Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Feminists Around the World: Catt Smalls

Transcript

Feminists Around the World: Catt Smalls · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you productould by Heart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to another edition of Activists around the World
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: where I am sick. Let's happens at least once a
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: year where I get to do my sexy voice and
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I sound like an eighty year old smokers.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Nine year old.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Whose isn't Annie? Is yours not? That's the way it goes, right,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I know, I'll go an octave lower. This is the
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: only time I'm probably a base if I were to sing.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I think singing would not be ideal for you right now.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So we just recently talked about our gaming updates, which
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I'm still playing things, and so as we had mentioned then,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and we had play to do a follow up with
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: people from the gaming industry, specifically black women in the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: gaming industry. According to the gamer dot com, the percentage
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of women in non binary folks that are in development
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: have increased from twenty four percent in twenty twenty two
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to thirty two percent in twenty twenty four, but of
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: course when it comes to those in the black community,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: it is significantly less. So much so as we talked
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: about the numbers, it's like abysmal. In twenty twenty one,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: only five percent of people surveyed by the International Game
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Developers Association were from the black community. And this was
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: from a twenty twenty two NPR article written highlighting black
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: game developers, which we did use for some of the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: information about our activists. Mistake. Again, I really it was
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a really limited amount of information specifically, and to the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: point that one article talked about the fact that black
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: women have not been in the industry long enough to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: even count, like they could not get numbers, like it'd
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: been so small. So from gamedeveloper dot com, a twenty
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: twenty four article written by Justin Carter talked about where
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the game industry is in relation to black develops burst
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: And the article is titled our game studios suddenly abandoning
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Black developers. And here's the quote of those that have
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: been in the industry for twenty one plus years ninety
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: two percent, where white men group wise, Asian men came
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: in second at fifteen percent, followed by Hispanic Latino men
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: in eight percent, Black men six percent, and Asian and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: white women five percent each. And yeah, this is where
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: they're comeing from. The survey indicated that almost no black
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: or Hispanic Latino women have been in the industry that long,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: so they could not get numbers because they have not
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: been in the industry long enough, which is absurd. So
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: with all of that, we do want to take the
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: time to feature the black women who are making an
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: impact in that industry and who are a part of
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: that industry, and that includes Cats Smalls. We talked a
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: bit about her game Sweetheart, which is spelled sweet ex Heart.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: It I guess came out in twenty nineteen because she've
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: been developing it for a minute, and she has so
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: many others. So if you go to our website, she
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: has a list of all the games that she has
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: worked on or all the projects that she's a part of,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and from that site it says quote people are the
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: center of everything I do. Over the past fifteen years,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I've championed digital design at increasing skills, mentored and managed
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: junior and senior designers, and collaborated to craft inclusive use
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of experiences with agility and thoughtful consideration. I work with
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: designers and product development teams to gather insights, prioritize customer
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: pains and opportunities, create and inspiring strategic vision and bring
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: ideas to life. In my spare time, I make games right,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: speak publicly, and work to make the world a better
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: place by organizing events across the tech and game industries.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So she does a lot, and with her years of work,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: she has used her experience to help others in this industry.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: With Chris Algu, she co founded the Game Devs of
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Color Expo in twenty six and here's a bit of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: information from her feature with the NPR article I mentioned
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: earlier quote. The Game Deves of Color Expo is a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: space for developers of color to meet one another and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: showcase their work. Several events have been held over the years,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: some in partnership with major gaming companies like Xbox, Nintendo,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: and Oculus. Besides bringing developers of color together small sets,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: the Expo helps to break down the barriers that people
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: of color may face when trying to get into the industry.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: She says, we are actively giving people money to make
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: their games, and since twenty nineteen, the Game Devs of
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Color Expo has given more than three hundred and sixty
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars to game developers of color.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And in that same interview, she talked about her journey coding. Quote.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: When I was ten, I actually started to learn how
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to program so I could make my own dress up dolls,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and eventually I learned that you could make games as well.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I had a tutorial for the dress up doll program
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that I was able to read. It was updated in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: like nineteen ninety nine, and I think I looked at
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: it it in like the year two thousand. Small's met
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: with others interested in programming and video games through online forums.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: She said, we did collaborate, which was really fun. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I got to learn how to make art for these
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: dress up doll games that we were creating, and we
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: would kind of trade art back and forth and figure
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: out how to build everybody's work into one cohesive experience,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: which was really fun.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And in another interview she did with Johannes Epen, sorry
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: for if Iams pronounced that, she talked about the importance
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: of diversity in the industry. She says, quote, there are
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: a lot of people who play video games, but it
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: is interesting how much less diverse the people made games are.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: A lot of the things I and my friends are
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: doing is to make sure that there is equal access
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: to the tools and the knowledge that is out there.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Making video games is one of the easiest ways to
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: learn programming. Part of the reason is that in some
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: schools there are game development classes, and in many other
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: disadvantaged places there aren't a variety of classes for computer
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: science or video games. We are trying to show people
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: that there are a lot of games developers who are,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: for example black. The knowledge alone that there are other
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: people like you out there is super great.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: And she continues talking about the difference it makes when
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a developer has a diverse background quote, it's been really
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: cool to see the stuff that people come up with.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: The traditional thing that people think of when thinking about
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: video gaming is maybe Fortnite. The more diverse freewpoints you
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: have more potential strange and awesome things people come up with.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Take that game called neuror spelled in Oh you Are
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: by the way, continues, They took a bunch of foods
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and colors like popcorn, bubble tea, pancakes, and sausages. You
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: can do weird and satisfying things to them, drop bubble
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: popcorn and so on. It appeases the natural urge of
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: playing with your food and that space that has no limits.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think that would have happened if that person
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have learned how to make video games. Getting as
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: many people as possible to learn how to make video
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: games will result in a lot of really fun, random
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and interesting come nations of mechanics and ideas.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: And in that same interview, she talks about the games
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Sweetheart and her thoughts behind it. Quote Sweetheart is a
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: game that started as an independent study project during grad school.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I kept working on it. It is this autobiographic game
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: using several experiences I had in college. I grew up
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: as a black woman in the Bronx. Going to undergrad
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: school in Manhattan. Going every morning from a place where
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: you're surrounded by so many different people from so many
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: different places to a place that was mostly white was
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: really disorienting to me. Also, navigating the tech industry at
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the same time. Making this game has been very therapeutic, and.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: She continues explaining the name. The name is based on
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: cat calling. Many people called me Sweetheart on the street,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: which is a very creepy and uncomfortable term for me
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: as an adult person. It also describes the player's experience
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: very nicely. The X is silent. In many Japanese video games,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: they have an X in the middle of the name
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to make it sound cooler. I thought that would work
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: very well. A moment where the character is pushing back
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: against the thing that people call her, a fun take
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: on the word itself. It stuck really quickly with me.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to try this and the game took her
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: several years to develop and create, but she committed to it, saying, quote,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I hope that by playing it people get to see
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: what it was to be me at the time, being
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: nineteen years old, trying to figure out a lot about
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: my life, understanding how people saw me and not just
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: how I saw myself. I had a lot of fun
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: testing it out with people, also using a lot of
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: my ux design jobs going through the process. I love
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: when people talk about things I don't know like us.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I know of it, I don't know it. Oh my
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: godh uh huh. Good job. So it's obvious. She's been
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: very busy in her work and continues to create great games.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: In the NPR feature, they asked her for her advice
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: for others who want to get into the gaming industry,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: and she said, quote, find your people, because your community
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: is going to be the thing that gives you energy
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: to keep going and your community is going to be
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: what inspires you and helps you keep pushing to learn
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and grow.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, great advice, and I obviously we want to check
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: out these games. We love getting recommendations from you listeners
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: if there's anything we missed, And that's one of the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: things we love about indie games is this very thing
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: is seeing all these new takes so very cool. All right, listeners,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: if you would like to contact us, you can. You
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: can email us at Hello at stuff Whenever Told You
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Blue Sky at
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: When Never Told You for USO on YouTube. We have
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a tea public store and we have a book you
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to our super producer Christine or executive producer My and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: your contributor Joey.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you and I'm sorry and thanks.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: To you for listening Stuff Will Never Told You the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: protection of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.