BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Can You Make It in Issa Rae’s L.A.?
Insecure: The Come Up Game
Create raps / Design your life
Despite being faced with the daunting task of turning one of TV’s hottest shows into a must-play game, Latoya Peterson was anything but insecure.
A few years ago, the journalist-turned-technologist found herself pitching Issa Rae on a mobile game based on Rae’s hit HBO Original Series, Insecure. Peterson, cofounder of Glow Up Games, could relate to a show about smart, ambitious strivers looking to make their mark in the world.
And Rae? “The idea of Insecure as a videogame never crossed my mind,” she says, but Peterson and her team, along with “the thought of immortalizing Issa, Molly, and the gang in this medium,” really excited her. Peterson’s expertise—and passion—ultimately sealed the deal.
“What does it mean to be a young Black woman who doesn’t have everything figured out? Issa created a space for us to step into and explore that,” says Peterson. “We wanted to breathe life into the part of adulting that is very messy, that doesn’t make sense, that isn’t going according to plan.”
Insecure: The Come Up Game captures all the fun—and messiness—of living single in Los Angeles. As a newcomer to Issa’s bustling apartment complex, you’ll tag along as she and her friends hit the clubs, scope out new threads, and get caught up in awkward conversations. As Issa does on the show, you’ll also rap in front of the bathroom mirror, scoring “hype” points that unlock new areas of the game’s world—and keep the interpersonal drama moving.
“This is a homegirl’s game,” says Peterson of the story-driven adventure. “It’s powered on coffee and friendship and stress.”
Before becoming a game maker, Peterson was an editor at ESPN and had written for the New York Times, NPR, Jezebel, and other outlets. “My day job was reporting on stuff like Ferguson or ISIS,” she says, “but games were always something I felt like I could learn from.”
She founded Glow Up Games in 2019 with Mitu Khandaker, an award-winning game designer and scholar. The two bonded quickly: “There aren’t that many other women of color, especially brown-skinned girls, in games. We naturally gravitated toward each other.”
In Insecure: The Come Up Game, there are plenty of opportunities to interact with Issa, who serves as a sort of mentor/pal, helping you navigate a vibrant Los Angeles social scene. Because there are multiple characters to hang with (and text), the Glow Up crew embraced the chance to depict a myriad of Black voices.
“There isn’t a rule book,” Peterson says of writing Black characters. “My blackness is not someone else’s blackness. We all have extremely different Black experiences: The way we talk, the way we identify, all those things are totally different. In general, the games industry likes to collapse the Black experience into one thing.”
During development, the team explored every aspect of the Black experience to ensure it felt authentic—right down to the characters’ slang.
“There’s not a commonly accepted definition of a lot of stuff,” says Peterson. “For example, what is the correct spelling of ‘guap’ [slang for a lot of cash]? It depends on your region: Are you a Big Sean fan? It’s G-U-A-P. Are you from Texas? Then it’s G-W-O-P.”
Like the show that inspired it, the game’s characters feel immediately relatable—and carry the original’s inspirational, you-got-this message.
“It’s important to us to make a road for the next generation,” says Peterson. “Mitu and I grew up as little brown girls playing games, and we never saw ourselves onscreen. That’s what we’re here for. We are committed to changing the industry from the ground up.”
All five seasons of Issa Rae’s Insecure are available to stream on HBO Max.