring about the copyright and license issues, not only for what they produce but also for what they reuse, and to cooperate with the main Linux (and/or other operative system) distributions. The community as a whole has more knowledge available than any of us individually, and is really willing to share it and help. I’d also like to address to artists and conceptual designers of free games. Artists seem to be less willing to work cooperatively within a community, or to let their work being reused and/or modified. I would like that to change. Sharing your work does not mean losing all your rights to it. I guess it would be nice to develop some easy to read article on licensing issues, copyright, sharing and so on, to show some people that their fears are not justified. I also invite anyone that wants to get in touch with Free Software game development, Debian development or just getting in touch with the Debian Games Team for whatever reason to contact me. And I especially invite any girls that might want to join in, don’t be scared, don’t think that you won’t be able to do anything, because it’s just the other way round.

Even more in game development, as in any art, creating something is sharing your thoughts, your inner feelings. You have a lot to say because you’re unique, so just let your imagination flow and go ahead. You don’t know how technically? That’s not a problem, getting to know the technical stuff is easy, compared to having imagination and wanting to communicate, and there are already systems for creating games easily out there. I’d probably recommend pygame for starters, even though there are even easier systems for creating games for certain types, such as Ren’Py, for example. I even know of some little girls who are developing games, and I’m really proud of them. Probably some of them will end up in Debian soon, hopefully. Wanna join us? You’re really welcome!