Welcome to the Games Institute

The Games Institute (GI) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Waterloo, advancing the study of games, gamification, interactive technologies and immersive environments (AR/VR).

Racial Equity Board Game Design Resources

Blogs | Games | Talks | Articles | Podcasts | Books

Blogs

• Cooperative games: Advice from the experts – League of Gamemakers
• Design Tips: Make Losing Feel Good – Cloudfall Studios
• How three academics created a game about Indigenous culture and philosophy – Ruel Gaviola, Geek & Sundry
• Inclusive Game Design: Key Starting Principles – Filament Games
• Pipelies: Gamifying pipeline politics – Marisa Benjamin
• This is how board games spark social change – TESA Collective
• Tips on how to make a fun cooperative board game – Honest Rogue Games
• Unique problems of cooperative game design – Victoria Tran (Indie Megabooth)

Games

• Anti-racism education games & activities for Australian Schools - List by Racism No Way
• Arranged! – Nashra Balagamwala
• AUXGOD
• Freedom: The Underground Railroad
• Black Card Revoked – Latesha Williams and Jay Bobo
• Dawn of Peacemakers
• Games for Change 2020 Showcase
• Racism 24 board game
• Rap Godz – Omari Akil
• Rise Up: The Game of People and Power – TESA Collective
• Road to Racial Justice
• S.C.O.R.E – Audrey Clausen
• Spirit Island – R. Eric Reuss
• Steal away Jordan: Slave Narrative RPG – Julia Bond Ellingboe
• TESA Collective game library
• The Gift of Food – Beth LaPensée
• Trials & Triumph – April Preyar

Talks

• Black Industrial Designers Talk About Race and Design, Part 1 – Core 77
• Building for Inclusivity: How Games Have the Power to Transform People – Panel from GFC2020
• Cooperative Games Panel: Spirit Island and Overcooked 2 – Games Institute
• Games for a Change – Brenda Brathwaite
• Speeches on the Games for Change YouTube Channel
• Walk a mile in our moccasins - Janelle Pewapsconias

Articles

• “Designing Games to Foster Empathy.” Cognitive Technology 14(2), 2009, pp. 5-15. – Jonathan Belman and Mary Flanagan 
• Designing Games That Foster Equity and Inclusion: Encouraging Equitable Social Experiences Across Gender and Ethnicity in Online Games – Gabriela T. Richard, CHI 2013
• Cultural framing of computer/video games – Kurt Squire, Game Studies
• Educational board gaming and counter politics – Anton Oehmsen-Clark, FPS
• Fighting bias with board games – Maanvi Singh, NPR
• “Indigenously-Determined Games of the Future,” kimiwan zine, Issue 8: Indigenous Futurisms (2014) – Elizabeth LaPensée
• (Re)Coding survivance and the regenerative narrative – S. Rose O’Leary, FPS
• Saskatchewan woman creates indigenous board game – CBC News
• The burden on our back: Conveying Nahua survivance through games – Joshua A. Wood, First Person Scholar (FPS)
• We need to have our stories: The Black Girl Gamers fighting for inclusion – Hani Richter, Vice

Podcasts

• Beyond Competition – The Magic of Cooperative Games — Suzanne Lyons
• Black games matter: Great games from black game designers – Tabletop Bellhop
• Games for Change/Cooperative Games with Rina Wehbe – Games Institute Podcast
• (Re)Coding survivance: Sovereign video games special issue – First Person Podcast

Books

• Critical Play: Radical Game Design – Mary Flanagan
• Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative, and Alternative Things – Bruce M. Tharp and Stephanie M. Tharp
• How to be Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi
• Persuasive Games – Ian Bogost
• Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Experience of Imagined Worlds – Nicholas J. Mizer
• Values at Play in Digital Games – Mary Flanagan and Helen Nissenbaum
• Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Injustice – Kishonna Gray and David J. Leonard

Please also refer to the list of Anti-Racism Resources from the Equity Office at the University of Waterloo.