UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Adanna Nedd, a 2021 graduate of the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has loved video games since childhood. Now, she has turned that passion into a career and is helping to redefine what gaming looks like for people who look like her.
Nedd attended the College of IST on a Millennium Scholars Program scholarship, which assists underrepresented students in joining STEM fields. She majored in information sciences and technology and minored in English.
“I chose the College of IST because I love video games and I love using computers,” said Nedd, whose first console was a Game Boy Advance. “I took advantage of the co-curricular activities like WIRED IN that supported diverse students. Those resources helped me, and they taught me to support others.”
As an IST student, she completed a research fellowship through the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3) program on how diverse players represent themselves in online games. In 2018 and 2019, she shared her findings at iConference, an international gathering of scholars and researchers with common concerns about critical information issues in contemporary society, according to the organization’s website.
“I found that players of color would spend more money to look like their real-life selves in a virtual world,” she said.
Nedd set out to develop games that better represented gamers from all backgrounds. Since graduating from Penn State, she has worked as an independent game writer and narrative designer. She is active on the video game circuit and has spoken at multiple conferences, including PAX West, MAGFest, DREAMcon and the Games Devs of Color Expo. She will present research on representation in games at the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2025), which will take place March 17-21 in San Francisco.
“Being a Black woman in the games industry hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been lucky to find amazing support from my peers,” Nedd said. “Games organizations like Black in Gaming and Black Girl Games have offered a safe space for me, especially because Black game developers compose less than 6% of the game development space. But we’ve always been involved in games — one of the first game consoles was developed by a Black man, Jerry Lawson.”
Nedd said she pays it forward by speaking at conferences, creating resources and mentoring other women of color on games writing and narrative design. She collaborates with the Black in Gaming Foundation on panels, showcases and meetups to help Black developers amplify their games to players of all backgrounds.
Nedd has worked on games such as KISS U and Recommendation Dog and has been nominated for a Black in Gaming Independent Development Award. Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To, a game she’s worked on since 2021, was released in February. She has also written for games magazines like A Profound Waste of Time.
“Even though I’ve struggled with confronting racial bias within this field, Black people have always been involved in the game development space,” Nedd said. “Some may believe otherwise, there was and always will be a space for diverse stories within games.”