Virtual Reality [VR] & Game Studies: Game Design & Development

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.

The POC in Play team comprises of games industry professionals from a range of backgrounds and experiences, but who all share a passion to drive impactful change and open the door for more People of Colour.

Originally founded by Catt Small and Chris Algoo in 2016, the Game Devs of Color Expo took shape when the two young game developers set out to pioneer a new market for showcasing games made by game creators of color. The first event, a games showcase with roundtable discussions, received rave reviews from attendees. Some even drove to New York City from out of state! Attendees asked when there would be another event, so Catt and Chris decided to pull in a larger team and host the second event at the Schomburg Center.

The Game Devs of Color Expo continued in-person events for several years. Each year, attendance and partnerships with major organizations grew. We have had the honor of working with major gaming companies including Xbox, Nintendo, Niantic, Oculus, and Amazon Gaming.

In 2019, we offered our first grant to a game developer of color in the form of the Humble Bundle Game Creator of Color award. Ethan Redd, our first grant winner, received $15,000 to build a Humble Original game. To date, we have granted hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to game developers of color.

Since 2020, the event has shifted to online-only. We’ve since doubled our attendance numbers and have increased engagement each year. We are now embarking on our latest journey! Help us make it possible.

Welcome to Black in Gaming (BIG), a thriving community committed to fostering, empowering, and amplifying Black professionals within the video game industry. Since 2002, our mission has been to actively create avenues for education, leadership development, and skills enhancement for Black individuals in gaming.

In the world of gaming, Black professionals, both established and aspiring, often encounter microaggressions, implicit biases, and outright discrimination in their workplaces. These unique obstacles can significantly impede career growth and, in some cases, force talented individuals to abandon their dreams entirely. At BIG, we are dedicated to addressing these challenges head-on by cultivating a dynamic and well-informed community that is equipped with the tools and support needed to achieve success and flourish together.

Decoy Games, LLC is a video game company founded by two brothers, who had no prior professional game development experience. They used their deep passion for video games and extensive imagination to start building Decoy Games, LLC.

Today, Decoy Games, LLC is a multi-award winning game company focused on creating unique game experiences, merchandise and content while also using their platform to encourage innovation across all aspects of the game industry.

The Game Design Lab (GDL) approaches gaming technology as a modern medium for interactive, immersive, non-linear storytelling. The Lab provides Spelman students with the skills and techniques to develop video games, social simulations, historic reconstructions, artistic works, interactive fictional narratives and other immersive experiences. Students from the Arts, Humanities and those in the Computer Sciences work together to generate art assets, develop storylines and implement culturally relevant products using technology that has historically not promoted the voices of women of color. The Lab also provides resources for faculty ready to adopt and adapt the technology in their research. For more information about this minor, please contact Professor Jerry Volcy, Ph.D., at jvolcy@spelman.edu.

Since its foundation in 2015, Black Girl Gamers (BGG) has grown from a small Facebook group into a thriving collective of 10,000+ black women around the globe. All with a shared passion for gaming and a shared ambition to make an impact on it.

Evolving from a like-minded group of friends to a community- powered business, BGG has become an influential agent of change throughout the gaming industry. Partnering with brands to change gaming from the inside out.

Across content, events, education, consulting, and talent, BGG partners with endemic and non-endemic brands throughout the gaming space (Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc.) and gaming communities to grow the influence, representation, equity and experience of black women in gaming.

I'm Neil Jones, also known as Aerial_Knight. I'm a solo game developer and the creator of Aerial_Knight's Never Yield and its sequel, Aerial_Knight's We Never Yield. My game development journey began in 2012, working on tech and medical device projects before teaching 3D modeling and tech art at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI. After facing challenges in finding my place in the industry, I started my own studio to create unique and impactful games with distinct styles and fresh ideas.
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With experience both as a solo developer and as the lead of a mid-sized team, I've developed a broad skill set across all aspects of game creation. My work has been featured in outlets like IGN, The New York Times, Kotaku, and more, and I’ve won several game development awards. My goal is to craft small, innovative games that make a big impact, offering new experiences for underserved audiences and pushing the boundaries of what games can be.

The 3D Dojo started with and is led by the gaming community. We’re all about connection and collective growth. Come together with game developers and gamers to collaborate with each other in cool projects, challenge your skills, or just to have some fun gaming!

A myriad of developers and skillsets has afforded Strange Scaffold flexibility that other studios don’t have – to swiftly reposition our experienced and focused creators onto different projects, depending on capacity, dependencies, and priorities.

The HBCU Game Jam is an opportunity for beginner students to learn the interdisciplinary process of game creation: the creative and the technical.

Code My Crown is a guide to the creation and celebration of Black hair textures and protective styles in video games.

Black Open Source Software (BOSS) License v1.0

by A.M. Darke for Open Source Afro Hair Library

I started the Open Source Afro Hair Library (“OSAHL” or “The Library” or “Afro Hair Library”) as part of my art practice in 2019. I own the copyrights to all assets developed for The Library, including the name, logo, and website. I’m retaining these copyrights while–subject to the terms of this document–offering a non-exclusive license for you, an individual human, to use the 3D assets that are explicitly marked as available for download at afrohairlibrary.org. This license may be updated periodically and can be found at afrohairlibrary.org/license.

Black Voices in Gaming is a Black-led, national 501c3 nonprofit founded in Oakland California committed to increasing Black representation and Inclusion within the Gaming Industry. We are a growing and thriving community of Black Game Developers curating culturally relevant games centered on Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) lived experience. We’re putting our money where our mouth is and are excited to announce our Accelerator Program and Fund, which provides Black game developers with critical funding and other vital resources necessary to produce and publish their video games.

Tribe Games is an independent games studio based in Minnesota. Striving to create fun and innovative games; creating entertaining experiences and moments. Created in 2009 by Charles McGregor, Tribe Games has created a wide variety of games over the years. Ranging from the Mobile to Desktop to Virtual Reality. Tribe has also collaborated with some amazing partners over the years including GLITCH, The Minnesota Orchestra, and the University of Minnesota.

3-Fold Games are a micro game studio of two women (Chella Ramanan and Claire Morwood), who met at the XX+ Games Jam in Bristol, UK in 2016. At the Jam they won Audience Choice Award for Before I Forget, motivating them to push on with development. They have since exhibited the game in the UK and internationally and are now collaborating with sound designers and artists to complete development of their first game, Before I Forget, a narrative exploration about a woman with dementia.

NuChallenger is a fully distributed games x culture company founded by ex-Rockstar Games industry vet Shawn Alexander Allen. Known for shipping the Treachery in Beatdown City franchise, and working on DOPE marketing with premiere independent rap artists, the award winning studio is embarking on bigger and exciting things.