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Janaé McPhaul, 30, has been playing video games since she was two years old. Her father introduced her to the world of gaming: When he traveled during his time in the military, he would send games for McPhaul and her brother to play until he returned. In all of her fond memories of gaming, though, McPhaul doesn’t recall seeing many characters who represented her as a Black girl. McPhaul, who is also known as JaneyLaney on Twitch, tells Allure that “growing up, it was normal to not have a Black character, outside of Eddy from Tekken.” She remembers “small bouts of representation,” but they fell flat, including “dusty Afros” on characters whose dialogue was reduced to “fake Jamaican [accents], or you would think they were, like, Snoop Dogg’s cousin.”
But this lack of representation didn’t trigger an emotional reaction from McPhaul until she started playing Minecraft five years ago. “I was so used to [no representation], it didn't hurt my feelings as much…. until I got into Minecraft,” she says. McPhaul had heard positive reviews of the game, particularly about its selection of free skins, graphics you can download to change the appearance of your character, for the players. She discovered, however, that the free skins were limited for brown skin tones. "I paid $5 in order to be Black in the game, because none of the free skins were made for Black people — none of them. I was very disappointed," she recalls. “You know when you’re so excited to do something and then you realize that the environment wasn’t made for you?”
The experience led her to create BlackMinecraft, in 2018, “as an answer to the lack of diversity and inclusion within all spaces of Minecraft,” according to the organization’s LinkedIn. In an interview with Minecraft at its annual Minecon convention in 2019, McPhaul said, “Black Minecraft is the celebration and the highlights of diversity within Minecraft…. It’s just a giant celebration.”
She has since launched BlackMinecraft: The Podcast, and has even started making her own skins that mirror her identity as a Black woman. “I want to show people that it takes nothing,” says McPhaul. “I didn't go to school for game design. I didn't go to school to learn how to make little NPC [nonplayer characters]. But the technology is there.”
Two years after McPhaul had that disheartening experience with Minecraft, a new wave of activism in the US surrounding #BlackLivesMatter demanded that every system in America, namely corporations and industries, put the hashtag into real action. The massive video gaming industry — which is projected to reach $385 billion in revenue this year — was no exception. Consumers started publicly calling out gaming culture for its lack of inclusion and equity, not only in games but also in the corporations that develop them.
After major companies such as Bethesda Game Studios, Rare Limited, and Sony made statements and public financial pledges to support Black Lives Matter, gamer and video game researcher Javon Goard published an essay, “Gaming Industry, Show Black Folx the Receipts.” “Glad to see companies are backing their words up with action,” Goard wrote. “I want to see the receipts, for promises can be broken.” Goard also shared other ways that these corporations could make more permanent change within their structures: “Next, hire Black people! If a game uses any aspect of Black culture, Black people should be involved and listened to throughout the production cycle. Have a variety of Black voices at the table in various positions because Black people are not a monolith.”
Goard’s advice may read like common sense, but research by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) suggests that building an inclusive roster of talent isn’t second nature for the majority of gaming companies. Only 5% of respondents to IGDA’s 2021 Developer Satisfaction Survey, which surveyed 803 people in a variety of roles across the gaming industry, identified as Black. Such a small sliver of Black professionals inevitably impacts representation, or a lack thereof, in the games the industry produces, whether it’s the number of Black video game characters or the quality and range of how they're portrayed.
Despite continued underrepresentation of Black talent in gaming, the intentional design and development of more modern Black characters — like Layla Ellison (Redfall), Bangalore (Apex Legends), and Wally (Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield) — versus the Minecraft options available to McPhaul just five years ago show things are heading in the right direction. When the trailer for Redfall, a game in which players combat vampires and enemies who’ve invaded the fictional town of Redfall, Massachusetts, dropped, McPhaul tweeted her excitement about Layla Ellison, a lead character. “I was screaming. I was like, ‘Look at the [hair] texture!’” she says of Layla’s massive, glorious Afro.
Building on the work of gamers like McPhaul and Goard, Black professionals and allies in gaming are working relentlessly to bring a full Black experience — look, voice, story, culture — to life. Allure speaks with a few Black gaming experts about their tireless efforts to make gaming a more positive experience for Black players.
The Voices: Queen Noveen and Erica Luttrell
The character Layla Ellison’s kinky-curly ringlets, full facial features, teal blue almond-shaped nails, jumbo hoop earrings, and streetwear make her instantly recognizable to Black women. Even if we’re not her, we know a sister, cousin, auntie, or homegirl who is.
But the representation of Black characters goes beyond the physical, and the voice is as crucial as the visual. “What I loved most about voicing her was, it wasn't too far off from who I am and where my voice actually was,” Queen Noveen, the actor who voices Layla, tells Allure. “I felt like I was using my natural voice, but adding a little more of me in the sense that she and I were both pretty sassy — and I love it!”
Layla’s voice is a chill alto with a dash of rasp. Clear enunciation is balanced with sass, specific vernacular like “deadass,” and that distinctive Black girl fluctuation with the delivery of lines like, “So you caaan’t, like, see into my thoughts with that thing, right?” Her voice isn’t what white people think Black women sound like; it is what Black women sound like because the voice actor is a Black woman. Layla’s appearance and sound are representative of Black girls we haven’t always had the privilege of seeing or hearing in TV, film, and the gaming world’s often one-dimensional depiction of Black women.
Layla is cool but nerdy. If we had to guess her backstory, we might think she grew up with kids of all backgrounds, which broadened her experiences and interests. She also spent summers at her grandma’s house, where she wore her hair in protective braids with beads and ran through the sprinklers with her cousins. She’s like many millennial and Gen Z Black women who’ve had access to more luxuries than their parents, but are still anchored by and proud of their Black culture and identity.
The character Bangalore, of the game Apex Legends, is also a Black woman, voiced by actor Erica Luttrell. Bangalore, whose birth name is Anita Williams, is an assault legend from a military family. “I like her quiet power and her introversion,” Luttrell says. That quiet power is on a very low register, punctuated by intimidating confidence. This character isn’t one to do a lot of talking; her lines are short and authoritative, and her delivery makes you feel like everything she says is a warning. The voice modulation is reminiscent of a Black mom who has just cautioned her rambunctious child “Act up if you want to” as they stroll the aisles of the grocery store. It may sound like a suggestion, but if you’re smart, you’ll hear the command not to.
As with Layla Ellison, Bangalore’s voice matches her look. The assassin has razor-sharp bone structure, full lips, a piercing smize that would undoubtedly land her the top spot on America’s Next Top Model, and a tapered natural haircut with parts on the sides. Luttrell tells Allure, “You haven't, up to this point, seen a lot of that sort of hair [on Black women] in the video game world, in the video game culture. So I feel like it's pretty revolutionary.” She also says the illustration of Black characters is “far more nuanced” compared with just a few years ago. “I know more Black creatives behind the scenes in development now. The more representation you have there, the more accurate and nuanced representation you’re going to see in the game itself.”
The Producer: Tim Lewinson
Well-done characters like Bangalore aren’t likely to happen if Black people aren’t in positions of power at major gaming companies. Before being promoted to studio operations director at Respawn, an award-winning studio, Tim Lewinson was senior producer on its Apex Legends game, overseeing the narrative, Legends, and user-experience teams. (He has since left Respawn for another opportunity, which will be announced later this year.) Lewinson credits people like Manny Hagopian, Todd Alderman, and Mohammad Alavi — the writer, creative director, and narrative design director, respectively, when the game launched — for making the characters diverse from the beginning. “When Apex launched, two of the core characters were both Black and female,” he says. “That never happens [in the gaming industry]. You usually have your standard white soldiers. Occasionally, you might have one Black character.”
The sentiment among Apex developers, Lewinson recalls, was “the world looks like this, our game should look like this.” That foundation fostered an environment in which Lewinson and his teams incorporated even more diversity into the game without pushback. Two additional characters were introduced: Seer, a Nigerian ambush artist with gold locs, pale blue eyes, and a very fluid sense of style; and Newcastle, the brother of Bangalore and a heroic defender whose wide shoulders, bald head, and beautiful broad nose and lips might make you think of that uncle you call when you need reinforcement (who also gets busy on the grill). Says Lewinson, having Black people be part of the process in creating these characters is just as important as the characters themselves.
Making space for Black people at large gaming corporations also creates opportunities for more nuanced game elements and features beyond the characters. After the murder of George Floyd, Lewinson told concept and lighting director Hafid Roserie that he wanted to do something “intentional, loud, and unequivocally Black.” He introduced the idea of a Black Lives Matter badge so, during the character-selection process, players could add the BLM badge just as they would all the other badges that indicate their kills, weapons, and so forth. Lewinson and Roserie presented renditions of the badge to the former game director, Chad Grenier, who fully supported the idea.
The badge launched during Black History Month in 2021, and was met with some racist trolling, but far more support from fans. “The response was overwhelming. It almost brought me to tears,” Lewinson remembers fondly. “We had millions of players download that badge. And not just download it to have, but download it and put it on their characters so that everybody could see it.” Says Lewison, if more companies represented and supported marginalized groups like Respawn and Electronic Arts did in the development of Apex Legends, the world would be a much better place.
The Developer: Neil Jones
After Neil Jones graduated from London’s Academy of Design and Technology with a BFA in game and interactive media design, he applied for seemingly countless gaming jobs with little success. Despite his qualifications, he tells Allure, the feedback from gaming companies was, “‘Your stuff is amazing, but you don't really fit the culture we’re looking for’ or ‘You're in Michigan, we would rather you be in LA.’ It was always something.” For years he worked a variety of day jobs, one of which was as a college professor teaching 3D modeling and game design, while still applying at gaming companies.
Although Jones was qualified to teach the material at a college level, he still couldn’t manage to land a role in the actual gaming industry. He decided to give up his dream. Before completely throwing in the towel, though, he wanted to make one thing on his own. “I spent all these years learning this, I'm going to take these skills that I have and just try to make something great for me that I will be really excited about,” he told himself. From there, Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield, an action-packed narrative runner developed in the heart of Detroit, was born. The game’s protagonist is Wally, a character “trying to escape with his family’s stolen treasure, which grants him abilities,” according to the official website.
After he posted Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield online, Justin Woodward, cofounder of The Mix, an organization dedicated to maximizing developers’ visibility and helping them foster relationships with industry stakeholders, reached out to Jones to feature the game in a showcase. That caught the attention of Nintendo, which led to a publisher agreement and funding for two more games. Many would consider Jones’s story a success, but his was a more tedious trajectory compared with many of his white peers. “Literally, I had to make a multi-platform, award-winning game before I started getting entry-level job offers,” he points out. “I am the example for how the industry fails when it comes to picking talent, I just happened to overcome it. But imagine all the other people who are way better than me, who could have been in the industry for the last 10, 20 years, running studios by now, but just never got the opportunity because they ‘didn't fit the culture,’ you know?”
In an effort to pay his success forward and get more Black people in positions at gaming companies, Jones uses his newfound influence to recommend Black talent for the kinds of roles he could never get. After a major company reached out to Jones with a potential job opportunity, he instead suggested a friend who was working retail at Walmart but who, he says, was a “way better coder than me.” The next week, his friend went from working in a Michigan Walmart to a six-figure job developing internal prototypes and managing projects in California.
The Artist: Danielle Udogaranya
Danielle Udogaranya, also known online as Ebonix, started out as an ordinary Sims player who just wanted more custom game content that represented her culture as a Black Brit of Nigerian and Barbadian heritage. In 2015, using Photoshop and Sims 4 Studio, she designed a dashiki for her character, which caught the attention of other players who were interested in similar content. “It signaled to me that there was a massive gap in terms of the content available for Black Simmers,” she tells Allure. “And so, over time, I taught myself how to 3D model. That's when I got into making hairstyles. Once I started dropping the hair, the community went nuts!” She posted her designs directly to Tumblr, before eventually posting them for download on her website, where players can find content and other updates from the artist.
The content is free because Udogaranya doesn’t believe paywalls should keep players from accessing content that enables them to see themselves in the game. There is, however, a Patreon where Simmers can pay $5 a month for early access to content that will eventually be released to everyone for free. With Patreon support alone, Udogaranya was making “a lot more substantially” than her job as a school safeguard; in 2019, she was able to resign from that job and create custom content full-time for fellow Simmers.
With just one look at the custom hairstyle options it becomes evident why Udogaranya’s content is such a hit. Cornrows leading into Bantu knots, thigh-length side ponytails, Afro puffs secured with jumbo ribbons fit for Easter Sunday, baby hairs so laid they give TLC’s Chilli a run for her money — the styles are immaculately illustrated, now with a more evolved creator toolkit, including software like Blender, Procreate, and Adobe Substance Painter. The self-taught artist’s work has opened the floodgates of opportunity in gaming. “I stream as well,” Udogaranya says. “I'm a Twitch ambassador, cofounder of Black Twitch UK, content creator, DE&I consultant, 3D artist. I do presenting and hosting now as well. I've just got my hands in so many different things.”
Her hobby-turned-full-time career has also given Udogaranya a new sense of purpose in the work. She recalls an instance when a woman reached out to her and said that her niece loved Sims but would never make Black Sims because she didn’t like how she looked. The woman sent a photo of her niece to Udogaranya, asking if the artist would be able to create her niece’s hairstyle. Udogaranya fulfilled the request, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive and emotional. “The same woman was like, ‘You've changed everything for her. She won't stop making Black Sims now. She made herself and didn't stop looking at herself; she kept showing everyone.’” That particular experience has “embodied everything,” says Udogaranya, “my sole purpose for doing what I was doing.”
The multihyphenate entrepreneur prefers the flexibility of being her own boss and has no plans to work exclusively for a major company, but she does have a few notes for the big gaming companies that lead the industry: “I definitely think that there's room for better Black queer representation when it comes to gaming,” she says. “And I think there's room within storytelling to stop promoting our trauma and pain and start talking about the richness of our culture.”
This story is part of a new Allure Melanin Edit series exploring the question, “What does a nerd look like?” Here, more stories about the communities Black women have built:
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