The work of a game designer often encompasses the entire player experience, from determining game mechanics and writing narrative to addressing technical aspects such as level design and development. Game players and game designers have called for increased racial diversity in the games industry, both in-game and behind the scenes. However, little is known about how working game designers understand, engage with, and design for race. Through semi-structured interviews (n=15), this study explores the creative practices and expertise of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) game designers and developers, primarily based in the United States. We focus on how they conceptualize, approach, and engage with race, both individually and in collaborative teams. We contribute insight into how race is translated into tangible digital and physical representations, and into broader creative and business approaches to race in the games industry.

Video games are celebrated for providing unique interactive experiences that allow players to construct their own narratives through play. However, Black gamers have been repeatedly denied representational agency to craft their own narrative and design game characters that reflect their true selves. To explore how a community of Black gamers has used game modifications (mods) to address representation, we conducted a qualitative study of 22 Black players of "The Sims" life simulation game. We investigate how "Black simmers" create and integrate mods and custom content to represent Black identities and culture in their gameplay through the lens of a 'community of play.' As a sensitizing concept, we also understand participants' testimonies through the lens of Black feminist thought. We found that participants have cultivated a community that exists as a site of theoretical praxis. Further, the community centers mentoring, collective care, storytelling, and Black joy, as well as performs the labor necessary to preserve this gaming space for Black players -- drawing further implications for resisting hegemonic whiteness in the games industry through a pluriversal game design practice.