The Arkh Project
thanks to a mouse at wank_report for the write-up
So, the Arkh Project is a game in development, made by queer POC and focusing on queer characters of color. True, they've been targeted by bigots, but that's only served to bring more attention to the project. All good, right?

Well... maybe not so much. For starters, they're ultimately trying to fundraise $100K-250K to make this game, which seems a bit... ambitious for crowd-sourcing. It gets iffier when you find out that none of the people involved seem to have actually completed a game and that they explicitly chose IndieGoGo because it wouldn't require them to refund the money if the project goes bust. To make things even worse, all they have so far is some concept art; there's no concept or design document, and they plan to farm out all the art, design, and programming to other people (as detailed on their IndieGoGo campaign). They do plan to release a design document by the end of the month, but that's about it for now.

To make things worse, there's evidence that one of the main people behind the project, dumbthingswhitepplsay, is gisei_nashi_ni:
see this chain of links: Sf_drama

plus they were the only genderqueer person working for Kinou Games, last seen being hounded off various LJ communities for being a hypocritical, abrasive jerk (greatest hits at sf_d, trigger warning for racism and rape ).

Anyway, I hate linking to tumblr, but some notable posts (+notes) include:
anti/criticism posts:
http://ardeb.tumblr.com/post/16890249680/okay-ive-been-wanting-to-make-this-post-for-a
http://ardeb.tumblr.com/post/17144475360/alright-this-is-a-more-in-depth-post-about-the
http://privilegedenyingdude.tumblr.com/post/16599011960/image-courtesy-of-a-commenter-on-themarysue-com

pro posts:
http://dumbthingswhitepplsay.tumblr.com/post/16892324535/bay-sick-all-lee
http://clitt-tastic.tumblr.com/post/17116402049/reasons-why-i-say-fuck-all-of-you-that-are-boycotting
http://alexandraerin.tumblr.com/post/17183434038/anybody-who-thinks-that-when-people-are-offering-to

You can also look at the tag though not everything is tagged, of course.

There is also a new post at SF_D, with highlights in the comment including links to gnn talking in other communities on lj about working on a game that clearly is The Arkh Project, and possible tracing of some of the character art that The Arkh Project has posted.

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coffee_mug
2012-02-11 12:13 am UTC (link)

Giving them the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assuming this isn't a down-and-out scam --

I'm puzzled as to why they don't start out small when they don't seem to have all that much experience in actually putting together a game. If you make a game on a smaller level, but one that's thought-through and awesome, you might get even more people excited for a bigger project, then you can work on that, and actually build up to that $100,000 game project.

I'm all for ambition but it hurts nobody to start out small. Simple game, simple platform, something manageable - and then you've got something to show for to attract more funding for the next project.

It's clear there's enthusiasm, both from people who want to support this and from the people who are making the game, so it'd work against everybody's interests for this thing to fail. A better plan and a smaller scale would probably help the game's chances of actually being made.

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