Video games are one of the most popular past-times of kids from six to sixty. Over seventy-five percent of those gamers are Black and brown. Yet only three percent of the developers and creators of games are people of color.
That’s why Darryl and Edye Hughes created Hughes Who Technologies, dedicated to leveling the playing field for underserved youth.
“A lot of young people are busy playing games and they don’t know they could have lucrative careers as creators and developers of games,” said Edye. Their motto is “Don’t just play the game, get in the game.”
Darryl Hughes has been in the game for over forty years. He and Edye met at Columbia College. They married soon after graduation and both pursued successful careers; Darryl in animation and graphic design, Edye in advertising and marketing. Edye also wrote a book, “Raising Hell or Raise Them Well,” filled with good advice on parenting. Anyone who witnessed how well she and Darryl raised their two sons, who are now grown and raising families of their own, know that she has practiced what she preaches.
Eventually, they put their creative heads together and formed Hughes Who Technologies. “There are so many opportunities in gaming,” Darryl says, “and I looked around the room in a gaming company meeting and realized I was the only Black person in the room, and that’s got to change.” They are currently working with middle schoolers to help guide them toward a career in gaming. A study by the University of Southern California, as well as conversations with teachers and administrators, caused them to conclude that middle-schoolers comprised the near perfect age group to which gaming could effectively be introduced. “By the time kids are in high school, they pretty much know what career they want to pursue,” Darryl explains. That doesn’t entirely count out high schoolers. They have recently been asked by the superintendent of schools in Indiana to create a workforce program, and are looking forward to offering a dual program for high school students in Chicago and Indiana to receive college credits for gaming classes. “So, they can leave high school with a high school diploma and an Associates Degree, then they can either go onto a four-year college or get a job in the gaming industry,” Darryl tells us.
The curriculum for such a program has already been written. Darryl was on the board of Kennedy King Community College for ten years, and after convincing them to add a gaming curriculum, he single-handedly created Kennedy King’s entire gaming curriculum.
Hughes Who Technologies currently has an after-school program with Ronald Brown Academy in Chicago’s Pullman Community. Besides teaching the children the basics of gaming, they also serve them hot food. As one faculty member stated in a letter of recommendation, {“The hot food they serve makes the students want to stay for the after-school program, and it keeps them off the street, so they don’t have to deal with the daily violence.”
To many children, violence is a way of life. Darryl tells us about a workshop they were doing at a family center, and he asked the children to create a game about their lives. One boy said, “I want to do a game about me being in the hospital.” Surprised, Darryl asked him what is a thirteen-year-old doing in the hospital. The young man replied, “I was shot.” “After questioning all the students, I found that half of them had been shot before they reached the age of fourteen,” said Darry, “and it went from a training session to a sharing session. One young man had been shot five times. They showed the bullet wounds. Some young ladies had been shot also.”
Ronald Brown Academy after-school program is not the only program Hughes Who provides. They recently had an eight-week Saturday program at the Discovery Call Center in Chatham.
For the last seven years, they have worked with DuPage NAACP, Northwestern University and North Central College, providing weeklong gaming workshops with kids.
“We call it STEAM week,” offered Edye, “because our kids don’t just do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), we added art, so we put the A in STEAM.”
One of Darryl’s former students now works at Raven Software in Wisconsin. Raven Software is the developer of award-winning games, including the extremely popular Call of Duty series. They are known for designing games that set industry standards. The former student arranged for Darryl to bring a bus-load of his students to Raven Software to learn how games are created from beginning to end, and the children had an opportunity to talk to some of the game designers and artists.
Two of the greatest obstacles to the total success of Hughes Who are lack of funding and lack of parental interest.
“We need funding for a lot of things,” Darryl explains. “Some of the equipment we have to deal with is subpar, and many children have to do their assignments on their phones because they don’t have computers. We also need laptops to bring with us.” “We get a lot of kudos for our work, but the white organizations get the checks,” said Edye, “Especially white organizations that work with minority children, they don’t seem to value us working with our own.”
As for parents, Darryl explains, “A lot of times we give free workshops. The kids don’t come because the parents don’t want them to.” He explained that parents won’t fill out the form because they think they’ll be sent to the government.
Another problem is Black parents don’t see the value of a gaming career. “They want their kids to be doctors, lawyers, or basketball or football players,” says Edye.
Darryl explains that the gaming industry is more lucrative than all American sports, music and the film industry combined. “Those industries will make about $60 billion this year, and the gaming industry will make about $300 billion,” he tells us.
“Gaming is not just about entertainment,” says Edye, “In business it’s used for training. In the medical field, it helps save lives. It helps people with mental health issues such as anxiety. A few years ago, the FDA approved video games to help children with learning disabilities.”
When a person does something that is interactive, they retain that information longer. Darryl talks about a test done with seniors using a traditional test and an interactive game test. Those seniors who did the interactive test remember 95 percent of the test, while those using the traditional test retained only 75 percent. Three weeks later, those same seniors were brought back and the ones who had taken the interactive test remember 60 percent of it, while those who took the traditional test only remembered 20 percent.
Darryl recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award by Blacks in Gaming. What the award says sums it up for both of these highly creative innovators:
“Your commitment to excellence serves as a source of inspiration for all individuals, regardless of background or identity. By championing inclusivity, you are not only shaping the trajectory of the gaming industry but also fostering a more equitable and representative space for future generations.”
“Once again, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition. We look forward to witnessing your continued success and the positive impact you will undoubtedly continue to make in the gaming community and beyond.”
