Tony Thornton wrote the story behind We Are Chicago.
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How a 62-year-old black man gave cred to the story of the We Are Chicago video game

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 14 min

Tony Thornton grew up in the tough streets of Chicago. He knows how you have to make the right choices to survive in neighborhoods that are plagued by gang violence. And he wants to convey that story to a new generation of video game players with We Are Chicago.

After four years in development, We Are Chicago debuts today on Steam on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It was developed by Culture Shock Games, a team of diverse backgrounds in Chicago, headed by Michael Block, who financed the project with money he made from an earlier game. Thornton, 62, served as the writer, and he gave the game its credibility and authenticity.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.