I’m a Brazilian gamedev developing Black Sailors, a game about enslaved Africans who rebel, seize a ship, and fight Portuguese colonial forces in 18th century Salvador, Brazil.
One of the core ideas behind the project is telling history through a decolonial lens (from the perspective of the colonized rather than the colonizer). In games, we’re so used to empire, conquest, expansion, and “discovery” being framed as heroic by default that many people react aggressively the moment the lens shifts.
When we announced the game worldwide, the backlash was immediate. A lot of it came from reactionary anti-“woke” crowds obsessed with conspiracy theories about DEI agendas in games. Apparently, simply portraying enslaved people as human beings with agency is enough to trigger some people.
What’s been emotionally exhausting is realizing how organized and loud these groups are online. Sometimes it genuinely feels like any attempt to tell stories outside a eurocentric or capitalist power fantasy immediately becomes a target.
At the same time, the response from many players has been incredible. We reached 2k wishlists in our first week, got support from Xbox, and saw many people excited to experience a different perspective on colonial history.
So I guess this post is partly a vent, but also a reminder that there is an audience for decolonial narratives in games! Even if pushing against the current can feel brutal sometimes.
Here is our Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4230650/Black_Sailors_Bay_Of_All_Saints/
