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Humble Bundle's Black Game Developer Fund is live. The $1m annual program is aimed at helping Black developers without publishers to fund their games. Here's where you can submit your project for funding by the Humble Games initiative.
There's only one rule for applicants to consider before submitting: studios need to be "at least 50% owned and operated by people (or a person) of African origin living inside or outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality." Otherwise, there aren't any restrictions on the type of game or platform a studio is submitting.
The $1m number can actually go up or down depending on how many applications are submitted, Humble Games says. "Funds are allocated based on the individual needs of the project and its projected success upon launch," reads a portion of the FAQ page. Accordingly, the program is offering support for developers in a number of ways, including publishing games, funding studios to self-publish, and funding prototypes for pitches.
You might be wondering who at Humble Games is making the decisions to fund or not fund a project, and it's a fair question to ask. The company says they're in the process of recruiting a "panel of advisors from the Black game developer community" to assist with "finding potential talent and provide feedback on submissions for the fund." Humble says more details on that to come.
As always, we'll keep you updated as we learn more, but for now this seems like a solid way for a company to express their support for the community of Black developers and use their pockets to put their money where their mouth is.
