In 2025, I procrastinated so ingeniously that the project spawned from my analysis paralysis became one of the most popular I’ve ever produced. Having intended to provide an update to Blerdvision 2016 but with several days already elapsed in February, I could not conceive the possibility that I would be able to write about why Hazel is a better character in South of Midnight than Frey in Forespoken, why Black male characters in video games are boring, or despite Horizon: Forbidden West featuring the gaming industry’s best—if not also proportionally accurate—depiction of the planet’s ethnic diversity, I’m unsure if Varl transcends the Magical Negro trope, and the like. Honestly, each one of these probably deserves their own entry, so imagine trying include all of that plus Franklin (GTA V), plus Sojourn (Overwatch 2), plus Bayek (Assassin’s Creed Origins), plus Nadine Ross (Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy), plus Marina (Splatoon 2), plus Rodin (Bayonetta), plus, plus, plus, plus, plus plus….
The scope of Black representation in video games now eclipses the finite, and it’s beautiful to see. Yet this relative prosperity hampers my ability to write cogently about them. Then came the idea: to buy more time for the next edition of Blerdvision, publish instead a highlight of Black game developers because unlike Black video game characters, they are unfortunately finite, indeed. I intended to highlight one for only the first seven days of Black History Month, then move on to another topic. To my surprise, relief, and some fatigue, by the time I finished my research, I had discovered enough Black developers to span fourteen days of Black History month! I thought about keeping it going, but I was just shy of twenty-one developers.
The following is a collection of developers who either didn’t make the cut for Blerdvision: Black Game Devs 2025 and Blerdvision: Black Game Devs 2025 Part 2, or, their projects have emerged since. As a reminder, I am highlighting only games that have gone gold, secured a publisher, have shipped on multiple platforms, and I would play them. The last criterion is subjective of course, but a man can’t be talking about and planning to play a hundred VN games on itch.io. No shade.
I’m going to try something different this year. I’m going to get the ball rolling by publishing this piece while it is still incomplete, but I will update it as I finish the research and polishing of each entry. I wanna see how this goes!
Spritewrench
After watching Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, Phil Fish, and Jonathan Blow’s testimonials as game developers in Indie Game: The Movie (2012), Glen Henry realized that he didn’t have to migrate to another country to develop video games; he could do so from the comfort of his own home. Based in Kingston, Jamacia, Henry is the sole member of his studio, Spritewrench, performing the design, coding, and artwork for all of his games, while enlisting local help from friends like Chase Bea for music. Indeed, Henry has published games, plural, the latest and most polished of which includes Sunken Stones. He is currently working on Duppy Detective Tashia.
Terrifying Jellyfish
Artist, designer, and now video game developer, TJ Huges feels that unlike other media like movies or television, video games have yet to reach their full potential as a medium. He feels that their strength lies in their ability to place a person into someone else’s shoes and having that person make decisions in those shoes but independent of that person. These interactions foster unparalleled empathetic experiences.
Discovering Unity while playing Paradise Paintball in a school computer lab, Hughes began experimenting with the engine. Like his peers, he discovered that he did not need a specialized degree or training in order to become a game dev; he just had to Just Do It. After publishing two games under the Terrifying Jellyfish label, his greatest project, the food scene in the San Francisco area would inspire his greatest project, Nour: Play with Your Food.
Tribe Games
In 2018, Charles McGregor was featured in a collaboration with Rewire and PBS Twin Cites as part of “Living for the City,” a Rewire initiative made possible by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Rather than reinvent the wheel or do a disservice to his exclusive highlight, I encourage everyone to watch the six-minute video.
à la mode games
Trapped in his home during COVID, software developer Tom Bedford downloaded the Unreal Engine intending to tinker. His laptop fans whirred in obstreperous protest before he acquiesced and downloaded the more resource-conscious Unity Engine. In time, he produced a render so monstrously offensive that his partner, C. Bedford (also professionally known as “C.B.”; only Tom, in at least two interviews on YouTube, them “Christine,” the spelling derived from the [AI] closed captioning) directed him to focus on programming, and they would manage the art direction. C.B. themself is an accomplished artist who has performed contract work with character modeling and paintings for various indie developers.
With their creative powers combined, C.B and Tom form à la mode games, with Sorry We’re Closed as their debut title. It’s a story-based horror game, but not in the vein of Silent Hill or Resident Evil in the macabre, but perhaps the grotesque—violence that does not necessitate bloodshed.
Blerd Beats 