LunarGame
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Help wanted: Writers
🕑 Added 2020-06-21 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
I am looking for a black writer and a Jewish writer to help me with the game.
I know that sounds awfully strange, so please let me explain.
One of the reasons I have been slow to update lately is I got a little stuck with a difficult problem. You see, some close collaborators identified a massive blind spot of mine which means the writing in the story needs to change in a big way. In particular, I need help with addressing race in the story.
"Why bring up race in a video game?" I hear you ask. Well, all art is political and all games are art, therefore all games are political or at least assume a political context.
In Lunar, there's a lot of background social commentary inter-weaved in the story, The story touches on two very difficult topics: race and religion. One of the ways that comes through is in the characters of Black (coded black) and Green (coded Jewish).
An alternative would be to cut these characters out of the story or try remove race commentary from the game entirely.... but I think that's dishonest. Race is a thing and it's in the story, trying to pretend it isn't is just a special kind of white-washing which goes against what the story is trying to do.
You could accuse me of "virtue signalling" or what have you but I don't see it that way. My genuine interest is to create a story that people will love and that will give people an actual experience. If I want people to have a real emotional experience, the story needs to be real and authentic. Not realistic (it's a fanciful story about colourful animals of course), but "real" as in grounded in a way that people can actually have an emotional response to.
Black is a black house cat, he is coded as a black character, partly because of the way in which cats are coded in general in the game and partly likely some sub-conscious bias on my part. He is written poorly at the moment, and even if I thought I could write him perfectly well, I think it would be inappropriate of me to try. I'm a white guy born in South Africa. I understand race from one perspective but I can't represent a black voice, not for all the good will in the world.
Green is a green lynx, when I started writing him I didn't intend him to be Jewish, but I wanted him to have a big issue with religion. Over time and through development of his story, I have come to realise that he's pretty much coded Jewish. Green is written somewhat better than Black, he's less one-dimensional, probably because he is as close to a self-insert as it gets in the game.
Anyway, I am looking for a black writer and a Jewish writer to help out.
- I will pay you (please let me know a rate per word).
- You don't have to be a furry, but that will probably help.
- The game is 18+ with NSFW furry content
- The game is mostly very gay, so if that is an issue this is not for you
- You will need to be the kind of person who likes to write stories of course
- I have to be absolutely firm that I need a black person and a Jewish person. This is because I don't think anyone who has not lived that experience can write that story authentically.
Please contact me for more information.
Comments
II just wanted to say that I have a writer who has offered to join me and help with these characters. I can't promise we will get it right the first time, but I feel a lot more confident having a POC involved.
