Black Excellence in Gaming Presents: CalamityDarling

“My goal is to make a game studio of my own, create stories with characters that are inclusive. I want…you know, I didn’t grow up seeing a lot of myself in games. I want to create that for the next generation of gamers, for the current generation of gamers who also just really want to see that. A lot of inclusivity is coming in the games, and even as an adult, seeing myself in these characters makes me emotional, like it’s really cool. And I want to provide that for people, too, while also providing engaging stories.”

CalamityDarling

It’s Day Five of our Black Excellence in Gaming series, and our lineup continues with another inspiring content creator who we’re so excited to showcase for this feature slot. An up and coming live streamer who is also an aspiring game developer, CalamityDarling is an excellent creator to watch as we venture on into 2021. 

Having been interested in live streaming and content creation for a while, Calamity actually made her Twitch account around two years ago in anticipation of getting her start on the platform. It wasn’t until this past June when she truly began streaming to a dedicated schedule and planning her content on her channel. Calamity shared with us that her social anxiety makes it difficult for her to hit the “Go Live” button sometimes, but she has become more comfortable with being live and meeting other streamers and content creators since her first few streams. 

CalamityDarling’s first experience with video games stretches all the way back to when she was younger. With two parents who valued education, they exposed her to all sorts of educational games that could be played on their computer at home, like JumpStart and Math Blaster. She remembers fondly that her first video game love was Kingdom Hearts, as it was one of the first games she was able to experience purely for fun and enjoyment without any added education or learning on the side. This made her want to play and experience all sorts of different games once she was older. Now, as a variety streamer, Calamity enjoys an array of different games, ranging from RPGs and MMOs such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, fantasy games like Dragon Age, Dead by Daylight, and many more. 

She joined the gaming community BrownGirlGamerCode in July 2020, and has become a  member of their Twitch stream team as well. As a space that was founded and curated with the goal to support and uplift Black and Brown women in gaming and tech, she feels happy that she has found a place that is welcoming and supportive of her content creation goals. Being a part of this community has helped her get out of her comfort zone and try new things, as well as gaining inspiration and support from her fellow streamers and creators. Calamity also joined a new organization Luck Not Skill Gaming, who help up and coming streamers with their graphics and video editing in order to grow their personal brand. In the next few months, she will be joining their team as a streamer. 

In addition to being a live streamer, CalamityDarling is also in the process of developing her own video game. She is currently working on her game while also learning how to use the design program Unity. While there isn’t much we can share yet in the way of the game, we can share with you that the game will be called “Planet Lore,” and Calamity is excited to continue developing and eventually release the game for everyone to enjoy. Though still new to game development, her end goal is to create and design her own epic fantasy game where characters that look like her can be forefront and center in all the action. In her experience, there aren’t many characters of color in fantasy games that aren’t in the background or are a side character, and she would like to change that by creating a world of her own where there are diverse characters. 

In between balancing her content creation and game development, Calamity also has something else in the works. She is currently planning for the release of her own Discord community called the Potato League, a space where gamers both new and old can come together and play their favorite games competitively without any added pressure and with those who can teach them at their own pace. It started out as a joke between friends one day and has since grown into what is soon to be an official Discord server for anyone who may want to join. 

“I was shocked when people were genuinely interested and thought it was like an actual, like club, they could join. Not a club, I don’t know if that’s the right word, but that’s kind of how people treated it. They were like, ‘Oh, how do I – how do I sign up? How do I join? And that that kind of interested me because I was like, oh, there’s an actual need for this out there. So, let’s make it a thing.”

CalamityDarling

Games that are included so far in the roster for folks to find groups for include Dead by Daylight, Overwatch, and League of Legends. She hopes that in addition to people playing with each other and helping their teammates along the way, she’ll be able to find folks to act specifically as coaches and mentors for new or novice players. The server is still going through maintenance but applications to join plan to open up in April 2020. 

This will be CalamityDarling’s first time as a content creator during Black History Month. While she is still fairly new to streaming, she expressed that she was excited to see how Twitch would execute its plans to highlight and feature Black creators on their site. She believes that while Twitch is taking these steps to support Black content creators, there also needs to be some sort of protection system in place to keep them safe from harassers or others who may come to their channels with malicious intent. While Black History Month can be a great time for live streamers, content creators, and other folks to celebrate their history and accomplishments, so much of their attention can be spent trying to keep themselves and their communities safe from trolls that having additional support available to them in this regard would be beneficial. 

She also would love to see Twitch and other platforms make similar efforts to uplift Black creators after February is over, showing support and offering meaningful resources year. Calamity expressed that her main hope is that these organizations will honestly and openly listen to both the helpful critiques and criticism that Black creators have to offer, while also allowing them a space in which to do so without fear of backlash.

“It’s going to take…I think it’s a good start, but I don’t think they can say, ‘Welp, we did it! We fixed racism on Twitch!” Like, that’s not how it’s going to work. They’re going to have to keep listening to us and put us in the decision making spaces. Put, you know, women and LGBTQA people in these decision making spaces to make sure that people are protected across the board and not just…cis, white men. I said it. I did.”

CalamityDarling

And said it she did. We are eagerly awaiting the completion and release of all of Calamity’s projects as the year continues, and we hope that she will be able to receive all of the support and time she needs to make them not just a success, but also just how she envisions them to be. We for one, will be at the ready to hit that “Purchase & Download” button for all of her future game releases. It’s with creators like CalamityDarling who are making video games more inclusive one day at a time, and we applaud all of her efforts both present and future.

On behalf of the Off Colour team, we thank her for taking the time to chat with us and share more about her path as a creator!

You can be sure to support CalamityDarling by visiting their Twitch channel and other socials as well. Be sure to check back soon for when we share our full interview on the Off Colour site! 

Thank you so much for reading, and we hope you enjoy the rest of our series!