GAME INFO
Hair Nah originated as the answer to a brief: What are the stresses that Black women face and how can we address them? Starting as a script, l realized that a video game would explain this issue phenomenally better.
So we made one.
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"Hair Nah is a response to the perverse action of touching a Black woman’s hair without permission. The micro-aggression of assumed authority and ownership of black bodies." - Momo Pixel
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500,000+ Unique Page Views
200,000+ Social Shares
968,000,000 Media Impressions
0$ Paid Promotion
PARTICIPATING ROLES
*Creator
*Art Director
*Lead Game Designer
*Co-Writer
TEAM
*Producer: Ritchie Richards
*Assistant Pixel Artist: Allison Berg
*Co-writer: Mulu Habtemariam
*Animator: Oliver Rokoff
*Developer: Trent Johnson
*Creative Directors:
Matt Sorrell , Jason Kreher
One Club Gold Pencil
The
Webby
Awards
Nominee
The Andy's Gold
Indie Developer
of the Year
CREATION
Hair Nah took 9 months to create. The idea was conceptualized in February, and the game was released in November 2017.
I had only been designing pixel art digitally for 2 months prior to designing the game. However I had 10+ years of experience with pixels in an analog format and was already working as an art director.
RECEPTION
A cultural phenomenon occurred. Hair Nah was everywhere being played by everyone. A youtube trend emerged from various creators playing the game including Buzzfeed.
Articles from RollingStone, Essence Magazine, Teen Vogue, Polygon, New York Times, and many more poured in from the US and international press in Germany, Tokyo, West Africa, London.
The game went on to win The One Club gold pencil, It was a Webby Nominee, received the Andy Gold, and Momo Pixel won Indie Developer of the Year for the BIG awards.
black women in gaming
FUN FACT:
Small images of Momo are hidden throughout the game including a very special animated image that flys across the screen when a certain code is entered.
REACH
With a tweet written from Momo's personal account that started with only 200 followers, it garnered 4 million impressions, 25.39k retweets, and 350k engagements.
Hair Nah has been displayed in the Tate Modern, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Museum of African Diaspora, MassArt Museum; it is featured in various books and publications and is currently being taught in a multitude of curriculums and after school programs around the globe.
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Hair Nah continues to teach and educate through play and design.
Hair NahArcade
In October 2021, The Hair Nah arcade was released, built by Momo Pixel and DDBA.
Click the Hair Nah Arcade tab for more information.
