Former Zynga director of product Kate Gorman has unveiled all-women startup Fort Mason Games.

While the social and casino gaming company was founded in 2016, Gorman has gone public with the studio’s first game, Confetti Casino.

Gorman joined Zynga at 21, and helped kick-start that company’s social casino slots operations. She departed the company six months before founding Fort Mason Games (based in, conveniently, the Fort Mason area of San Francisco) with the intent to build a “billion-dollar business.”

All in

Gorman is hoping to use her position at the head of a new studio to fix an imbalance in gender representation in the social and casino games space.

“It’s no secret the gaming industry has fallen short when it comes to fostering gender diversity,” said Gorman, speaking to GamesBeat.

Mobile games traditionally attract a far larger female audience than console or PC games. 70 per cent of Confetti Casino’s audience identifies as female, which Gorman attributes to designing with their sensibilities in mind.

“Building mobile games that appeal to everyone with a focus on women opens up an immense market that other companies have long failed to cater to and capitalize on.”

“I wanted them to feel friendly and non-sexualized. Sexualized characters are created without a lot of thought about the impact they might have on payers. I preferred more respectful characters.”