Dustborn: “No one forced us to make a game with a diverse cast”

A video game set in a divided America with a diverse cast of characters was always likely to ruffle feathers.

But Dominique Tipper likes a challenge.

The actress is best known for her work on The Expanse, the hit sci-fi show that ran for six seasons on the US network SyFy.

She was recently in New York performing in a production of Grenfell: A Survivor’s Story.

Her next project is Dustborn, a comic book-inspired video game set in a dystopian USA ruled by an authoritarian force known as Justice.

Dominique voices Pax, the leader of a group of “anomalies” – people able to manipulate words with superpower-style abilities.

Tasked with transporting a stolen package and posing as a punk band, the heroes embark on a road trip across North America on the run from justice and the landowners.

Dominique describes the group as Pax’s “found family” and says “as the game goes on, you develop relationships with them”.

“I think he’s also on a journey to create a better life for himself and also find out who he is,” Dominique says.

“He’s a pretty wonderful, flawed character.

Previews of Dustborn have praised its cartoony visuals and gameplay that blends several different genres.

The characters are at the core of the game, and its diverse main cast has attracted a fair amount of attention.

It includes Pax’s lover Noam, who uses gender neutral pronouns, Muslim Sai, and Pax’s younger sister Ziggy, who deals with anxiety and hyperactivity.

When Dustborn was first revealed, it was met with some negative feedback from those who believe that developers are under pressure to make their games more diverse.

Ragnar Tørnquist, creative director of developer Red Thread Games, insists that’s not the case.

“I think publishers and developers just understand more that there’s a wider and more diverse audience,” he says.

“Games are becoming more global, games are becoming more accessible to everyone.

“And that means the audience is changing.

Ragnar says he understands why people might shy away, “especially if you’re the type of gamer who’s used to seeing yourself on screen.”

But he says there’s room for games that feature casts, stories and perspectives we’re less used to.

“We’re making a play right now that will hopefully find an audience.

“Maybe it’s a different audience, and I think we can afford to be different,” he says.

Dominique says she is not a fan of the “buzzwords and buzz phrases” associated with representation, but that there is some truth behind them.

“I think there’s nothing like seeing yourself on screen or in a game if you’ve never seen it before,” he says.

Dominique says she was drawn to Dustborn because the characters were “multi-layered,” and Ragnar says the developers wanted to “create a cast that felt like a representation of the world as it is today.”

He admits that his Norway-based team is mostly made up of people who look like him.

So, as Ragnar says, they “hit the cast” and found writers “who are more representative of the characters in the game.”

“We think it’s more interesting, it’s the right thing to do,” he says.

“And I think the stories that come out of that are also more original, more interesting.”

From her experience working in various industries, Dominique feels that there are deep-rooted issues that fuel negative reactions that will not be resolved overnight.

“I think we can continue to make art that combats that,” he says.

“Because it can change people’s attitudes on a social level.

“And I think that can then filter out changes to things at the system level.”

Ragnar says he’d like to see more support for developers from underrepresented backgrounds “to really see a change in the stories that games can tell.”

“I think if you embrace it, both from the development side and the player side, it can be groundbreaking,” he says.

“I think we’re just at the beginning of letting games push boundaries, whether they’re cultural, political or social. We’re just being able to see the world from different perspectives.”

Ragnar admits that Dustborn may not be a hit with everyone who plays it.

“I mean, that’s fine. It’s just an emotional response. That’s what I really care about, whether it’s positive or critical,” he says.

“It’s fine as far as an emotional response, as long as this game had an impact and meant something to people.