As Indigenous game developers, we offer support in solidarity with Black game developers. Disparities for our communities have many crossovers, and it’s through games like Treachery in Beatdown City by Shawn Alexander Allen of Nuchallenger and Manuel Nico Marcano of Hurakan Works that Black and Indigenous voices unite.
We recognize the ongoing impacts of colonization, displacement, and racism for Black people and how this echoes to games. While there are many ways to help, these are a few immediate paths:
- Follow @blackgamedev on Twitter.
- Buy and play games by Black developers!
- Promote and write about these games.
- Listen to Black game devs at events like Game Devs of Color Expo.
- Visit event archives and listen to talks such as:
- “Gaming for Everyone: Blacks in Gaming,” Game Developers Conference 2018
- “Contrary Design,” Toiya Kristen Finley, Crafting Intangibles 2017
- “Knights, Fist Fights, Lasers & Catacombs: Subversive Diversity to Improve Our Games,” Shawn Alexander Allen and Catt Small, Game Developers Conference 2016
Beyond these ways in which anyone can help, it is vital for game industry to support opportunities for Black creatives by providing equitable roles on teams, to uplift them in meaningful ways so that they may express themselves on their own terms.