The black people that have shaped gaming

Part 2 of our features for Black History Month and we're looking at some of the incredible black talent that have left a lasting impact on the world of gaming, as well as those looking to make that impact into the future. Across hardware engineering, writing, and even esports, here are just a few of the great talents that have shone a spotlight on black game development and beyond.

Jerry Lawson

Chances are you’ve owned a console where you swap cartridges in and out to change games. Well whether that’s an Atari 400 or a Nintendo Switch, you’re using that technology largely thanks to Jerry Lawson. A gifted electronic engineer, he went from repairing TVs and building electronic devices as a teenager to developing arcade games in his 30s at the company Fairchild Semiconductor. It was there that he led the team that would develop the Channel F games console. While not a commercial success, it would revolutionise the games industry, being the first console to use swappable cartridges instead of built-in software, as well as the very first pause button. Lawson would go on to found his own studio, Videosoft, as well as pursue consultancy work including a brief foray into alarm clock development with Stevie Wonder of all people.

He passed away in 2011 aged 70, but not before he was honoured by the International Game Developers Association as a pioneer of the games industry.

Muriel Tramis

From the Caribbean island of Martinique, Muriel Tramis is often regarded as the first female video game designer. A computer engineer working at a French aerospace company, she pivoted into the games industry in 1986, joining French studio Coktel Vision. Here she would go on to design some of the studios biggest selling titles across nearly 20 years, specialising in crafting unique and interesting adventure titles. Later on in her career, she would move on to designing educational and adventure games aimed at children, aimed at introducing them to numbers, colours and more.

Now in her 60s, she was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, becoming the first woman and second game designer to receive it. She remains a major voice in the French games industry, demanding greater respect for women and pushing for greater female representation in the industry.

Chella Ramanan

Chella Ramanan got her start in the games industry working as a journalist. After studying English and journalism at university, she wrote for the likes of Games Industry News and The Guardian across a 20 year career. Alongside this, she wrote fiction in her spare time, and it would soon become her calling, founding the 3-Fold Games team and writing her first game, the BAFTA-nominated Before I Forget. She now works at Ubisoft Massive and has written for Tom Clancy’s The Division and is currently working on the upcoming adaptation of James Cameron’s Avatar, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

A founding member of POC in Play and former board member of Women In Games, she is a tireless advocate for diversity in the games industry, while her creativity and roots in journalism are the foundation for her fight to see games recognised as an art-form in the same vein as television and film.

Ryan Hart

A great thing about esports is it’s open to everyone, and there are plenty of iconic black players that have made a name competing, such as Sonic Fox, bringing black and non-binary representation to the limelight. Ryan Hart got started before the glitz and glamour of today’s esports scene, and spent a portion of his teenage years homeless, spending his free time in arcades playing games like Street Fighter. After a few years of practice, he won his first tournament in 1996 winning the UK National King of Fighters Championship, and it would only be up from there. Across the next nearly three decades, Hart has dominated in King of Fighters, Street Fighter and Tekken, has multiple EVO and World titles, holds 4 Guinness World Records, and has won a staggering over 450 tournaments to date – a paragon of esports.

Now taking a back seat from competing, Hart has moved on to the production side of esports, working as a tournament organiser, caster and presenter, content creator and even team manager. He’s featured in interviews and documentaries for Capcom and the BBC, and currently runs a group focused on helping young players improve and break into the esports scene.

Allan Cudicio

Allan Cudicio is the future of black representation in the games industry. Not only is he the young head of a game development studio in Germany – Twin Drums – but he’s using his position to bring African culture into mainstream gaming representation, a thus far critically underrepresented culture. His upcoming game, The Wagadu Chronicles, is an MMORPG set in an African inspired land, and looks to bring two major changes to the genre. Firstly, it looks to bring true African representation to gaming, the likes of which are certainly lacking at the moment, especially to the extent that Cudicio is aiming for. And secondly, it will be a fresh experience for many MMO players, who will be used to Western-made and inspired games. The uncommon setting provides a new and unfamiliar world to explore, while simultaneously spreading the culture of Africa through a new medium.

Cudicio and Twin Drums are currently hard at work bringing The Wagadu Chronicles to life and are currently in the Alpha stage of development. He is a vehement supporter of greater diversity in the games industry, not just in aesthetics, but in the way we play and experience games, as well as a believer in games as an art form pushing for games to become a medium for stories alongside film and television.

Final Thoughts

Our history shapes our future, and it's as crucial that we remember the contributions of black people to the games industry as readily as we do the likes of Gabe Newell or Shigeru Miyamoto. Large strides have taken place since the days of Jerry Lawson, both in terms of technology and representation, but the job isn't done yet. It speaks volumes that after decades of working the games industry, people of colour like Muriel Tramis are still fighting the fight for representation and diversity, proving that just because we've made improvements, we certainly aren't done yet.

These were just a few of the extremely talented people we could have chosen for this list, and we would recommend doing some research yourself, as there are plenty of amazing stories we weren't able to tell. In 20 years time, these people will all still be a part of gaming history, but hopefully we'll have a much larger pool of black talent to remember looking back.