Revolutionizing Gaming: Glow Up Games' Journey to Bring Black Stories to Life

Glow Up Games has made history as one of the first all-women-of-color companies to secure over $1.5 million in funding. During the studio's keynote at DICE 2024, co-founder Dr. Mitu Khandaker reflected on the past five years, describing them as a multifaceted learning experience in development and creative intention. Khandaker expressed, 'We love games, but as we grew up, we realized that games didn't love us back.' This sentiment, coupled with the lack of diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry, particularly for women of color, laid the foundation for Glow Up Games. The studio's mission is to tell their own stories, create the representation they want to see in games, and bring about change not only on the screen but also behind the scenes. Khandaker emphasized, 'It's about our love for games and their potential, our love for those like us who want to be seen by the medium, and our love for the parts of the culture that don't get seen by games.' One of the unique challenges the studio faced was incorporating hip-hop culture into their game, Insecure: The Come Up Game, based on the HBO show starring Issa Rae. To tackle this, they enlisted the help of Dr. Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, also known as Sammus, who served as the chief rap officer. Despite the challenges, the team considered how to refine their systems to make the game feel more expressive for the player and how to localize non-English languages. They also thought about content delivery to bring in a plethora of other artists and rappers. The development team explored the use of AI-generated content but found that it struggled to replicate the nuance of rap, particularly in capturing the voice and style of specific rappers like Sammus. Co-founder Latoya Peterson noted that rap-based games are scarce, released approximately every five years, despite hip-hop being a significant part of pop culture. Peterson explained that they faced skepticism from potential investors who believed their ideas were too niche. However, they highlighted the cultural impact of the HBO show and its lead actress, showcasing the uniqueness of their opportunity. The team worked on various prototypes and created large datasets to improve the game's ability to predict nuance and language from the player's choices. Peterson explained the complexity of parsing language in a computer, especially when it comes to nuances like the difference between 'I'm hot' in terms of heat versus feeling sexy. While AI development tools were helpful, Peterson emphasized that AI lacks the capacity for higher-order rap skills, complex storytelling, and multi-figurative language. Given their backgrounds in AI and machine learning, the founders were aware of these limitations. Peterson noted that resources like ChatGPT were helpful but limited in understanding the nuances of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), partly because AI uses text-to-speech datasets from platforms that have been known to harbor anti-Black sentiment. The studio acknowledged the commodification of hip-hop culture and its artists across entertainment mediums. Quoting Lumumba-Kasongo, Peterson highlighted the importance of approaching game design centered on gamers pushed to the margins, incorporating a black feminist disability framework, and creating a community outside of gameplay that adopts a digital hip-hop feminist sensibility.