We continue Black People in Gaming month with a brief appreciation post for Muriel Tramis, the first black female game developer! But to simply call her that is a disservice to what can only be called an extraordinary career for an extraordinary game developer...
Muriel Tramis was born on the island of Martinique in the year 1958. After finishing her education, she began a career in engineering in France. She got her start at Aerospatiale, a French company that built aerial vehicles. Muriel's job was to optimize maintenance procedures for the unmanned aerial vehicles that would typically be used for missile tests. She did this for five years, until she left for a new job at a French gaming company called Coktel Vision.
Joining in the year 1986, Muriel's time in the company was, in her own words, "fulfilling." An understatement, as Muriel Tramis had no small part in helping to create the company's most famous, best selling games. One of the most famous is the game series Gobliiins, which sold over a million copies overall, and whose first game has managed to score a 5/5 from Dragon magazine. Considering the series was (mostly) a collection of puzzle games for the PC, that's nothing to sneeze at.
Although Gobliiins proved to be a fun puzzle game, Tramis' bread and butter was actually games with STRONG narratives. One of her first was Mewilo, a point-and-click adventure mystery game that takes place in the island of Martinique.
But what discussion of Muriel Tramis is complete without AT LEAST a brief mention of her most thought provoking, daring game yet? Freedom is a game that depicts the brave attempts of four slaves to start a rebellion against their plantation masters. The game is... hold on...
Look, we HAVE to be frank here. Stories of slaves aren't easy to digest. Since Uncle Tom's Cabin, anti-slavery literature has always been hard hitting and unapologetic, even when the aim of the work was to humanize and educate the audience on how horrible slavery is. Yes, IS; we still have slavery practiced in some sections of the world to this day, but that's not a discussion for this blog.
It's not unusual for some anti-slavery works to include a White Savior, for the sake of being more palatable to the White audience. Sometimes this is done for "historical accuracy," because there actually were a lot of white people who not only opposed slavery, they actively fought to dismantle that horrible institution. But Freedom is a game that flips the bird to the concept of White Savior, and unashamedly depicts slavery for what it really is: barbarism.
Freedom pulls no punches, and actively says "fuck your comfort;" you are playing the role of slaves trying to rebel. Talking things out, peaceful resolutions? Those are OFF the table, and they've been off the table from Day 1. You're fighting for your FREEDOM, dammit! And you're fighting to wrest it from the people who don't even see you as a person!
With this game, Muriel Tramis created one of the most jaw droppingly, unapologetically brutal pieces of anti-slavery media of the 20th century. Why did she create the game, though? Because it's too easy to forget just how awful slavery really is, and it's all too easier to just sweep it under the rug and pretend like it wasn't that big of a deal. But overall, it wasn't that long ago that slavery "ended" in the Americas; the last country to ban slavery in the Americas was Brazil, in the 1880's. That's one hundred and forty years ago, as of this writing. It may sound like a long time ago, but in the grand scheme of things, it's NOTHING.
We remember slavery and its effects, most of all, because we're still reeling from its effects. TWO continent's histories have been affected by slavery and its trade, after all! There can never be enough stories of slaves being mistreated, because for every one story that survives and gets told, there's hundreds that don't because they've been forgotten.
Well, back on topic, Muriel Tramis isn't just the first black female game developer, she's one of the fiercest, most thought provoking developers there is. She is someone who truly believes in the power of change, and in the video game as a medium for telling stories. As a fan of video games, I agree with her one hundred percent.
Muriel Tramis: the woman on fire!
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