Two trailers recently dropped for a Black-lead indie game in development, Nixie. The trailers were uploaded by David ‘TheStoryteller‘, who makes media analysis and social-political commentary videos about and from a Black-British lens. David got his start with videos on The Boondocks and his ‘Operation Black Steel’ series.

The Kickstarter is now live for 19 days (click the link to view more info on the project, money goals, donation rewards and more). David has stated the following regarding Nixie:

‘For the record, this is an all or nothing project. Either the demo gets funded and we make it, or it doesn’t and we don’t make it. If you want to support this concept, this is only chance to do it’.

Story, Gameplay & More: Nixie is an ‘Action & Visual Novel hybrid’ about ‘found family, communication and the demonization of African spirituality’. I’m especially interested in that last point thanks to Ransford James, (political science major and professional BJJ-Daddy) who has discussed the history and colonial impacts regarding views on Obeah.

Between the more comic/manga-inspired segments in the story, there are also retro-style sprites in a different style featuring a main character on some kind of magical Dorito hover board, suggesting flying shoot-em-up mechanics in a similar vein to Galaga or parts of Cuphead.

A Personal Moment: As a biracial… Well, tri-racial lefty Britbonger, I have a lot of love for David’s work and hope Nixie gets the backing it deserves. And as a drippingly optimistic theatre kid with aspirations of becoming his own auteur, seeing those behind Nixie achieve would do a lot to inspire young creative minds everywhere, myself included (at time of writing).

And while I have you, show some love to the Free Huey foodbank initiative (click here) if you still have cash to spare.

Power to the people. Peace.

Sign up for our newsletter from the website.

Instagram: Go2GamesShop

Twitter: Go2Games

Youtube: Go2Games.com

Facebook: Go2Games.com

Store: Go2Games.com

The post Black-Lead Game Based On Boondocks! Nixie Kickstarter Live first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The Gunk is an upcoming third-person action platformer from developers at Thunderful Games and Image and Form. The game is also from the makers of the Steam World games, which I’ve covered before with the trailer for Headhunter.

The game is an Xbox exclusive (says me, the PS4-thumping Metal Gear Solid fanboy), but it’s also on PC for those of you with more brain cells than I!

The Gunk is set to release December 16th, 2021, day one with the Xbox Game Pass . You can also view a fuller gameplay trailer here.

The folks at Thunderful Games released a featurette on their YouTube channel today. The video sees Fiona Nova (voice actress for the Gunk protagonist, Rani) play through and explain parts of the game and development. The Gunk follows Rani and her group of space-faring friends in Cowboy Bebopian fashion, a rag-tag crew looking to make a quick space-buck. Nova also compliments Abigail Turner’s performance of Bex, Rani’s partner in crime who looks a heck of a lot like Clementine from Tell-Tale’s Walking Dead!

A strange mystery unravels when the crew stumbles upon the remains of a long-forgotten civilisation! The locations shown off vary from fantastical gorgeous landscapes to dark foreboding wastelands, heavily implying a possible horror element alongside Nova’s comments on the Gunk having good tension-building… Also, given how another blog of mine touched on Critical Race Theory, BEHOLD: The CRT Droid!

Speaking of race, it really fills me with some good-‘ol jingle-tingling in my wibbly-wobbly self whenever a game has a lead woman or person of color in the story. A lot of games feature custom protagonists, you could be bright green with a Pinocchio nose without getting shifty looks in most MMORPGs, but having a specific lead character be written as a woman of color in the first place is a good bit inclusion adding to the wider canon of games as artistic expression… Or in lay terms: Girl power yay, gamergate nay!

In the spirit of Rani having that fancy-shmancy arm-canon thingamajig, here’s a question for you smarties reading this… Why in the ever-living space crap do so many black characters in games and TV have a metal arm or gun arms? Like, I’m not complaining, I wouldn’t try to bully someone out of getting a sick robot arm just because they’d be better at finger-banging, but it is a little oddly specific. Jax? Barret? Doomfist? Cyborg? And now Jett Black from Cowboy Bebop is added to the list! Swear down I’m not complaining, but hey, sounds like an oddly specific trend to become a thing in pop-culture. Maybe there’s an interesting historical factoid behind that.

Product Poems:

“Annie, get your gun, gal“! Her mech appeared. “Shooty bang-bang, y’all”!

Call me the supersoaker, cuz I splash mouth in fash-cows like Smash-Mouth!

Sign up for our newsletter from the website.

Instagram: Go2GamesShop

Twitter: Go2Games

Youtube: Go2Games.com

Facebook: Go2Games.com

Store: Go2Games.com

The post The Gunk! December Release Date, New Footage And More! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Source: Square Enix

5 Black Game Characters You Might Have Heard of

Black History Month is coming to an end and we think it’s time to have some appreciation posts rolling in for the games industry. We don’t get to hear much about the representation of black characters in video games too often. This month we’ve decided to put a number of games that have amazing black main protagonists or characters in games.

1. Dr Eva Rosalene – To The Moon

Source: Steam

Dr Eva Rosalene is one of the three main protagonists in ‘To The Moon‘. She is not only witty, but she’s smart and observant, she also shares a loving bond with her partner Dr Neil Watts. She plays a massive role in the story and To The Moon is a story-driven game developed by Freebird Games, and is about two doctors who travel through an old man’s memories to fulfil his dying wish. There is also the sequel called Finding Paradise, where Dr Eva Rosalene makes her return.

4. Barret Wallace – Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Source: Square Enix

Barret Wallace VA played by John Eric Bentley, and is a supporting character in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and certainly a very memorable one. Despite his strong attitude, rash decisions and he may not be the brightest at times, but there is one thing for sure. Barret cares about his family, he cares about his team and he cares about society, which is why he is working so hard to do what he does. Barret goes through a lot of character development and you go from hating Barret to eventually loving his character.  Final Fantasy is one of the biggest JRPG franchises at the moment, Final Fantasy 7 Remake being a very popular one and even owned a spot on the PlayStation 5.

3. Spider-Man Miles Morales

Source: Insomniac Games

Spider-Man Miles Morales VA by Nadji Jeter, we couldn’t leave him out. Miles is a great example of character development, the gameplay is carried by the wild, young, personality of Miles and his heroic actions after being dumped with a bunch or huge responsibilities…like saving the city. Spider-Man Miles Morales has been one of the best PlayStation Games sold and is in the top 10 of the best games for the PS5 so far.

4. Frey Holland – Forspoken

Recently at the PlayStation Showcase, Forspoken – a next-gen game had a gameplay trailer, starring Ella Balinska who is voice acting the main protagonist – Frey Holland in Forspoken. She is not only a voice actor but she has been working to help the game feel alive through her body movements, facial expressions with performance capture and much more. Ella is also well known for her acting in various movies such as Charlie’s Angels, The Athena and British TV series Midsomer Murders.  Forspoken will without a doubt be one of the biggest games to release by Square Enix in 2022, it’s lovely to see a black female protagonist coming up in such a great title.

5. Black Panther

Source: Square Enix

Lastly, we have another Hero from the Marvel Universe and that is Black Panther. In Marvel’s Avengers, an expansion pack DLC was released for Black Panther, named War of Wakanda. The Voice Actor is Christopher Judge, who is well known for his acting in The Dark Knight Rises, Stargate and Stargate: The Ark of Truth. War of Wakanda is a great DLC and is highly recommended. Not only is Black Panther seen as a hero, but he is seen as a leader who offers guidance to his community, as we know very well after having seen from the movies.

Thanks for Reading!

However! The appreciation doesn’t stop at 5! There are thousands of black content creators and game devs in the community who deserve appreciation! If you want to support and know more about Black Game Devs then why not keep up with their Twitter? @BlackGameDevs

Source: Dot’s Home

If you enjoyed this, keep up with all the latest gaming news, competitions, future discounts and amazing content.

Twitter: @Go2Games

Instagram: @go2gamesshop

Youtube: Go2games.com

Facebook: Go2games.com

You can subscribe to the Go2Games newsletters via the website.

The post 5 Black characters In Video Games, Do You Know Them All? first appeared on Get2Gaming.