Support Black Game Developers
Why should we give extra love & support to Black game developers? The Game Developers of Color (GDoC) Expo put it best: “The gaming population mirrors the world population, but the game development industry does not. “ A 2016 report by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) found that only 3% of people working in games in the U.S. are Black, compared with 13% of the nation's population as a whole. Black developers are a minority, but the community is growing, and a lot of avenues for support are popping up thanks to folks in the industry who use their platform to support others. An additional increase in accessibility for digital art, programming, and design learning is helping more people find their own way to game development. Today we aim to celebrate this growing community of Black game developers and showcase just a piece of this collective body of work. We’ll also provide many, many links so you can do some exploring on your own!
Games to Buy and Play
Financial support is the most powerful method of supporting marginalized creators, so it’s important that you buy games, become a patron, recommend Black developers when you hear of open positions at game studios, and hire the immensely qualified Black developers who are applying at your studios. If you don’t have the financial power to support these projects right now, please follow these games & their teams on Twitter, wish-list their games on Steam, and share their work with your friends and followers!
Digital Games
Dots Home
DOTS HOME is a single-player game where DOT (Dorothea Hawkins) travels through time to key moments in her family’s history to see how individual decisions— however seemingly inconsequential, let alone right or wrong — have long-lasting collective impact.
Show your support:
Play Dots Home (free!) on Steam
Follow Rise-Home Stories Project on Twitter
Follow Weathered Sweater on Twitter
Skator Gator
SKATOR GATOR puts you in the scales of Greenjamin Gator as you skate across a wide network of oil pipelines leading to the big city, dodging robots and avoiding the polluted swamp waters below.
Show your support:
Follow Weathered Sweater on Twitter
Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator
Buy, sell, and trade organs in a strange and evolving universe. Dive into the quivering innards of alien capitalism in the sci-fi body horror market tycoon game you didn't know you needed.
Show your support:
Buy Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator
Advent Neon
A hyperactive 2D action platformer with wicked fast attacks, omnidirectional dashing, and time-freezing! Play well enough to transform and unleash 100% power!
Show your support:
5 Force Fighters
5 Force Fighters is a 2D fighting game with a cast of unstoppable characters, and a combat system that boasts universal offensive and defensive options. Unravel the story of 5 teens blessed with elemental powers, but cursed with scarred pasts that have led them to a common, but destructive, goal.
Show your support:
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
Cast spells, be queer, & crash the biggest concert of the year! Spirit Swap is an action-puzzle game set in a lush, narrative-driven world of witchy demons.
Show your support:
Follow Soft Not Weak on Twitter
Samurai Zero
Samurai Zero is a 3rd person tactical hack and slash game set in the beautiful science fantasy world of Edo, inspired by the Feudal Japanese Samurai.
Show your support:
Slime Heroes
A game where the slimes are finally the heroes. Play together with your friends as adorable slimes - the only creature that can save the world from an evil corruption. Find different weapons and create your own unique magic abilities to express the way you want to adventure.
Table-Top Games
Neo Cities Chronicles
You and a group of other recently minted magical girls who have the ability to control mecha companions have been tasked with protecting the homeworld from the incoming colonizing creatures known as the Once-From-Before.
Show your support:
The Big Shuffle
Prepare to immerse yourself into a distinct Film Noir genre, where you play a classic noir character trope and win by setting up the perfect scene for your character. You have to play the long con though, as someone else could easily mess up your scene at the last second… so play wisely! This game is full of role playing opportunities and pairs well with a cigar, whiskey, and jazz.
Show your support:
Follow Previously Pluto on Steam
Tide Breaker
Tide Breaker is a Tabletop RPG system that lets you step into the role of hyper-competent heroes and explore worlds that your group creates together from the ground up. Customize your abilities, get involved in clandestine plots, and engage in epic battles straight out of your favorite action movie against numbers that would overwhelm almost anyone! Of course, it’d just be a warm-up for you. At least until the Big Bad shows up.
Show your support:
Tangeant Space
Tangent Space is a sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game that seeks to capture the grand scope and optimism of classic space operas. Featuring diverse alien societies, advanced technology, epic space battles, and a future worth fighting for.
Organizations we Love
We mention most, if not all, of these organizations in our last Support Black Game Developers blog post, but we just want to remind you that they exist and that we still love them so so much and want to see them succeed. Celebrate Black History Month year-round by supporting everyone involved in the work of supporting game developers of color.
Humble Bundle’s Black Game Developer Fund
Independent Black game developers around the world are envisioning and building powerful new gaming experiences—from polished indie gems to potential AAA blockbusters—but in many cases they lack access to the resources needed to take their project to the next level, or even just get it off the ground. The Black Game Developer Fund is an annual fund designed to help empower Black game developers to take that next step and move their compelling game vision forward.
Since the BGDF was funded in June 2020, over 20 games at various stages of development have received funding.
Rise-Home Stories Project
Their game, DOTS Home, is featured at the beginning of this blog post, but we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the organization behind the game. Rise-Home Stories is a groundbreaking collaboration between multimedia storytellers and social justice advocates seeking to change our relationship to land, home, and race, by transforming the stories we tell about them.
GameHeads (Oakland)
“Based out of Oakland, CA, Gameheads uses video game design, development and DevOps to engage, prepare and train low-income youth and youth of color ages 15 to 24 in the Bay Area for careers in the tech and video game industries. Through a powerful medium that youth are familiar with and passionate about, our students learn how to code, design, manage projects, work in teams, lead, and create interactive projects that tell stories to enrich us all. In the process, they are also graduating from high school, getting into college to pursue STEAM-related degrees and preparing themselves to enter the tech and video game industries.”
Gameheads envisions “a world where low income youth and youth of color are equipped to thrive and succeed in any field they choose, including the tech and video game industries.”
POC In Play (London)
“POC in Play is an independent organisation creating a range of initiatives and programme of events designed to increase the visibility and representation of People of Colour in the video games industry. We aim to work with industry, educators and other diversity organisations to create more opportunities for all.”
Ubongo Game Lab (Zambia)
“At Ubongo Game Lab, we’re actively interested in facilitating the growth of game development within Zambia and Sub-Saharan Africa through workshops, training and providing resources to game developers within the region. We see it as an opportunity to create meaningful interactive content, transform education and preserve local art and culture on our continent. Since 2015 we’ve had our interests set on increasing African women’s participation in game development with our annual Games Plus Girls workshop and some upcoming projects for 2019 and beyond.”
I Need Diverse Games (Illinois)
“I Need Diverse Games, via all associated platforms and members; including but not limited to: twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other mediums seeks to bring projects, works and research by marginalized folks to light. We also seek to discuss, analyze and critique identity and culture in video games through a multi-faceted lens rooted in intersectionality.”
Press: https://queerspacemagazine.com/beyond-scruffy-mcscruffy-why-we-need-diverse-games/
Black Girls Code (Regional locations in USA & South Africa)
The vision of Black Girls Code is “to increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. To provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.”
Black Girl Gamers (Online)
“Black Girl Gamers is a online platform based community that aims to positively promote diversity and affect change within the gaming industry. Initially created as a safe space in 2015, void of the sexism and racism (misogynoir) widely experienced in gaming, the platform has grown from its original purpose to become the hub for all things gaming from the black woman perspective. With a membership of 2400 multifaceted gamers, streamers and game developers that continues to grow, the BGG community has become a visible and impactful movement being featured in the press and on panels to provide insight into how Black Women experience gaming and how to progress forward.”
Game Devs of Color Expo (NYC)
This is a games conference that puts game creators of color at the forefront, and provides space to “talk about anything but our own marginalization.”
That’s All for Now - Happy Black History Month!
This blog was written by Megan McAvoy with editing by Maggie DeCapua