UK videogame industry, home of Lara Croft, fights gender imbalance

(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 23, 2018 Jodie Azhar, 30, Lead Technical Artist on the Total War game series at Creative Assembly, poses for a portrait in her offices in Horsham, West Sussex, south of London, on February 23, 2018. Jodie Azhar was selected by an international jury of the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit 2016 to be among the 18 talented newcomers across film, television and games. Azhar knows as a woman that she is an exception in Britain's video game industry, with only 19 percent of jobs filled by women, according to a 2016 study. For the past three years, Creative Assembly, one of the UK's largest video game developers, has hosted girl-only workshops at its offices in Horsham, South London. / AFP PHOTO / Justin TALLIS

LONDON: Giving life to a black elf in a fantasy videogame, softly spoken schoolgirl Hannah leans into the microphone to deliver an ominous warning: “This world, and everything in it, will burn!” 

With seven other schoolgirls, the 13-year-old is learning the tricks of the gamer trade as part of an initiative to encourage more girls to enter the industry.