Talks & Articles

Phoebe Watson spoke on “Indigenous Culture in Games” at A MAZE. / Berlin 2021! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhLt8u1bBFI&t=1s Phoebe Watson (AU) is a proud Yarrer Gunditj woman from the Maar Nation in South West Victoria. Phoebe graduated from RMIT in 2020 with...

Naphtali Faulkner was highlighted on Zero To Play! In this conversation, Tali brings to the surface his passion for game design and explains some of the thought that goes into the design and choices that the player makes in Umurangi Generation....

Amelia Winger-Bearskin was featured by TELUS Talks! Amelia Winger-Bearskin is an artist who innovates with artificial intelligence in ways that make a positive impact on our community and the environment. She is a Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and Associate...

Upper One Games and E-Line Media joined together to develop Never Alone, the created the first video game made in collaboration with the Alaska Indigenous community. Alan Gershenfeld and Amy Fredeen shared the inclusive development process which saw nearly 40 Alaska...

RightsCon 2021 hosted a Fireside Chat with Kishonna Gray and Maize Longboat in conversation with facilitator Micaela Mantegna about gaming cultures, communities, and collectives, and the landscape of human rights and video game technology....

Watch: "Designing Our Futures: the Skins Workshops and Next-Gen Indigenous Digital Media Makers" Kahentawaks Tiewishaw is a bear clan Kanien’kehá:ka visual artist from Kanehsatake. Her practice includes 3D modeling, illustration,...

Meagan Byrne, founder and Narrative Mechanics Designer of Achimostawinan Games, was featured in an interview on CanadianGameDevs.com! The interview covers Meagan's path to game development, her experience in school, running a game studio and the financial pressures...

How do Indigenous game developers interweave Indigenous ways of knowing into design? What are some of the unique mechanics in Indigenous-made games? What technical innovations have happened for expression? At PAX 2020, Allen Turner (Ehdrigohr), Elizabeth LaPensee...

Allen Turner was invited to be part of the Digital Storytelling Colloquium at the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Kansas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_t7tnFnGyU An Afro-Indigenous game designer, storyteller, artist, dancer...

The panel "Decolonial Practices in Playful Media" at A MAZE. / Berlin 2020 discusses strategies and maneuvers in game development as they relate to resistance to and repair of colonial structures and ideas. Karina Griffith is in conversation with Allan Cudicio, Hexe...

Written by Mercedes Acosta With proper adherence to COVID-19 safety guidelines halting the physical convention circuit, many festivals have had to move entirely online. In the 2020 virtual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the “Night of the Indigenous Devs”...

Written by Santo Aveiro-Ojeda In May of 2019, I released DON’T WAKE THE NIGHT under the label Brujeria @ Werk, a project I had been working on and directing since 2017. Talking about it makes that feel very far away, and it still feels weird to think about it...

Just what is an Indigenous video game and what does it look like? Meagan Byrne, founder and Narrative Mechanics Designer at Achimostawinan Games, explores that question in relation to her own work at Dirty Rectangles 2020....

As Indigenous game developers, we offer support in solidarity with Black game developers. Disparities for our communities have many crossovers, and it’s through games like Treachery in Beatdown City by Shawn Alexander Allen of Nuchallenger and Manuel Nico Marcano of...

Elizabeth LaPensée gave the keynote for the IndieCade Climate Jam 2020! For those who have experienced colonial devastation, the apocalypse has already happened. How, then, can we look to those who came before us to help inform our actions right now with hope for the...

Maru Nihoniho, founding CEO of Metia Interactive, was featured in Indigenous 100! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYhEi-rNH8 Maru Nihoniho (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāi Tahu) is the founding CEO of the game development studio Metia Interactive. She is the...

Indigenous Game Devs Wikihackathon Friday, April 24 at 6:00PM EST to Saturday, April 25 at 6:00PM EST A 24-Hour wikihackathon where we fix up:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_people_in_video_games Anyone is welcome to join us in adding resources, updating...

In this 2016 Game Developers Conference Europe talk, id Software co-founder and Doom co-creator John Romero discusses the company's early days and the programming principles that gave birth to games like Doom and Quake....

Reposted from imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival: For its SECOND YEAR, imagineNATIVE is back with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Scholars Program, and we’re extremely excited for the next generation of Indigenous digital talent! What is the Scholarship all...

Written by Elizabeth LaPensée Design research is the systematic study of design, development, and evaluation of a product. There are several possible methodologies and methods which can be adapted. Methods fit within a methodology, which is a system of methods for...

Written by Elizabeth LaPensée Ninagamomin ji-nanaandawi'iwe (We Sing for Healing), Art by Elizabeth LaPensée, 2015 Definition of Indigenous FuturismsThe term "Indigenous Futurisms" relates perspective-altering insights from Indigenous ways of knowing. Coined by...

Maru Nihoniho, founding CEO of Metia Interactive, spoke at CreativeMornings Auckland about her inner calling to develop games and her journey from playing spaces to being awarded the Innovator of the Year in 2017 MCV Pacific Women in Games Awards from Xbox....

Written by Elizabeth LaPensée I want you to make games because I want to play more Indigenous games, and I believe that we as Indigenous people can contribute to game development in interesting ways. This primer is intended to get you started and guide the way to...