Seeing Myself in Game Development: Game Developers of Color Expo 2020
On September 19–20, I attended the Game Devs of Color Expo. I wanted to attend because I’m still interested in getting into game development and let me tell you, I got so much more from the expo than I anticipated. The talks ranged from how to add more game feel to your game to how to engage with a community online to how to pitch your games to press. I really appreciate the breadth of knowledge that was shared. Today we’re gonna recap a couple of the sessions and then talk about how the event was received.
The logo for Game Devs of Color Expo
Visibility in Indie Games — Sheila Moore (DaPurpleSharpie)
This session was focused on how indie games can gain more visibility throughout the development process. But it was also a peek into community management, which is something I’m interested in pursuing. The biggest takeaway I had was to focus on quality over quantity. Moore made sure to note that just because a potential content creator has a lot of reach doesn’t mean that they are the best fit for sharing news about your project. You really have to be intentional about choosing to work with people who match the vibe and community of the game you’re trying to share. It seems like a lot of developers think that numbers matter more than the content being created, so they’ll overlook smaller creators or accounts because they dont think that it will bring a return to their investment. But Moore points out that if you choose a community that’s hyper focused on the type of game that you’re developing, the members of that community will be more likely to pick up your title because they already have an interest in your game genre.
Authenticity is Balls — Sisi Jiang
In this session, Jiang took the time to talk to us about how authenticity isn’t always all it’s cut out to be. The idea of being “authentic” can be used as a gate keeping device to say who is allowed to create certain content and who isn’t. Jiang made it a point to not that we can’t be authentic to every group that our games/content engage with. Being authentic doesn’t mean that we capture every aspect of a culture, it means that we do the best to honor the pieces of the culture that we’ve selected to highlight. In the closing of the talk, Jiang made sure to note that “your job isn’t to be everyone, it’s to open doors for everyone.” As we continue to create games and content, that’s a question that I think we need to continue to consider. How are we opening doors for more people to enter this space?
The Importance of this Conference
Overall, I was very thankful to attend this conference. I’ve been to a few online offerings since the pandemic shut down in person gatherings. GDoC Expo has been the only one that has given me similar vibes to actually being in the space. The hosting site that they used allowed attendees to talk with each other through the sessions and to interact with the speakers who were there during their talks. It also gave us the opportunity to form little community jokes (AFG (auto follow gang) all day y'all). The coolest part was to see the message repeated that people felt welcomed and appreciated and seen by the conference attendees and organizers. It just goes to show that BIPOC know what we’re doing when we put events together.
At the end of the conference, 6 developers were awarded grants to help with their game development process. It was incredible to watch at GDoC gave out $90,000 to developers of color. In a time where companies will send out social media posts and emails about wanting to support BIPOC but then don’t follow through with their wallets, it was awesome to see some real money come through for these developers. I hope that other conferences, companies, and studios take note and see that vocal support is only part of the deal. We’ve gotta invest tangible resources into the creators we say we care about!
My only note to those who are facilitating these online conferences is to schedule in break times. While attendees may have the opportunity to watch VODs of the sessions, no one likes to miss watching things live if they have the chance. I would recommend scheduling things in like little lunch breaks or stretch breaks for attendees. This promotes healthy content consumption as well, because it reminds people to not stare at computer screens all day!
Thank you so much for giving us this event, GDoC Expo. I know that I learned a lot and it inspired me to get back into learning about game development. All our stories are important and deserve to be shared and I’m excited to see the new products that go out into the world because of this conference!
