Video Game Insider Says Devs Changed His Attractive Character Pitches

Video Games

An insider in the video game industry has confirmed what many gamers have been saying for quite a while. Del Walker is a “principal game artist” who has worked for companies like Naughty Dog, Rocksteady, and Respawn and on games such as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Last of Us Part II: Remastered, and everyone’s new favorite, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Earlier today, Walker made a few X posts talking about how some of his pitched video game characters were changed so much that they barely resembled his original concepts – specifically attractive black women:

There's been a handful of times I've pitched black women characters that look like this, then after 10 iterations the concept or model comes back without a speck of the original beauty I pitched. https://t.co/gxTvwujcSx

— Del Walker 🇵🇸 (@TheCartelDel) June 18, 2024

I'm not taking about mild changes. I'm talking about pose, aura, style, softness, age, flair. I hate giving gamergate men fuel – but it's very difficult to pitch beautiful or vain black women in games without them coming back like grocery store aunties. There is room for both. https://t.co/Z9sapkXkw0 pic.twitter.com/h0pRwb2dlm

— Del Walker 🇵🇸 (@TheCartelDel) June 18, 2024

Walker makes another post saying his statements are being “warped,” but I’m not sure how that can happen. He’s pretty clear in those posts: the developers don’t seem to want attractive black women in their games. And we’ve all seen that, but not just with black women – with all women. And we don’t need to look for other game artists like Walker for proof; we all know what Mary Jane Watson looked like in the comics and other visual mediums before the new Spider-Man games dowdied her up. Lara Croft’s last few incarnations have downgraded her previously sexy look to make her less appealing to the male gaze, lest we think Tomb Raider games are supposed to be fun. And the new Perfect Dark game has made Joanna Dark much less glamorous, eschewing the classic spy fantasy aesthetic for something more acceptable to perpetually offended college activist groups, which are totally the audience for Perfect Dark.

And Walker is absolutely right when he says, “There is room for both.” Not every character needs to be a sex bomb; some are better with a look more suited to their role in the game or the story. To hop out of video games for a moment, as much as I like the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, I don’t care for them making Aunt May attractive; it’s the wrong aesthetic for the character, and all that really came of it was that romance with Happy Hogan, which was mostly played for laughs anyway. In the video game world, the original Perfect Dark had Joanna facing an evil corporation (and… more as the game went on) headed by Cassandra de Vries, whose look was a typical rigid businesswoman; she contrasted with the sexier, more feminine Joanna, which made her a distinct character and helped identify her as the villain. A similar character is Nicole Horne in Max Payne, the head of the evil pharmaceutical company who is an older woman who looks like she’s spent her life in boardroom meetings, hardening her heart to the suffering she causes. On the other hand, Mona Sax is a femme fatale, and she shows that with her sultry looks and swagger, swinging her hips and parting her lips as though she leaped out of a hard-boiled detective novel along with Max.

But it can’t all be on one side, especially when it’s the toned-down one. Then, the games stop being fun escapist fantasy; you can feel the developers lecturing you through their characters, daring you to say something about how none of the women are attractive. And, as the reeling gaming industry is learning, the way gamers speak is with their wallets.