Grantee Spotlight on Games Dev of Color Expo

Meet another incredible Play it Forward Fund recipient! While Game Devs of Color Expo has been transforming the industry since 2016, they took an exciting new step by becoming a nonprofit in 2021.

Through events, community building, and creating access to opportunities, they're working toward a more intersectional and equitable games industry. They've already granted hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to game developers of color and partnered with major gaming companies like Xbox, Nintendo, and Amazon Gaming.

We're excited to support their mission of building a better, more diverse gaming industry where creators of color can thrive!

Our Interview with Game Devs of Color Expo

Gamers Engaged: How will this Play-it-Forward grant support your organization?

GDOC Expo: This grant will enable us to solidify the foundation for our tenth event! That includes putting down deposits for our virtual event platform and production team. Corporate sponsorship used to be our major source of funding but they continue to tighten their budgets, so we are especially grateful for this support. It is a major reason we can put this event on for another year.

Gamers Engaged: What's your vision for the future?

GDOC Expo: We aim to continue building programs that help existing game devs of color thrive in this industry. That includes education beyond just how to make a game — folks are hungry to learn the skills required to run a successful studio, for example. If we are successful, we will see more senior talent of color with long careers in game development.

Gamers Engaged: What opportunities does your organization offer for community engagement?

GDOC Expo: You can follow us on social media, or subscribe to our newsletter. If you'd like to support our work, you can donate funds directly via PayPal, become a Ko-Fi member, or get your company to match donations using Benevity. We'd also love it if folks raised funds for us on livestreams; we have a huge roster of games that were featured in past events on our website!

Gamers Engaged: What makes you stand out from the crowd?

GDOC Expo: Our organization centers talent that is already in the industry. Our community is going deep into the topics that matter to them rather than just scratching the surface. We have a deep well of experienced talent, and we recognize that by encouraging speakers to nerd out about stuff they usually don't get to talk about. This results in high-quality conversations you probably won't find at any other event — and we share them all for free!

Gamers Engaged: What's something really cool you have done in the past year?

GDOC Expo: In addition to getting incredible attendance (1,200+ people!) at our annual event, we hosted in-person events for the first time in five years. Thanks to Black in Gaming, the New York Public Library, ArenaNet, Gameplayarts, and NYU Game Center for partnering with us on these experiences. We're looking forward to more in 2025!

Learn more about Game Devs of Color Expo.

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