Bonnie Harris-Lowe, game designer and writer

Bonnie Harris-Lowe is a game designer and writer for Wildseed games, who are working on a genre bending videogame set in a sci-fi-fantasy world, inspired by Eastern martial arts and culture, hip hop, and Afrofuturism. 

Follow Bonnie on twitter, LinkedIn, and check out their Mixed Reviews blog.

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Outline:

Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction 

(00:32) - Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae. Black femininity, sexuality, and identity

(05:31) - Origin story. Growing up bi-racial. Formative experiences - Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, POC representation in games 

(07:37) - Becoming a creator: Learning the cons. Crunch, Gamergate and harassment. Studying media arts 

 (11:22) - The lack of industry elders creates a lack of industry advancement. Rockstar Games, Riot games 

(15:40) - Wildseed and breaking the mold 

(19:53) - N. K. Jemisin: “How Long 'til Black Future Month?” Black creators and commercial success, competing with America's addiction to black imagery 

(25:44) - Personal life and projects

(38:31) - Accessibility vs approachability in games 

(44:40) - VR, XR. Developing new controls. Immersion versus bending reality

(52:06) - Realism versus experimentation. Black hairstyles in video games

(58:55) - Inclusive character creator: Diversity isn’t thought about as valuable

(1:02:02) - Individual impact on the world 

(1:05:41) - Finishing up

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Producer for this episode is Kearin Armstrong, production assistant is Prea Millar.