Picking Up the Pace

We’re about to restart a season of software development! As full-time training ends, we go back doing what we do: building software! The game project we’ve been developing for the past year now under the working title T3Matchine has been changed to The Oak Cookout for now. Still a working title, but one that speaks more to what this project is about: Oakland and its people.

This next phase of development focuses on Spades – the ancient card-playing tradition in many Black communities across the country! It’s a game where you and kinfolk sit ’round a plastic table, in plastic chairs, licking the barbecue sauce from your fingers as you settle in for a few hundred rounds of cards! Yeah …THAT game :)

The Oak is about Black people, our culture and our customs. It’s about good food and good company. It’s about the traditions we participate in without even knowing it. And just like the cookouts you may know, it’s raucous and hilarious! This Spades game isn’t about the cards – anyone can make a card game. It’s about the merits of roasting your favorite cousin, or being side-eyed by your aunt when you play poorly. It’s about that delicious fried chicken that put everyone in a good mood at the table!

The Oak is a love letter to Oakland and Black culture.

Right now we’re literally sketching out the ideas and prototyping gameplay, and we wanted to share some of those ideas with you.

Sketches by KingFlame

What you see currently on Itch is myself and the team prototyping ideas, but we’re working on having something you can test out by end of September. Stay tuned, subscribe or bookmark this to stay in the loop!