Black Devs in Indie Gaming
Today, we’d like to highlight black developers and black owned indie game studios in an effort to help the cause of representation within the games industry.
Notion Games is the vision of Andrew Augustin, a Forbes 30 under 30 dev from Texas. His game, Super Ubie Island, brings a cartoonish flair and innovative mechanics to the tried and true Super Mario World platformer. After a remaster in 2018, Super Ubie Island 2 will be releasing next year.
From Cameroon, Kiro’o Games introduced the world to Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan, an action-RPG with lush 2D animation. The lore of Aurion comes complete with its own tie-in comic series!
While this developer is no longer working on commercial projects, their headline 2015 title Sunset is so thoughtful and beautiful that they deserve a mention on this list nonetheless. Playing as an immigrant housekeeper in the fictional country of Anchuria, you’ll discover more and more about your wealthy client Gabriel Ortega as you explore the immersive story game.
Coming later this year from indie newcomer, Hamra Digital is RADARjAM. Fly missions solo or with friends where you take on carriers, bombers, fighters and more, all through the lens of a radar screen.
Also due later this year, Decoy Games brings 2D co-op action underwater with Swimsanity! A shooter where four friends fight massive marine monsters, this title will be out on PC, Switch, Xbox and Playstation!
Founded by a husband and wife development duo, White Guardian features a fusion between comics and games. They’ve worked on multiple projects and have begun streaming more consistently on Twitch, so if you want to keep up with developments, make sure you give them a follow!
Validate Game
Being developed by Dani Lalonders, Validate is a romantic visual novel about 12 adults in Jersey City navigating new relationships and the harsh realities that come alongside them. With tons of routes and a focus on living life as a millennial, look forward to more from this title soon.
While working on this list, we found plenty of resources highlighting black developers in games. If you’re a developer, publisher or indie hopeful looking to break in, we’d highly recommend visiting the database Black Game Devs to get in touch with other folks willing to give their all for gaming! We’d also like to highlight the work done by the Wings Fund, which specifically seeks out diverse developers to invest in. If you’re looking for places to make donations, Black Girls Code is a non-profit that works to encourage young, black women to enter into STEM fields of study. Finally, a few documents were making the rounds on Twitter offering mentorship opportunities for minority developers to break into the games industry. If you’re interested in those, here is the link to the Twitter-sourced Black Developers Mentorship and the CAPY Mentorship form.