Critical Game Literacies and Afrofuturist Development

Abstract

Gaming has expanded during the pandemic, adding urgency to educators’ efforts to implement research on effective game-based learning experiences. However, researchers have also documented racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression in gaming; educators need to prepare young people to resist these systems of oppression, and game developers need to challenge these systems in their designs. To contribute to these efforts, this study asks how one might design learning spaces to support critical game literacies, defined as the literacy skills needed to play, analyze, modify, and design games in ways that challenge systemic oppression. The study also asks how one can design spaces to support aspects of Afrofuturist development (Tynes et al., 2023), a process in which young Black people imagine and build futures where they can thrive. The study answered these questions through design-based research on a critical game jam where participants played, analyzed, and created games related to themes such as Black liberation and abolitionism. During the game jam, participants playtested a prototype of Kai UnEarthed, a videogame about young people learning in unpoliced futures. They also began to design their own games in response to collective design prompts and activities. A reflexive thematic analysis of participants’ learning experiences and their relationship to the design of the game jam generated eight design principles such as “prototyping and rehearsing worlds free from oppression,” “worldbuilding as scaffolding,” and “practicing critical playcentric design methods.” These principles could inform future learning environments that support critical game literacies and Afrofuturist development.