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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

The Problems of Racism in Indie Gaming

Arjun Prakash, one of the co-founders of local indie game collective, Glitch City, variously mentioned on this site, isn't happy. The release of Sonic Movie Maker, a new game, is missing his name and he alleges that he played a big role in it's development, including five months of his time. Arjun says this isn't anything new for him and cites on another game company not giving him credit. Arjun has also expressed great dismay at supposed racism that has taken place within the Glitch City community and his experiences in gaming in general.

Here's a bit of what he wrote about the supposed racism. It was taken down from Glitch City's Facebook and a link to it was left in it's place.

"Let us not deny that people of color at Glitch City are treated a second class citizens, only to be used as tokens when this industry needs to show they want to show they are not racist. We are surrounded by opportunities at Glitch City, but that opportunity is only extended to the privileged few. That privilege is only determined by the color of your skin and never the content of your work or even the schooling you have."

You can read all his thoughts about it in "Stealing the Work of People of Color and Racism at Glitch City, "on his pastebin page here

It's hard to hear of any real negativity around the group, especially racism as most posts on this site relate to fun video game related events the group holds.

Glitch City has a unrelated event happening Saturday

at 7:00pm - 1:00am
Aug 22 at 7:00pm to Aug 23 at 1:00am