Humble Games has chosen 2021 recipients of the Black $ 1 million game developer fund. This will be the second year of running funds, and humble shows no signs of slowing.
But what is all that? We sat with simple games employees and BGDF advisors to find out, but first of all, let’s go a little low background and why the funds were founded in the first place.
Simple game
Humble bundle issuance arm was made in 2017 to support indie developers and officially renamed to miss in May 2020. Led by the guiding principle to influence social change, humble bundles since it works to ensure it remains a good power, continues to increase , Sounds through humble bundles, humble games, and black game developer funds.
Humble Bundles, founded in 2010, are online stores that sell software, games, and other digital content. When you buy a humble bundle, some of your money goes to the charity. So far, humble has caused nearly $ 200 million.
Black game developer funds
The Black Game Developer Fund was made in response to the Black Life Material Movement, which, although not borne from this tragic event, grew momentum throughout the world after the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Bronna Taylor. These events tremble humble, because he did the rest of the world, and encouraged a broader discussion about the deciding of colored skin people in various industries.
“It’s amazing that humble it is uniquely and really interested in helping this cause,” said Justin Woodward, BGDF advisor and co-creator from the mix and black voice in playing games. “I’ve talked to Google, I talked to Xbox … I have talked to all these people, and a number of them really, are very supportive. Then some of them don’t support. It’s very satisfying to talk to Eduardo [Aparicio, Director of Humble Games] and John [Polson, portfolio of publishing director in the Humble game], which is like, yes, we will do this … the best way. “
Where many game companies and organizations have not lived until the promises they make last year, humble are among those who have. And what ways are better to be included from different communities than including the community members? Having advisors such as Justin and Sithe Ncube – Pro Game Industry based in Africa – do that.
Humble VP Bundles Social Impact and Internal Communication Kamini Tiwari said, “At humble, we always believe in empowering and uniting the community through the game and for good purposes. And, launching funds – that’s part of our efforts to help achieve racial equity where -Where. “
Million Dollar funds support indie black developers by providing production, support with marketing, publishing and, of course, money to fund their work. The funds are unique because it includes black diasporas, and black people from all over the world – Africa, the Caribbean, not only Europe and the US – eligible to file funds.
“I come from Zambia,” Sithe said, “Although I live in South Africa. But back in 2013, I started the game development community there. Since then, I have been involved in the scene of the development of African games. People [here] Does not have access to money for development, or support, you know, in terms of publication, and also expertise. There is only one country that has a school for game development. Even [for] people who have resources, it is difficult to unite the team and Really issue something high quality. “
Some of the unique problems faced by African developers including regular access to electricity. One BGDF receiver uses funds to buy a generator.
“They have a lot of power outages,” Sithe said, “and they could not run their studio efficiently. The challenge even dropped into electricity to support the studio. One thing I really appreciate is humble to open funds globally.”