Episode #26: Accessibility and Social Impact in Game Design with Elaine Gómez
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To honor Hispanic Heritage Month, we're featuring Elaine Gómez, game designer, co-founder and current president of Latinx in Gaming. Elaine joins the podcast to share the story of her career journey, finding inspiration, and the importance of a player-centric approach to game design. She discusses the potential for social impact in game design, the importance of community, and provides advice for aspiring developers.
Notes
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Jordyn: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Level Up with Wondr. I'm Jordyn Mihok, Marketing Specialist here at Wondr Nation. We are filming this episode during Hispanic Heritage Month, as part of our ongoing mission to highlight diverse voices in the gaming, entertainment, and tech industries, I'm very excited to welcome today's guest, Elaine Gomez.
Elaine is a game designer with nearly a decade of experience. She is Boricua and Kisqueyan and an enrolled tribal member of the Higuayagua Taino of the Caribbean. Elaine is the co-founder and president of Latinx in Gaming, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing representation, building community, and providing resources to Latinx game developers, creators, and students across the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In 2023, she also founded the Independent Game Studio Midnight Hour Games.
So first of all, I'm just excited to have you here today, Elaine. Welcome to the show and excited for our conversation.
Elaine: Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here.
Jordyn: Great. So we'll just get started with talking a little bit about your background. How did you get started in the gaming industry and how did you get to where you are today?
Elaine: So my pathway in the industry is very different than a lot of my peers. I've just come to find that out as I have expanded my network and formed friendships throughout the last almost 10 years. But when I was in college, I was studying information technology and I didn't feel like I quite fit in.
So I just spoke to some of my mentors, some of my professors, the dean of the school, trying to figure out what I could do, what could be my next steps instead of just joining the workforce right after. And one of my professors suggested joining a research institute over a summer at the University of Pittsburgh. That research institute was specifically for underrepresented students, so students of color and trying to find pathways for them to get into graduate school or doctoral programs in the information sciences type of fields, so it was intriguing to me at the time because it was something that I've never been exposed to.
At the same time the big reason was a stipend that we were going to be given for that summer. So I was a broke student and I was like, this is great. I'll do a little bit of research. I'll study a bit. I have always enjoyed to like, learn things and write papers and things like that.
So I was like, cool, I'll do this for a summer, I will get some summer money and then it'll be great. Little did I know that it wasn't just a summer thing. The research project was a full academic year's worth of work. So I signed myself up for that anyway and I ended up meeting a student at that program who was doing her master's in game design, and I was super intrigued and I asked her all the questions that I could.
I asked her, well, what do you wanna do with that degree? Do you wanna teach, do you wanna like, make games? Do you like the curriculum? Is it worth it? Because it's a lot of money to go to graduate school and get a master's, especially if you don't get a scholarship or a grant. I knew that my family could not afford it, so I would have to figure it out how to pay for it on my own.
And in talking to her and talking to my professor again about the opportunity, I was like, you know what? I have nothing to lose. And I think it would be a great opportunity for me to pursue higher education and learn the craft of game design at a good school.
So I only applied to two schools at the time. It was the New York University's game Center master's program. And that was close to home. And then the other program was the University of Southern California's Interactive Media and games program. And that's also a master's program across the entire country.
So it was either or East Coast or West Coast. And I ended up getting accepted at USC. And definitely it changed , my entire perspective of what games were 'cause as a player and a consumer, you're only exposed to a certain amount of games when you go to the GameStop store or what you see on like news outlets.
But I was exposed to a lot of things that I didn't even know existed there. Including games for health, games for social impact what they called quote unquote serious games. And it was a whole new world for me. I was like, wow. The application of games as a medium is not just for entertainment, but it could really be a medium of communication to really help impact and change people's perspectives or allow them to be in the shoes of somebody else to understand different situations and different stories and different worlds. So to me, that was like truly life changing to go into that program and absorb all that information and learn all these new things.
So my pathway was very academic, even though I was studying something completely different, somewhat related 'cause it was still a STEM field still in technology and sciences, but much more creative than I would've pursued if I would've just stuck with my bachelor's degree. So that's really what got me in it.
And I forgot to say that in that institute, our year long research paper was the state of the games industry at the time, between 2012 and 2013. When we talked about the gender gap between roles, it's like, why are there not a lot of women who are game designers or programmers?
What's happening there? Why is there such a fervent amount of online harassment when it comes to women playing games versus when men play, and that entire paper was all around that, and that just encouraged me. I was like, wow, there's a lot of really bad stuff going on, A lot of negativity I wonder if I pursue this degree and become a game designer, if I can make an impact from within and be a leader and change things where I can. So that's really has led me to all the work that I do now.
Jordyn: Yeah. That's amazing. I think it's so cool to be able to get that different perspective on the industry, like from the inside. I was gonna ask you when you knew that you wanted to be a game designer, but you kind of like answered that perfectly. It just like seeing the impact that those things can have and wanting to do that, that's really cool.
Were there any challenges that you faced entering the world of game design, and how did you navigate that?
Elaine: Oh, absolutely. I faced so many challenges and not just me, but people like me, you know, other women, other people of color who may not have had any connections or any referrals to get in. I've known of friends and acquaintances that just knew somebody, either an uncle or a friend of a friend, and that's how they were able to get their start.
But I was cold applying to all of these places and I'm really crossing my fingers hoping for the best. So definitely it's been a challenge to feel seen and valued for what I bring to the table. I was not connected back when I started, to somebody who could vouch for me that was very challenging to get my foot in the door in the beginning.
And it's challenging now 'cause the state of the industry is very volatile right now. We're seeing a lot of studio closures. We're seeing a lot of folks being laid off. And this has been happening since around 2022. So I think up to this point, we have lost somewhere around 40,000 developers across the industry who've just lost their roles and are looking for work.
And I happen to be one of them 'cause the studio that I worked at last December was shut down due to funding and, and business reasons. So I'm one of those 40,000, and I can tell you I've never experienced such a grueling job hunt in my life.
And it's all because you have hundreds if not thousands of folks just trying to get that one job. And there's only like one position for a senior game designer or a lead game designer that pops up, every couple of weeks and everybody's competing for that role. So it's very, very difficult right now.
So that's been challenging, being able to navigate these situations and finding the support and allies that will gather around you and encourage you to keep going even though you wanna give up.
So I would say that yes, my career has definitely been marked by instances where I have faced lots of challenges and lots of hurdles. But I feel like that's exactly what has made me into the person that I am today. And I am able to give advice and encourage others who are going through similar situations because I'm facing or have faced those things and was able to come out the other side.
I'm very fortunate that that has been the case. And again, that strong network, it's all due to that strong network who, who's really pushing me to be better and do better and not give up.
Jordyn: Yeah, definitely important. It's good to have like that support system.
We'll get into a little bit more about the game design in general.
So this is kind of a broad question, but what makes you passionate about it? I know you touched on a little bit the things that kind of got you interested in the first place, but if you could expand on that a little bit.
Elaine: What makes me passionate about game design is the amount of problem solving that we have to do. Honestly, every project is different and it comes with its own design solutions. So to me it's super fun to be able to sit down with a team and try to problem solve together and figure out what's the best decision to make for the game.
Being able to bring concepts to life literally from pen and paper or a document on Word and going into the game engine and putting something together and see it come alive and see other team members and eventually players engage with those things that literally were just words on a page months prior, and then all of a sudden they're full on characters and interfaces that, that people are interacting with it's a huge, huge joy for me to see that process and see it through as well.
I love being able to figure things out. Game design is like a puzzle and trying to find the right piece and where it fits. I couldn't think of doing anything else as a career, to be honest.
I feel like my brain and who I am as a person are definitely they were developed and, and meant to be able to do something like this to design and problem solve with others.
Jordyn: I'm interested about your independent gaming studio too. I know that you talked about starting that to pursue your own passion project. So could you talk a little bit about maybe some of the things that you've been able to do with that?
Elaine: Yes. So with midnight hour games, I started the studio really to protect a project and the intellectual property of a project that I was working on in 2023. It was a grant that I received through an organization based in the tri-state area called Play Crafting. And they are very adamant about supporting indie developers in the area.
They had this opportunity, they didn't reveal who the client was. At first it was like a pitch competition. And I was very acquainted with the play crafting team. They sent me an [00:11:00] email and they said, Hey, like we have this opportunity where a client's looking for a developer to develop a game, so let me know you'd be interested, and then if you're selected, then we would be looking at a bigger grant to develop that game over certain amount of months. So I said, cool. It was right around the holidays in 2022, so I was like, yes, this is gonna be extra money for like me and my friends for Christmas shopping.
So we ended up doing that and I didn't know that the client was gonna like our pitch the best. We ended up winning a grant and the client was revealed to be the American Optometric Association and it was going to be a game about eye health through a campaign that they were doing specifically for gamers.
So we all know that being on screens can really hurt your eyes, you need to take care of your eyes. It was developing a full game about making that fun and interesting to learn about. So that's exactly what we did, and that's when I opened up in January 2023, midnight hour, so that we could house the game that we ended up calling Blink Land under that as like a more professional entity instead of just a group of friends making this project for a grant.
And since then we have worked on a few little things here and there. I was able to work on a cultural game called the Vejigantes. I'm from Borikén, which is known as Puerto Rico. So it's a game about Boricua culture, especially the art. The art of the vejigante mask making. So definitely a fantastical perspective on it, right? Because I know the masks are not magical, but in the game, they're magical. So that was something really fun and cool that we were able to do through a small grant as well. And now we are pitching for grants and investment for another small project that we started developing this year.
And when I say we, it's my partner and I and literally our friends. These are the folks that made up midnight hour. We all have full-time jobs or roles elsewhere. Like midnight hour is not our full-time, this is just like a side hustle thing. But we do it 'cause we just like making games and like I mentioned, The reason why I have midnight hour is 'cause when you have a full-time job in games or in tech, there are certain things that you just cannot do and you cannot explore.
There is definitely a bounding box of creative freedom. And with midnight hour, we can all exercise that freedom. We can make decisions together and learn new things too that we perhaps are not able to learn at our day jobs because the genre of the game is different, or the systems and the features we're working on is different.
So it's a really cool space to experiment with new things and, and elevate our ourselves in our craft.
Jordyn: I think that that's so cool to have that as like a supplemental piece. And I, I think that everybody would benefit from having those kind of passion things outside of their work. Even if your day job is something that you're passionate about, there's always like more room to explore.
So how do you find inspiration when it comes to starting new projects?
Elaine: I find inspiration everywhere. A lot of folks find inspiration from other games that are coming out. I think that's very valid too. I also play as much as I can, the new stuff coming out so that I can see what other devs are thinking about and what potentially the markets could look like in the next six months to two years. 'Cause anything that comes out now we know that has the potential of changing things.
For example, there is a game that came out this year called Peak and everybody loves Peak. Everybody's been talking about it. It's a very fun and silly game, but now lots of developers are trying to develop in that same genre because of the success of Peak. So then we are starting to see that market trend that perhaps in the next year or so we're gonna see games that are very similar or along the same vein. So I like to explore the new stuff for that reason.
I also get inspired by films. I like watching films. I like watching TV shows a lot of international stuff, not just stuff that's made for Western audiences, but I really love Korean films or Japanese dramas. I'm trying to really expand my taste when it comes to the media that I look at. Definitely from reading books from playing board games or card games, and also going to museums. I have definitely found a lot of inspiration from seeing art in other mediums. Whether it's interactive or not, doesn't matter, but being inspired by anything and everything around me definitely has helped.
And I feel like as a designer or just a creative in general, when you are inspired by everything around you you feel like you have so many more tools and resources to reach into and you're not bound to like a list of five things, which I feel like a lot of developers fall into that trap of not exploring things outside of games or not going outside their favorite five games and then getting pigeonholed a little bit in design because they're just looking at the same references over and over again. I think it's good to be inspired by anything and everything and put yourself out there. Even if you don't like modern art, go to the Modern Museum of Art and check it out because you never know, where you can get that spark of inspiration and creativity.
And I also always have something to write down ideas in. I used to carry a design notebook, a little one in my purse or my backpack just so I could jot down ideas. Now I just use my phone in my notes app and I'll like write something down a game about something like this or, oh, I just had a cool idea about a character 'cause I saw a painting and I really loved like the way that the artist portrayed that character.
So took a picture, it's like cool idea for a character in a sci-fi like game or whatever like that. So definitely everywhere.
Jordyn: Yeah. That's so awesome. I love how all of the different elements of culture can kind of feed into all of these different little pieces of the games.
So in your game design process, you emphasized a focus on player agency and accessibility. Could you explain to the people listening, what exactly that means and why it's important?
Elaine: So a player centric design or a player agency is definitely a game design vocabulary word and a concept. It really means that when we design something in the game that we are Encouraging the player to have decision making power or freedom to move around and make their own choices. That's what agency means, right? There's this need for you to do something and be able to exercise that freedom to engage. So being able to open up designs so that they allow the player to do that is critical to be able to have the player. Involved in, in a way that they wanna continue a gameplay and not just drop the controller or stop playing the game.
So there's a concept in game design it's called flow. You wanna keep players in the state of flow where they are doing things and they're getting involved and immersed in such a level that hours and hours can go by and all sense of time just becomes irrelevant 'cause they're so engrossed in this world that they are in and in the actions that they are doing and the story that they're unraveling.
And every designer can have a different answer, but to me, it's critical for my process and the way that I design to keep player at the center, which is why I say player centric design, constantly thinking about, well, what is a player going to feel when they see this? Or is the player going to find doing this frustrating. If so, how can we accommodate or modify the design so that doesn't happen? And that goes hand in hand with accessibility design 'cause we want as many players as possible to be able to engage with our games.
So let's say somebody has a cast 'cause they broke their arm, they fell and broke their arm, and now they can't hold the controller the same. Well, okay, if we accommodate for a situation like that, what does that mean? When we're requiring the player to hold a button for extended period of time or having to rotate the analog stick for too long to do something can we make those one button press action so that they become easier to interact with all the way to more invisible disabilities or permanent disabilities that folks that have, for example that are on the neurodivergent spectrum. So what does that mean when you have a story that has a lot of violence or some content that may be triggering?
Is there a possibility to have some type of toggle where we can bypass some of that content and not expose players like that so that they don't get triggered and potentially cause harm. Same thing with, for example, players who may be blind color or colorblind or deaf. If we are relying on an audio cue and a player cannot hear it because they have a disability, can we use a, a cube with colors so that they can get cued instead visually? Or can we do haptics on the controller so that the controller vibrates or pulses to signal something instead of just relying on sound?
Same is inverse for visuals. If we're looking at folks with deficiency on the visual spectrum, can we make sure that we're using the correct color palette so that multiple folks can see that a color means something in their palette that they can see. So these are all things that, that we think about in accessibility design in regards to game design, and it can become very, very complex.
And of course along with that, when you have a project that has a lot of resource and financial support, you can have a whole team solely dedicated to implementing and designing those features, which is fantastic. I wish that more developers had the opportunity to be able to do that but the reality is that not everybody has the expertise or the financial resource and capability to be able to do that.
So at least on my end, I do the best that I can to design things intentionally so that they're not problematic. And some players can't say, oh, unfortunately I was not able to play your game because I could not hear it, or I could not engage with it because of my disabilities. So that's what that means to me.
Again, player centered design. When you're thinking about the player, all of these things come into play constantly and they're just part of the way that you design and see design.
Jordyn: Yeah, I think that that's so important and like a great thing to be considering, through the design process. Is that something that you think is common or I feel like maybe not?
Elaine: I don't think so. To me, the reason why I am so invested in it is because I personally am interested in being better and doing better for players. Where you will see a lot of interest and passion for this is in the field of UI and ux, user interface or user experience design. So they're very acquainted with all of this because it's part of their craft to be able to think about all these things.
But I would say for the average game designer, this is not something that they're exposed to unless they have exposed themselves into that discipline or are interested in, in those type of things. But for me, I was able to do like a workshop seminar, certification program through the Able Gamers charity, which is a nonprofit that specifically works with players with disabilities.
And they created this program called APX, I forgot what the acronym is for and I don't wanna mispronounce it, but the, APX certification program is so that you can become a good practitioner of accessibility design and they have a whole curriculum around it and exercises that make it very accessible to start thinking about these things so that they become by default, the way that you think about design and not so much something that you tack on at the end once something is already fully designed. At that point it's much harder when you have already solidified a design and then you try to make it accessible. Sometimes it's so hard to modify because you didn't think about those solutions before.
But if you bring that in from the beginning, it's much easier to mold that design and that system or that feature. So yeah, I don't think it's common. I wish that it was, 'cause I think it's so important because we're dealing with players. I think we constantly forget as developers that the things that we make are not for us. Like we will work on a project for years on end, even eight to 10 years sometimes, and you get so engrossed in it and it's constantly the internal team or the people who are very close to the project that play and give feedback unless they open it up to like an alpha or a beta, and they have external players who play and get feedback.
But a lot of times it's internal. And you just forget that, hey, you're not making this for yourself. You're making this for other people. So it's critical to think about those other people right away and to include them in the process. And I think we're starting to see that more in independent games where games are being released on early access to give room for that type of feedback very early so that the game can be developed in tandem with player feedback.
Jordyn: Yeah, I agree. I think it's so important and I think that that's definitely something that more people should be considering during the process.
I wanted to move into talking a little bit about the concept of social impact in game design. I feel like some people may not immediately think of games as a tool for social impact, but could you talk about your perspective on that and how you have seen games be able to be impactful on that level?
Elaine: My perspective is that games are super impactful and it's not because they're fun. I think that's like huge misconception. It's like, oh, because games are fun that's why people wanna engage with them.
I think more than that, games, they require your input, right? You cannot interact with something unless you are pressing a button or you're moving around. It requires you to be active, and I think that's exactly where the power of games is when it comes to social impact, is because we're requiring someone to do something, they internalize it and experience it in a different way.
I love watching things, but it's a very passive process. You sit down and the story and this character development is just unfolded for you and you just digest it. But when you play a game that has a story, it's in your decision making as a player of where you're going to interact and what potential dialogue lines you're choosing.
You are the protagonist in that story. So it definitely feels much more heightened when it is potentially, quote unquote your fault that a character died or it's potentially your fault that you lost something. So I think that's why you internalize it a lot deeper , than passive media, like reading a book or watching a movie, watching a series, something like that.
So I really do think that's why. It's such a powerful tool that we can use 'cause the stories that we can tell the commentaries that we can make utilizing games can impact somebody at an emotional and psychological level that other media can't do because of that active component.
Jordyn: Yeah. I guess I never really thought about that, but it is so true. That just extra personal like investment, how much different that that can be.
Elaine: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it's an investment of your time too 'cause in a movie you can watch an hour, 40 minutes, two hours, and then you're done. In a game, sometimes you have to pour in 5, 6, 7, 8, all the way up to hundreds of hours to really unravel the story in the world building. So I think that is a huge component of it too, is self investment of wanting to explore what that world and that story is.
Jordyn: Mm-hmm. When thinking about other game designers and stuff, do you think that game designers have a responsibility to include these kind of elements around promoting social change in some way when it comes to the games?
Elaine: I would say, and this is just my personal opinion, I don't think it is right for anybody to feel a heavy responsibility if they don't care about something. There's a big difference when you care about something and you put your heart into it versus when you don't care and you go only surface level.
So I would say that when it comes to incorporating any type of social impact or having commentary on things that the people or person that are championing the design should really care about it.
And we can even extract social commentary around Star Wars, you know, it's incredibly political, like in many ways. And some people are so passionate about Star Wars that they see, that, they see the correlation between the fantasy world and the real world and other people are just like, well, no, it's all just fantasy, you know? And to me it's the same with games. There is definitely lots of opportunities to talk about the world that we were living in with the worlds that we create, whether they're fantastical or not.
And there are so many opportunities to be able to help shift perspectives or be able to break stereotypes through incorporating social impact of some type of educational element into games. But I don't think that everybody should have that responsibility on their shoulders. To me, I would say that responsibility should be shared between all of us, but especially to those who are passionate about wanting to make a difference.
And I think that's key into incorporating things like that because then it becomes intentional then it becomes meaningful. You're not doing it just to slap something and say, look at me, I did something good, i'm making a difference. But you're really trying to use the art form as it means to say, Hey, I'm here and I have something to say, and I see something really wrong with the world, and here's my perspective on it. And I think that's where the real value lies.
Jordyn: I agree, and I think you make a good point too about, just by having your own unique experience, sometimes like the things that you put out are going to have some kind of like commentary anyway, whether that's intentional or not, it's still showing some kind of perspective and promoting something.
So you recently spoke at a conference about decolonizing game design. Could you share some of the different key takeaways from that presentation?
Elaine: So decolonizing play was almost like a game design paper that I wrote along with two other really incredible game designers. This was part of a retreat called the Polaris Game Designer Retreat. And it's a very special retreat, it's truly an honor and a privilege to get invited 'cause it is invite only. And what they do is they invite either up and coming designers or designers who have made a difference or had, or have had a really great career in the games industry. And I was invited in 2023 to be a part of it.
And initially the goal was to find solutions for modern day game design problems. Like that's why we get together, and since we're all passionate experts in our craft of game design, great minds think alike is kind of like the motto, right? So if we all get together and we try to solve these problems, then we can share these solutions with the rest of the industry.
And my team initially was talking about are there possibilities to be able to interact with resources inside games, no matter the genre without being exploitative? Because the thought of finding a resource somewhere in a world, it's like you're exploiting that world. You're taking resource for yourself, for your own gain. And when we started talking deeper about what that means and how that looks like in the real world, we started to get at imperialism and colonization and the fact that this is a very real thing that some folks think it's just textbook based, something that happened hundreds of years ago. But no, we're [00:31:00] seeing it live and active in Hawaii. We're seeing it where I come from, Boriken and Puerto Rico. We're seeing it all over Latin America, anywhere where there was some power of the Western world that got into some place. We are seeing that in real time. And the consequences of that which is a lot of suffering and a lot of struggles for a lot of people, predominantly people of color.
So I sat down with these other two designers and I was like, would you all be okay if we go on the route of trying to figure out how to find design solutions for these colonial values that are embedded in game design. It's just the way that things are, right? In a lot of the games, no matter what genre you see, there are some form of resource management and going into the world and eliminating an opponent or something like that, it's always exploitative at some degree.
Some degrees are very high and others are much lower. And they were super down with it. And what I really appreciated was that these other two designers were also cis white designers. And they were like, Hey, Elaine, you are Puerto Rican, you are indigenous, like you have more stakes in this than we do and we want to support whatever it is that you wanna explore. So that was really cool of them to be able to give me that space to think about things and really put things on the table and for us to dissect them together.
So we ended up coming up with a framework specifically for game designers and developers, it's like, okay, if you're developing a game that has a lot of these concepts where you're eliminating and extracting things and controlling, what are some alternatives and what are some exercises that you and the team can go through? Try to think outside of the box. We understand that there are projects in aaa, right? These big companies where you cannot change and modify things. We understand that and we were sensitive to that, but we still think that even in those spaces, there is room for conversations to happen and for things to grow. So our frameworks were very tangible, they were meant to start a conversation and be able to orient folks and support folks in having those tough conversations.
The framework consisted of four parts. One was kind of like a risk assessment, so figuring out on this graphic that we put together, where does the genre of the game that you're working on kind of lay? And on the low spectrum we have like party games and puzzle games and on the higher spectrum we have those shooters and RPGs that can tend to have more of those concepts ingrained. And from there, figuring out, okay what pieces of our game are most flexible to modify? So at the lower spectrum, you have your story and your characters. It's much easier during the production of a game to chat with the writers and the narrative designers and other designers and say, Hey, there's something going on with this character, this world building, this piece of lore that is not right. It just feels, it has an ism and we wanna rectify it. Can we work together to rewrite it or modify it?
That's much easier to do than at the higher spectrum of things that can be modified, which would be like the player fantasy. What that means is once the player has a controller in their hand, or they're on the keyboard and mouse and they're in that world, whatever perspectives and commentaries are being presented to them, they're already absorbing and finding their own opinion at that level. There's nothing that we can do as developers to change that. They already made up their mind, they already absorbed something out of the game, so that is hardest to do.
So in the in-between of the story and world building and player fantasy, you have the game design, you have the mechanics, you have the systems, the economies, and all those things have ways to be modified as long as it's during production. It's still under our control to be able to implement or adapt. And then once it's out, it's done. There's nothing that we can do. So that's part of the second part of the framework.
The third part is what I'm most proud of is the antonym exercise. So it's literally. Taking the, the concept that everything that we do in design is rooted in a verb always. It's either your character jumps, you interact with something, you shoot at something, you find something, they're always action verbs tied to something in the game. So the exercise is encouraging developers to figure out what those action verbs are in their games that could be problematic or not problematic. You can put all of them in a big list, and in finding the antonym of those verbs, you can find new ways to think about those systems and those mechanics. So if we look at the verb, like extracting. If we want to make something that's the opposite of that, well what does that look like?
Well, we look at the antonyms of extract, potential antonym could be cultivate. So instead of extracting you're cultivating something, okay, well what does that look like? Do we take a resource and then we plant it somewhere or we give it to someone and all of a sudden there's a different exchange in mechanics. So it's literally that simple. It's really just starts sparking ideas. Not to say we have to build from it but just the sheer fact that we can talk about it already starts making movement in people's creativity.
And then at the end of the framework, the fourth step is just feedback. Being able to take all of those conversations and all of that information and finding out can we do something about it? Do we have the budget for it? Can we get buy-in from our leads and our managers and the executive leadership of the studio to change things, and that's literally the framework of decolonizing play.
We try to make it very simple and accessible because that's the point. We want people to be able to utilize this and for it to be useful. And nothing but great feedback from anybody that has heard from it because of how easy it is to understand. And I presented it you said, at the Bipoc game studies conference, and it's lots of academics.
So to them it's like, wow, Elaine. Like, this is so simple, like if we were to write a whole paper on it, it would be full of jargon and like lots of condensed things. But this is at the level of simplicity that is needed for things to be actionable. 'Cause nobody's gonna go perhaps read 120 page paper about decolonizing play, but they will Sure go through a four part design exercise together with their team. So that's what it's all about.
Jordyn: That's amazing. Yeah, it's just like making those small little changes and it's so simple but can be so impactful, which is something that's really iinteresting to me.
interesting to me.
Elaine: Absolutely. I think that folks think that to make an impact and to make a change, you really have to make these like incredible strides and change everything about something. But even in something small like, going through a fitness journey or something, it's not working out two hours a day every day that's gonna get you there.
It's the small little changes like drinking more water and not eating a bar of candy that perhaps you really want to, it's literally in the little thing. So if we see it in our real normal life, it's the exact same thought process with something like a video game or writing a book. It's really honestly in the little changes where you can see things start to fall into place and see the level of impact or a perspective change that you wanna see down the road.
Jordyn: That's awesome. Yeah. So I know we are running out of time a little bit, but I did wanna touch on Latinx in gaming. You are the co-founder and current president, could you just talk a little bit about like what the initial vision was and maybe how that's evolved over time?
Elaine: So I am so proud of how far we have come with Latinx in gaming, especially 'cause I've been around since inception. We started around 2016/2017, Honestly, just a bunch of folks who were professionally working in the games industry already. We met at the Game Developers conference, which occurs every year in San Francisco and we sat down and told each other did you have a mentor? Like have you met other Latin American folks in the industry? And the constant answers were no. We decided to do something about it. It was literally just a group of folks who saw a need and we're like, let's build the community, let's do something to help each other. And perhaps there's other people who feel the exact same way that we do and they can find community and solidarity. And finding people that they can talk to about challenges that perhaps they cannot speak to with somebody else because the cultural component is missing from the conversation.
So that's how we started super grassroots, just a community group. We were able to start under the IGDA, which is the International Game Developers Association. So they allowed us to open up a chapter through them, and that's how we were able to meet during the game developers conference and outside of it.
Eventually in 2020 we started getting some traction with some game studios and companies. And we were very lucky that at the time Niantic really saw a lot of potential in what we were doing. And they funded us to be able to get 501C3 nonprofit status. So they were able to pay the legal fees and all of these things to get us there.
Since then it's been a rush of, of social activism and community building since 2020 we have been able to fundraise at this point hundreds of thousands of dollars to give back to the community to help in whatever way is needed. We have two grants programs that we do to help folks get anything from like a new solid state drive on their computer 'cause they can't afford it all the way to money to be able to purchase a badge, to go to a conference or a convention for professional development, be able to do an online course or online certification. So we have been able to help in very tangible ways financially 'cause I feel like that's where our communities, like communities of color hurt the most, 'cause the accessibility and the socioeconomics are just different and they just don't have the same level of opportunity and access to things as others. [00:41:00] So we have been able to really have an impact there.
And I would also say because we have been active and our community, just grows every day, that we have been able to reach and network and really expand our impact globally.
So that's been something that we're really, really proud of and we're still learning and growing and we have huge hopes for the future. But all ingrained in being able to give back to the community and help in meaningful ways to see them succeed and support them in chasing their professional goals.
Jordyn: To kind of close everything out here, what advice would you have for those looking to get into game design or the gaming industry in general?
Elaine: My biggest advice is to just go for it. Sometimes you can stagnate and you get paralyzed by fear because you think that you don't know enough and you don't have the skills to do it, but you just need to do it. Game development and game design is one of those things that you're not gonna get good at it unless you start doing stuff and you start failing. That's the whole point, like nobody has ever made a game like one shot where it was successful. It's very rare for somebody to make a decision and for it to work out right away.
The analogy that I use, it's like, building IKEA furniture, sometimes you use the wrong screw or you put things the wrong way and then you need to start over. And games are the exact same way. And that's with a manual. Like when you make games, you don't have a manual necessarily unless you have been developing them for a long time and you just know what to do. So I would say just go for it. There's so much free information and resources online now where you can go on YouTube and follow a tutorial step by step on how to make a an RPG or how to make a platform or game, how to make a puzzle game.
In that way you learn and you start opening up, your perspectives on what you are most passionate about, about games 'cause sometimes you may think it's game design or you may think it's art, but you end up falling in love with audio design or music or engineering, even programming.
So exploring all facets and being able to land on what you really love is super important. And also don't be afraid to join community, whatever that community looks like. There's a community for everything in games. If you like fighting games, there's a community for you. If you like wholesome, cozy games that are cute and about farming, there's a whole community for you.
So figure out like what you love and figure out your people, where you would thrive and where you could find friendships and form friendships. And then start there. The sky's the limit after that. And never be afraid to ask questions and connect with people like me.
I'm available on LinkedIn, on socials. I'm always happy, my dms are open to answer questions about how to get into games, about connections. Like, Hey, Elaine, do you know somebody who's an animator I wanna be in in animation? Is there anybody that you can connect me with? I'm always happy to do that and most developers are very open to sharing our network and connections with folks who wanna learn and grow.
So definitely don't be afraid. I know it's scary, like I was in the same boat when I started, but as soon as I got out of that mindset of, of living in fear and being more concerned about my success and gaining my confidence, that's really when I started to grow.
Jordyn: Perfect way to close it out. Perfect way to end it. Thank you again so much, Elaine, for joining me today. Thank you for sharing your story and perspectives. I really enjoyed our conversation and I'm sure our listeners will as well.
Elaine: Likewise. I enjoyed it too. Thank you so much for having me.
