Hi All,
I'm looking to connect with other Black female game devs, just in solidarity and community. Feel free to reach out to me here.
EDIT: This wasn't excluding anyone and I'm not looking to 'make a new space'. I'm looking to connect with other Black female game devs to talk about our shared experience. I'm assuming there aren't any here, but thanks for jumping in, everyone.
I have that stereotypical image in my head of young boys building a tree house and proclaiming that girls have cooties and therefore can't join ;-)
Anyway, being a developer is already a big selection criteria, separating people from ordinary computer users. Let alone being a game developer with not much commecial incentive, since it is indie games. Like, you not only are a nerd, you are a mega nerd.
It might help, if you would publish some games. The only indicator of your type of interests is your username and that includes the term milf. So I would assume you will be making adult games. If you will be making games with protagonists matching yourself, that is a nieche with little competition. I only saw one good game in that regard. But I do not know if the developer of that game is even a woman.
For about practically all game developers I would not know how they look, or even their name or location. It's just not important, nor should it. Games are largely merit based. Game devs are not streamer influencers that sell by having personality. They let their games speak.
My username is just for funsies, this isn't my main account. I am looking for others with a shared experience as being a marginalized person can be tough. I am actually writing a social game that has a wide variety of characters of various representation. I don't know why you would think that I"m looking for someone without 'merit'. I'm just looking for other Black folks.
My username is just for funsies
Oh. Ok. Maybe it helps if you mention some of your interests in your call for fellow devs. Like social games. I would not be sure, if you talk about multiplayer games, or about games that tell a story with a social plot.
Itch's traffic is only like 30% US based. I do not know the ratio for the devloper accounts, so I will just assume it is roughly the same. This means access from all over the world. And the public comment section is not a place with a lot of reach. Even though the topic here got some traffic and made some people comment, you probably will have more reach, if you have some sort of contact info on your developer's account, where people also will see what type of games you make. Discord comes to mind. A lot of devs have a discord, so you might want to have one eventually anyway.
Another approach would be to seek people in another way and other places. Like search within any communities for people with the same hobby, instead of within the hobby. Or maybe there is a subreddit for this. (Or a whole conference... ;-)
I am not english native speaker. With the merit aspect I meant, that it is the game and not the developer, which makes people play the game. The merit is in the game. It does not mean that the developers are without merit. It just means that their personality and any personal characteristics are of no concern and therefore unknown most of the time.
I only noticed one black dev, but that was a male. And he is more of a singer that also trys to make some games. And even there I only know this, because he has a youtube channel. Otherwise I would not know such a thing.
Oh, it's not a bad idea as such, to bond with fellow creators you have something in common with. Maybe you even share values or game interests. Or you might share cultural background that could benefit stories of your games. You can also exchange experiences how you discovered the hobby.
It's just that those two criteria, gender and skin color, are usually used in a different context for a different reason and can be seen as controversial, or just superficial.
I am simply looking for others with my same experience so we can talk about shared struggles, concerns, and hopes. I have actually connected with some other Black female devs through email and there's a Devs of Color conference that I'm planning on attending. For anyone reading this later, there are folks out there, DM me if you'd like any more info.
It’s unfortunate...
it strikes me that decades ago, people with “little common sense” (to put it kindly) were more discreet; no matter how fanatical they were, they were afraid of looking ridiculous and kept quiet.
Nowadays, they’ve completely lost control...
they make YouTube videos, get likes, have people who support them, and end up profiting from their lack of judgment.
And I think that’s clearly the fault of how the internet is being managed. Now, when a fool spouts nonsense on social media, instead of being mocked, the algorithm finds that fool an army of fools just like him to tell him, “You’re doing great, bro”…
That makes me think we should bring back the tradition of teasing...
that humiliation that used to sound nasty but that we eventually came to realize was, to a certain extent, healthy.
I mean... when I was young, if anyone supported Nazism on a forum, they'd get banned instantly; now I have to respect them or I'll be the one who gets banned...
OP has clarified her point several times, but you haven't responded to her or a single post with her actual desire with anything other than this tired argument or focusing on racism, despite her not bringing up racism once:
"EDIT: This wasn't excluding anyone and I'm not looking to 'make a new space'. I'm looking to connect with other Black female game devs to talk about our shared experience. I'm assuming there aren't any here, but thanks for jumping in, everyone."
"There is nothing wrong with connecting with other folks who have a shared experienced, especially when you're marginalized in a lot of ways. Have a good one. "
Several of your posts:
"Wow, Black people had equal rights 50 years ago and there is not even a hint of racism today. And now you are turning on your own race. Only white people say these things so I know you are white"
"The thing is that this black woman is accusing the game dev community of racism"
Refusing to read and continuously putting things in OP's mouth because she made a post about wanting to connect with other Black developers comes off as racist, yes. I only really responded to this post to show solidarity with her because of you and the other people here jumping down her throat.
I don't plan to engage with someone who magically loses the ability to read and keeps going off-topic due to continuously losing the ability to read, but I am responding with the smallest of prayers that you understand why No Time to Play called you racist. I'm not even calling you racist. I am just pointing out that you refusing to read leads to assumptions about you. I'm stating this plainly because you keep jumping to conclusions.
