I think it was in late December that I learned about The Arkh Project. For those who haven’t Tumbl’d across it yet, here is a fast summary of the concept: because video game developers cannot be counted on to represent them fairly (if at all), a small group of queer persons of color decided to make a game themselves. I was excited at first. Arkh represented a step towards increasing diversity in games and a chance for me to watch a game develop from the ground up! As I have a stake in diversity issues and no clue how development works, Arkh was of interest to me.
Megan Myrick writes: "People who backed the project reportedly did not receive their rewards. Plans for the game were apparently cancelled. It was widely believed to have been a scam, though the creator refuted that claim. The creator also later said that Arkh was never made into a game because it was never meant to be a game, just an exercise in character development and concept art. The Arkh Project tumblr page begs to differ."
NoobFeed's Aaron Kinney interviews The Arkh Project's Jes Richards about the upcoming indie role-playing game, which emphasizes issues surrounding ethnicity and gender identity.