I
don’t remember a time when video games weren’t a part of my normal routine. As a child, I spent hours rolling through dystopian lands as a blue hedgehog, exploring crevices for rewards and saving wildlife from destruction. As an adolescent, I generated fear-inducing roller coasters, extracting fried food from the stomachs of thousands of theme park attendees. Now, I make my own games for fun and self-expression. By my teenage years, I’d played dozens if not hundreds of games. My body was changing, and I constantly worried about my appearance. Existing as both a Black person and a woman was an arduous challenge, especially when I began to notice how the media treated people who looked like me. I learned what it meant to be Black from my parents. My mother and father are younger baby boomers who celebrated Kwanzaa until the early 2000’s, work at not-for-profit organizations, and heavily value technology. They helped me understand that Blackness was flexible. In our household, Blackness didn’t just refer to the way you walked, talked, or moved your neck. You could be Black and an astronaut, a writer, painter, or physicist. In video games, it seemed like Black people could only be dancers, slaves, drug lords, prisoners, or low-class workers.
Fifteen years later, Blackness in video games is still often absent or poorly portrayed. The reason is obvious to most people: the American game development scene lacks diversity. Both indie and AAA developers are overwhelmingly White and male. Even the majority of women in game development are White. Approximately 75 percent of White Americans have entirely White social networks. How can most of the industry design nonstereotypical Black characters? They haven’t spent time with Black people in a social setting, and empathy often requires association.
Like all humans, Black people are just people. They adapt to and exist within various other cultures. The opportunities for character creation are endless. Many creators subconsciously model the art they make after their own identities. As a result, self-inspired character design in a low-diversity industry has been contributing directly to low-diversity games.
I don’t expect the game development industry to be immediately flooded with Black people who will fix everything. Most initiatives that are in place probably won’t affect industry demographics for at least another ten years. In the meantime, here are some things that all game developers can do to help mend issues related to diversity and representation in games and game development.
Marginalized players feel encouraged to play games in which the characters positively represent them. For example, the main character in Prism Shell – a game I created with my team at Brooklyn Gamery – is a Black woman named Beretta. Beretta’s appearance on the game’s title screen has made a palpable difference in how the game is perceived by marginalized players, especially those who don’t openly identify as fans of action games. All games can benefit from diversity because all games benefit from an increased audience.
Game developers of all colors, including White ones, need to design Black characters that feel less like caricatures and more like human beings with positive aspects and flaws. When designing a Black character, preconceived notions about Blackness must be ignored. Instead, research Black cultures (there are many!) and consume media made by Black people. Data often helps creators to generate constraints in which they can better design.
With each video game, developers choose whether representation helps or hurts players. With each conversation we have about games and game development, we choose whether to help or hurt marginalized creators. Regardless of skin color, gender, or any other quality, all game developers have a stake in improving the diversity of video games and the industry itself. I look forward to a future in which Black characters in games reflect the lesson my parents taught me: Blackness is fluid and does not take one single form.
There are hundreds of Black game developers who are currently in the pipeline and need support. Many social media conversations regarding diversity in games fail to recognize marginalized game developers. Marginalized creators struggle to reach the same level as people in more privileged positions. Black game developers need additional support and mentorship in order to continue making games. I created blackgamedevs.com for this purpose. The website can be used to find published games by Black creators, as well as mentees, collaborators, and conference speakers.
I didn’t see many Black people in the games I played as a child or teenager, but when they existed, they were composed of generic stereotypes. Most of them were beefy, stupid thugs. Others were sassy fingersnappers. Even non-human characters were still subject to stereotypes: Knuckles, a red echidna who raps in the Sonic Adventure series and has dreadlock-like spines, is often portrayed as a violent bonehead.
I t ’s A l l A b o u t Fluidity By Catt Small
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