stfuconservatives:

face-down-asgard-up:

I wanna talk about the Arkh project.

You may or may not know what the Arkh project is. Read more about it here.

There has been a lot of discussion about this project and it’s mainly centered around whether or not the minds behind Arkh are “doing a good job” or “doing the job right”. A lot of people seem shocked or concerned that Arkh does not yet have a technical team or a design doc.

I work in the video game industry. I’ve seen the entire development process from beginning to release. Now, what people need to understand is that Arkh is in its infancy. Not even infancy, it’s still in utero. It’s in the concept phase. Right now, the minds behind Arkh are conceptualizing the characters, the story, the look, the mood, etc. of the game.

The concept phase can take several months or several years, depending on the game. For an ambitious project such as Arkh I don’t find it unusual that after only a couple of months that not much in terms of UI design or technical development has been done. In fact, I think it’s pretty normal for a project at this stage to be mostly art, images, idea, and loose snippets of plot and character creation.

We also have to take into account that Arkh has no big developers backing it up. This isn’t BioWare, Bethesda, Blizzard, EA, or Rock Star. This is a handful of people who want to see what they can do with their ideas and also see if there are others like them who want their ideas to succeed. The people behind Arkh are not professionals. This why they need donations so they can hire professionals ( like artists ) to help them get through the concept phase.

People who claim to support Arkh, yet say that they are upset over the lack of design docs or tech staff need to chill. People who are telling others not to donate to Arkh because of these things need to stop.

Even if Arkh never reaches its goal to become the first video game centered around queer and POC characters, it’s still an important project to support and keep an eye on. Because if Arkh doesn’t become a video game, at least Arkh will be a stepping stone for those of us who want to see more equal and positive representation of POC and the queer community in video games. We have already seen that lots of people want something like Arkh in the industry. We have seen that there is a demand for what the minds behind Arkh are trying to achieve.

How can you help Arkh? Promote it! Post about it on game forums, facebook, youtube. Talk about it with your gaming buddies or people you know in the industry. Write to developers and tell them how a game like Arkh would be something you would gladly pay for.

How can you hurt Arkh? Demand that the creative minds behind the project meet standards that even big name studios have trouble meeting with some of their game ideas. The honest truth is that most ideas never make it to market. But, even when a game idea fails, there are always ideas and new things that are learned and added into the next game that succeeds.

Helpful and constructive criticism is a must for the process. However, try to remember that Arkh has just begun. The development process takes years. Do not panic because you are only seeing concept art right now. That’s normal. Be encouraging, be helpful, and be patient.

^ Agreed 100%. Today, Tim Schaefer raised more than $1,000,000 to independently develop a game. Their Kickstarter page didn’t have a design document or a list of the programmers they’d already hired or any of the high-level stuff people are demanding from Arkh. They have some concept art and an idea of the gameplay. And they have more than a million bucks to develop it from there.

Obviously, there are differences between Arkh and Tim Schaefer. He has his own video game production company. He’s made games before. But I don’t see any of the people who are sooooooo concerned about The Arkh Project complaining that he hasn’t formally presented a fleshed-out design document.

One person accused the people behind the Arkh Project (which does not include me, I have nothing to do with it) of basically committing extortion by asking for money without having more stuff in place. That is so unbelievable to me. And so narrow-minded as to why people donate to things like this in the first place.

What’s the worst case scenario for Arkh at this point? That the game won’t get made? OK, but here’s what donors already get:

• Beautiful concept art
• Knowing that they’re helping to promote the idea that POC and queer people deserve to be featured in games
• Fighting the idea that only mega-corporations can create entertainment

I think a lot of people have issues with Riley and with the fact that Arkh is explicitly trying to hire POC and queer people. To which I say: STFU. Sit down and let them try. If we kill it now with nitpicking, the people who’ve already donated will definitely never see a return on their investment. Let Arkh be great. If you have constructive criticism of their process, great, let them know! And if you don’t, shut the fuck up.

-Jess