_Coded Black

Coded Black (2025) is a deeply atmospheric interactive, narrative-driven resistance simulator for PC. The project confronts the hidden histories of anti-Black racism and systemic violence in the United States and the United Kingdom. Composed of two scenes–a 19th century plantation and a modern city–the game uses real historical documents, eyewitness accounts, folklore and audio-visual artifacts as players follow the stories of two, young Black girls. As users wander the landscape, various burning shadow figures offer additional observations and insights which, upon closer inspection, is actually de-jargonized theoretical commentary from critical race theorists and cultural psychology experts like Achilles Mbembe, Frantz Fanon, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Michelle Alexander, and WEB Du Bois, to name just a few. Even the two “fictional” narratives of the young Black girls are rooted in archival records. As such, users might recognize revised excerpts from James Baldwin, for instance, and references to Sally Hemmings. With a replayable structure that surfaces different historical content in each run, Coded Black is a narrative crafted for both personal reflection and educational engagement.

The game’s logic and ethos is informed by a number of important theories and conversations, particularly Critical Fabulation, Critical Race Theory, and RealHorror. Saidya Hartman’s notion of Critical Fabulation as a method of archival social justice is central to this project. Hartman’s notion marks archival gaps as intentional rather than inevitable, thus reminding us of how our construction of history inherently reproduces and enables racist violence, ensuring oppressive systems, structures and ideologies accompany us well into the future. The two lead narratives demonstrate the informed, subjunctive narration at the center of Critical Fabulation. The game likewise ties Critical Race Theory to notion/s of RealHorror to remind players that existence as a racialized subject within white-centered nations is a living nightmare. Thus the entirety of the project–landscape, skybox, character figurations, and game score–is guided by Horror and Gothic ethos to remind players of the Gothic affect Black people experience in the Global North.

Players are not driven by a standard contest and/ or triumph objective because, as the game hopes to prove, no one wins in systems of racist oppression and violence. The experience is emotionally-challenging, featuring a range of harrowing scenes, reflections, and recounts of anti-Blackness. When users find themselves exhausted by the real horror, they can look to the balls of light dotting the environment; the spheres contain a variety of examples of Black success, intellect, inventiveness, humanity, will-power….everything anti-Blackness says Black people cannot be and/ or do. In doing so, the project hopes to subtly retrain users to rejoice in stories of Black success and accomplishment, rather than embracing and resharing stories of Black death, imprisonment, and violation. This is not a game about winning. It’s about witnessing, understanding and feeling the weight of history through an interactive lens. Maybe then, through “playing”, we may finally start recognizing when we are repeating the same vile patterns and insist on breaking the trends.