How Diversity and Inclusion Shaping Our Development Process
Here at Project Beanstalk, we are a group of diverse creatives seeking to build equity in the video game space for marginalized communities. But what does that mean? In short, it means creating spaces for all to not only have a seat at the table and have an active role in the various discussions being had.
As we wrap up Black History Month and go into Women’s History Month, we think it’s important to reaffirm our stance on adding diverse voices to the games industry and highlighting what we are doing in our development approach to bridge the gap.
This is our three-pronged approach to adding our mark to advancing diversity and inclusion in the gaming space.
Research and Development
- We not only want to create fun experiences through games, but add social learning elements to encourage relatable, socially consensus design. One of the ways we approach design is to take learned experiences and personal growth from our diverse teams to show unique perspectives. We hope our experiences can help shape positive interactions for others.
We also seek to better our understanding of issues tackled in our games. We provide personal training opportunities to our team and do through research on a variety of issues, like mental health and the historical context of marginalized communities. The combination of these aspects of research provide accurate representations of relatable experiences for our players.
Game Development
- Our medium of video games to portray storytelling only continues to rise year over year. In response to that, we have a responsibility to provide diverse perspectives as an option for players. That is where the role of indie studios like Project Beanstalk play a role. We want to use our games and platform to better educate people on the challenges various communities face.
Our current game, Heart 2 Heart seeks to explore the role of empathy in our daily lives. One’s ability to give and accept empathy can have a dramatic impact on our mental health and the mental health of those around use. The collective experiences of our team and research done to better understand the link between empathy and mental health has shaped our development to create an engaging and heartfelt experience.
Diversity Advocacy
- We want to do more than just make games. We want to be advocates in the space to highlight the importance of representation in the games industry as a whole. Our founder, Isaiah Johnson, has partnered with a multitude of game incubators and investors in the games space to learn and educate on why representation matters. In addition to opening opportunities for the Project Beanstalk team to do the same, he is pushing to do more through speaking engagements at schools, panels, companies, or workshops.
We think we’re off to a great start and hope you join us in working hard towards parity in the industry. If you would like to know more, you can follow up with us through our various social media below. For more info on Project Beanstalk, check out our website: https://projectbeanstalk.xyz/about-us/.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProjBeanstalk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projbeanstalk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-beanstalk
Discord: https://discord.gg/vAG7hTr
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