The Game Devs of Color Expo 2019

Hey everyone, so recently I had the pleasure to attend the NYU Game Center for the Game Devs of Color Expo 2019. It was hosted at the beautiful Schomburg Center, in Harlem NY. 

This daylong event was an inclusive games expo and along with panels in creating a new normal in gaming. They were able to put creators of color at the forefront, showing off their games, and allowing interactions go from just being hands-on to speak to with their creators one on one. This year one developer will be awarded a $15,000 development grant from the Humble Bundle Game Creators of Color Award. Its pretty thrilling to sit there and see the excitement when someone is discussing their creation from its inception to its final testing phase and then a finished product for the public enjoy. 

My favorite highlight of the day had to have been watching Kelly Thomas Davis from @NITETIMESTUDIOS , talk about his game Chrono Ghost. It was aside scrolling-platformer, that essentially would be a speed runners dream. Your character has 15 minutes to traverse a level. You can manipulate time to either speed up or slow down to reach the end. You also get 99 lives!! This is on a regular difficulty. Sheesh!! We watched someone play and grow increasingly frustrated at how difficult this game was. After 10 lives lost within two minutes and then we find out the person playing the game is the creators father. A super proud moment that is just a constant reminder of how much gaming can bring people together. In this case his whole family was there to support him on this day. A winner in my eyes. 

Looking forward to the next event, where more inclusion is the focus, across ALL industries. 

Lucid OmniJack