I want a game that pokes fun cheap fifa coins at the fact that 99.9% of game protagonists look like cousins. I want a game that clowns the thinking that noble savages are still a good plot point in 2012. I want a game that doesn’t feel the need to turn its black characters into thuggish stereotypes just because it’s an easy shorthand for being a bad-ass.”
“Here’s something else to think about: You mention Blazing Saddles being a good goal for games. I agree, and would actually include Friday, the near-perfect 1995 film starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, in that category. But Blazing Saddles had Cleavon Little in front of the camera, Richard Pryor on the script, and a booming black presence in Hollywood to balance it out.
Friday had black culture exploding into the mainstream, rap beginning the process of absorbing every other genre, and a string of realistic black condition-type movies like Rosewood, New Jack City, Boyz n the Hood, and Menace II Society to play off of. If you weren’t into Blazing Saddles or Friday, if they offended you or just weren’t your bag, you could easily find an alternative.”
In video games, those alternatives are almost non-existent. New York City-based game designer Shawn Allen turned to Kickstarter to crowdfund Treachery in Beatdown City, a throwback action game happening www.utfifa.co in a rapidly gentrifying analogue to Manhattan. The game features a multi-racial trio of heroes and a unique blend of strategy and virtual fisticuffs.