Cozy game, cozy gaming, pixel artist, commission art, Bozar Museum, Art Director Momo Pixel. Black women gaming, black woman art. Jerry Lawson, Jerry Lawson Google Doodle, Game designer, Black girl gamer,
The Ask:
Create a video game art piece for the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts for their 2026 exhibition exploring how artists depict and challenge established norms of who is considered beautiful.
PARTICIPATING ROLES
Momoland Studios:
Art Director, Game Designer, Writer, Animator, Producer:
Momo Pixel
Music
Lyrics, Melody, Vocals: Momo Pixel
Producer: Aubrey Adams
Sockstudios:
Development - Jhay Pace
The Story:
After years of being bullied for her skin tone and features, Neketa goes mute. Never speaking, interacting with others with her only solace being her grandmother’s house until Yaya passes away.
With a broken heart Neketa goes on a journey of self-love and discovery to find Yaya’s gift.
The Intention:
I wanted to make a game that pulled at the parallels of the beauty of Black people and Nature. It has often been a running thought in my head that "the trees and I are the same hues."
I'd marvel at my skin tone while within my surroundings, hands out, arms wide. The deep browns blending and swimming together as they shimmered in the sunlight. It's always been an odd juxtaposition to me that many people who claim to love nature don't love nature's people. Instead they mock us and call us unnatural. Yet our hair grows upwards as plants do. Our skin is the color of soil and earth's color palette. I love how rich and brown my skin is. I love how the Earth and trees look.
When the Bozar Centre of Fine Arts approached me with this opportunity to create a video game as an art piece for their 2026 exhibition Picture Perfect, I became excited at the thought with their theme exploring how artists depict and challenge established norms of who is considered beautiful. It felt like a fluid thread to be able to discuss how Black women are often considered othered beauty while being nature's natural beauty. How can one marvel at mahogany wood and not mahogany people. I wanted to speak life and encouragement to Black women.
March 7th - August 16th
Bozar - Brussels, Belgium
The Process:
With only 3 and a half months to create the game, I quickly honed in working on the story.
Yaya came as inspiration from my community and personal life experiences. Having been in the presence of people like Phylicia Rashad, who speaks as if butter was bread and listening to esteemed humans such
as Maya Angelou. I wanted to create a figure that could slightly embody them.
Growing up my godfather's house was a safe haven for me. His backyard was like a forest often filled with various animals like cardinals and chipmunks. I'd crack walnuts in the living room while he read the newspaper. I aimed to invoke that feeling I had as a youth with the backgrounds and tones of this game.
Once the story was complete my feet hit the ground running with designing. I used visual inspirations such as Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and Howl's Moving Castle as my north stars for this cozy runner game. Short timelines require delegating tasks to the team as I go, so I'm thankful to the dev, Jhay for being able to do this in 50 days and to my wonderful composer Aubrey for always making the process so simple.
The Music:
I wrote Yaya's Gift as a rally cry for those moments in life when you're a bit lost and alone. When all you have is the strength of yourself and you're looking for a glimmer of hope, an outstretched hand to help. Sometimes all you can do is cry out, thus "Hey Yaya".
The Showcase:
Yaya's Gift is currently exhibiting in Brussels, Belgium at the Bozar Centre of Fine Arts from March 7th - August 16th as part of the Picture Perfect exhibition.
To learn more on how you can play the game in person please visit here.
After Show
The game will be released world wide following the closing of "Picture Perfect". If you would like to inquire more, please reach out to 📧 info@momopixel.com