Glow Up Games on bringing Black stories to games and why AI doesn't recognize rap

06.03.2024 - 17:57 / gamesindustry.biz

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Glow Up Games is one of the first all-women-of-color companies to have raised over $1.5 million in funding.

This was revealed by co-founder Dr. Mitu Khandaker on stage at DICE 2024 during the studio's keynote, where she explained that the five years since the studio's establishment has been a multifaceted learning lesson for development and creative intention.

"We love games and were realizing that as we grew up and really wanted to see ourselves, and that games did not really love us back," Khandaker said.

Over the years in their respective careers, both Khandaker and fellow co-founder Latoya Paterson examined gaming's lack of diversity and inclusion for brown girls and women. This provided the foundation of Glow Up Games.

Khandaker explained, "We started Glow Up to answer our provocation. Tell our own stories and see ourselves to create the kind of representation we want to see in games. Not only for what's on the screen but who's behind the scenes.

"It's a love for games and what they can be. Love for those like us that want to be seen by the medium. Also, a love for the parts of the culture that don't get seen by games."

The CEO pivoted to its unique challenges when representing hip-hop culture and how to incorporate that into a game.

One of those challenges was creating a rap mechanic for Insecure: The Come Up Game, based on the HBO show starring Issa Rae, which launched in 2021. The development team built a game of a recurring theme in the show, in which its star would freestyle rap to herself in the bathroom mirror.

Part of solving that game design problem was employing the help of Dr. Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo. Lumumba-Kasongo, stage name Sammus, serving as chief rap officer and as a career artist proved beneficial. The team still found itself considering more developmental decisions.

"What if we could invent a whole genre of game around this mechanic?" said Khandaker. "How do we continue refining the systems to make them feel more expressive for the player? How do we localize non-English languages, and how do we think about the content delivery that helps us bring a plethora of other artists and rappers?"

She explained that the development team then proceeded to implement the use of AI-generated content for the game project. However, this created another problem to solve.

"How do we replicate the specific nuance of how Sammus raps? How do we capture their voice and the nuance of other rappers in that style?" she said.

Paterson then explained that rap-based games are limited within the game landscape. She noted that they're released approximately every five years or so.

The co-founder explained that despite these few releases, hip-hop