th e #BLacK game d e v Bac K sto ry By Shawn Alexander Allen Earlier this year a black game creator I had been following online for a while, Micah Betts, relaunched his Kickstarter campaign for the game Combat Core. It had previously looked rougher and failed to get the attention of press, fans, and other outlets, ultimately failing to meet its crowdfunding goal. But this time you could tell he had worked hard to polish the game before reintroducing it on Kickstarter. As someone who has failed and then gone on to succeed on the platform, and as a person genuinely interested in his game project, I wanted to see him succeed. Black people make up a very small part of the games development space worldwide, which has been dominated by white and Asian creators since its inception. In many ways,
this is to be expected as the video games space was created by white and Japanese creators – unlike with hip-hop or countless other cultural innovations by black creators.
ently lead to decades of black people thinking that the video games they play were not something they could or should try to create. While there are more people are making games than ever in 2015, black voices are still absent – as are a great number of other marginalized groups. As a biracial black person myself who constantly struggles with my own identity, I have found that I have the knack for being outspoken about these things and that, to some extent, have been able to enact change or at least create awareness.
That isn’t a problem in itself. The real difficulty is getting people who aren’t generally represented in a space to see themselves there as valuable contributors and to see it as a place that they can succeed in. It has been documented that black children in the United States tend to view themselves as inferior from birth and consider being white as the ideal. Society at large enforces these ideas, telling black people to stay in their place while fetishizing black bodies and culture for fashion and style, and attempting to erase black inventions and innovators. This vicious cycle has inadvert-
When I started the Support #blackgamedev movement I thought I was just saying what needed to be said; I didn’t know I was starting a hashtag. I just wanted to see Combat Core succeed, as well as other
games on the market today and in the future. We need more and more creators, and the different voices, stories, art, and design choices that come from that. Games will only become better with a more diverse set of creators but in order to keep those people in the space, they also need to see success, or else we will see more and more people abandoning the industry. Blackgamedevs.com was started by friends and colleagues whom I have mentored or otherwise supported and promoted in the past. I am proud to see a simple hashtag grow into a small movement, and then into an open-source website as a resource to hopefully grow the success of black people in this tiny corner of the game development sphere that we currently make up.
ama zing Fast growing List o F B L acK gam e deveLo Pers www.blackgamedevs.com Status: July 26, 2015 Ahmed Abdullah Ajari Wilson Akira Thompson Andreas J. Hester Andrew Augustin Andy James Nicholis Anne Shongwe Arthur Ward, Jr. Audley Gordon Auriea Harvey Ben Wilson Bradnon J. Bruce Bradston Henry Brandon Perry Bruce Johnson Bryan Williams Bryson Whiteman Catt Small Carrill Munnings Charles Webb Chase Bethea Chris Moody Chris Wells Christian Howard Christopher A. Butler CNIAngel Corey Holmes Cukia Kimani Dain Saint Damien A. Morris Darryl Johnson
David Pierre Davon Marquis Sanders Derek L. Manns Derek Smart Demond Rogers Des Gayle Ebrima Leigh Errol King Ethan Redd Evie Powell Frank Silas Frenel Djossa Gaming Pixie Graham Reid Greg Goodson Greg Johnson Gregory Jean-Baptist Harold Pichol Hillmon Ancrum Hoop Somuah Issac Nichols Jacob Mooney Jae Lee Jamal Seaton James Garvin James Seetal Jarryd Huntley Jason Coker Jason Paul Jay Adeloye Jermaine Belcher Joe Palmer John Davis Jorge Palacios Joseph Saulter
Joshua Parker Justin Woodward Kidando Kieron White K.L. Smith Kojo Kumah Lauren E. Scott Lavon Woods Lee Hinds Leonard J. Paul MABManZ Marcus Terrell Markus Heinel Mat Broome Matthew Findlater Melissa Avery-Weir Melvin Samuel Micah Betts Michel Nkuindja Mike Adebajo Mike Murray Nicole Anetra Lewis Neil Jones NostalgiCO Noyemi Karlait Patrice King Paul Davey Paul LaCen Pierre Joshua PinkTreeLeaf Polkritude pyun-pyun Quintin Rodriguez-Harrison R. Lateef Ramone Russell
30
Ray Batts Reggie Fils-Aimé ReJean DuBois Rejon Taylor Rekcahdam Richard Terrell Richie Branson Rokashi Edwards Ron Jones Sean Bellinger Sean R. Scott Shawn Alexander Allen Shawn Pierre Silentrivr SolarLune Somara Atkinson Spritewrench Sterlyng Powell Sylverstone Khandr Terrance Smith Tim Lewinson Tion “VAGABOND” Bruton TJ Thomas Tony Barnes Tony Powell Tony Yotes Tramell Ray Issac Travis Estrada Triston Edison Troy D. Patterson Tyriq Plummer Ventroy Rolle Warren Price Wayman Harris Wilbert Roget, II