The creators of The Sims video game recently announced a collaboration with hair brand Dark & Lovely and gaming creator Danielle “Ebonix” Udogaranya to address the lack of diversity in gaming worlds.
Announced last week in a press release, through the new partnership, Dark & Lovely, largely considered to be one of the leading hair color brands for Black women, has released a documentary that highlights those who are changing the gaming industry.
Available on the “Play In Color” website and the brand’s YouTube page, the six-minute video includes the assistant producer of The Sims 4, Kaelah Smallwood and Udogaranya herself speaking about her contribution to the project.
To allow Black women to authentically express themselves virtually, the video game creator and Dark & Lovely have created 24 color combinations for two hairstyles for The Sims 4 alongside six new hairstyles available in 10 to 12 different shades of color.
The newest additions will be available to gamers with the upcoming free update.
In the press release, Udogaranya emphasized the lack of customization for Black gamers, highlighting the impact of the latest project.
“This is just the beginning of what I hope will become a snowball effect towards games and companies taking the importance of accurate and meaningful representation to the next level,” said the creator.” This isn’t a tick-box exercise, this is a purpose-driven impact to change the gaming experiences for generations to come!”
The new project for Sims 4 comes months after Dove and Open Source Afro Hair Library launched a new initiative to address the lack of representation of hairstyles in gaming on a coding level.
Through the partnership, the hair company and the community for artists created a free guide for video game creators to learn how to code for textured hair and Black hairstyles.
Although millions of Black women are gamers, they are extremely underrepresented in the games they play. Per video gaming company Diamond Lobby, only approximately 8.3% of video game protagonists are Black women compared to nearly 79% of the white men who lead these video games.
Behind the scenes, at the level of creation, Black women are just as underrepresented.
Overall, according to the International Game Developers Association, only 2% of video game creators, including both women and men, are Black.
“When players can see themselves trying on these hairstyles they can be confident in who they are in the real world as well,” said Senior Creative Director of The Sims 4, Anna Huerta. “Our work does not stop here and is to be continued to ensure we bring to life more stories from the Black community as well as others who are looking to be further represented in gaming.”
