Stealing the Work of People of Color and Racism at Glitch Ci

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. If I where to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity” - Albert Einstein

Today a game was release by the Arcane Kids today by the name of Sonic Movie Maker. A project I had collaborated with [name withheld]. The game it self was a satirical take on the ability to shoot a porno with sonic and his friends. It was an inspiration I had from dealing with a childhood friend that had found their way into the adult film industry and found it a way to share my experiences.

The original prototype was created by me and eventually I had added [name withheld] to the project. In addition I had created a proprietary way to record video from inside of a game and export it, something that has never been done before. We had even shown it in a public setting at the YouTube space.

As time went on [name withheld] and I had added more content to the project and it grew. Eventually it was decided it would be added to the Arcanekids Sonic Dream Collections. The original repo on Github can be found here, where there is no denying of who created the project.

At this point is when I was quietly excluded from the project and denied access to a game I created. Fast-forward to today the game was release and the only person given zero credit was me. When asked why I was only told “It was never my project to begin with”. Over five months of my life was stolen from me and I will never have it back.

In end of the day this is nothing new and cant even say it was the first time. It is almost a repeat of when I had created Justifier guns for the Wild Rumpus party at GDC and all credit was denied.

Overall this is just an appropriation of the work of people of color, only to be stolen and re-purposed by white males who will always have more connections and the privilege to exploit whom ever they want. As time goes on, I am sure it will just be an after thought just like so many other people of color who where exploited, used and discarded throughout history.

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.

Repeatedly the people of color are even denied the basic treatment of being considered human-beings at Glitch City and the industry. Largely the community ignores and cant even associate with you if you are any bit different form the homogenized culture of this industry. All too often the founding members who are of color are excluded in any form of participation that is easily given as a right to any person who is white at Glitch City. This directly effects any opportunities we will ever have, it is a slow way of killing us and our families.

I am not under any false pretenses; I will be the loosing one in this being I am the minority in a world for “good ole boys”, but my story needs to be said and sometimes that is the voice people of color of will ever have.
Arjun Prakash - Glitch City Co-Founder