In The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Bonnie Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video game developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games. Speaking with insight and candor about their creative practices as well as their politics and passions, these influential and innovative game makers tell stories about their lives and inspirations, the challenges they face, and the ways they understand their places within the wider terrain of video game culture. Their insights go beyond typical conversations about LGBTQ representation in video games or how to improve "diversity" in digital media. Instead, they explore queer game-making practices, the politics of queer independent video games, how queerness can be expressed as an aesthetic practice, the influence of feminist art on their work, and the future of queer video games and technology. These engaging conversations offer a portrait of an influential community that is subverting and redefining the medium of video games by placing queerness front and center.
Interviewees:
Ryan Rose Aceae, Avery Alder, Jimmy Andrews, Santo Aveiro-Ojeda, Aevee Bee, Tonia B******, Mattie Brice, Nicky Case, Naomi Clark, Mo Cohen, Heather Flowers, Nina Freeman, Jerome Hagen, Kat Jones, Jess Marcotte, Andi McClure, Llaura McGee, Seanna Musgrave, Liz Ryerson, Elizabeth Sampat, Loren Schmidt, Sarah Schoemann, Dietrich Squinkifer, Kara Stone, Emilia Yang, Robert Yang
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Reimagining the Medium of Video Games 1
Part I. Queer People, Queer Desires, Queer Games
1. Dietrich Squinkifer: Nonbinary Characters, Asexuality, and Game Design as Joyful Resistance 33
2. Robert Yang: The Politics and Pleasures of Representing Sex between Men 42
3. Aevee Bee: On Designing for Queer Players and Remaking Autobiographical Truth 51
Part II. Queerness as a Mode of Game-Making
4. Llaura McGee: Leaving Space for Messiness, Complexity, and Chance 63
5. Andi McClure: Algorithms, Accidents, and the Queerness of Abstraction 73
6. Liz Ryerson: Resisting Empathy and Rewriting the Rules of Game Design 81
Part III. Designing Queer Intimacy in Games
7. Jimmy Andrews + Loren Schmidt: Queer Body Physics, Awkwardness as Emotional Realism, and the Challenge of Designing Consent 93
8. Naomi Clark: Disrupting Norms and Critiquing Systems through "Good, Nice Sex with a Tentacle Monster" 102
9. Elizabeth Sampat: Safe Spaces for Queerness and Games against Suffering 113
Part IV. The Legacy of Feminist Performance Art in Queer Games
10. Kara Stone: Softness, Strength, and Danger in Games about Mental Health and Healing 125
11. Mattie Brice: Radical Play through Vulnerability 134
12. Seanna Musgrave: "Touchy-Feely" Virtual Reality and Reclaiming the Trans Body 143
Part V. Intersectional Perspectives in/on Queer Games
13. Tonia B****** + Emilia Yang: Making Games about Queer Women of Color by Queer Women of Color 153
14. Nicky Case: Playable Politics and Interactivity for Understanding 162
15. Nina Freeman: More Than Just "the Women Who Make Sex Games" 171
Part VI. Analog Games: Exploreing Queerness Through Non-Digital Play
16. Avery Alder: Queer Storytelling and the Mechanics of Desire 183
17. Kat Jones: Bisexuality, Latina Identity, and the Power of Physical Presence 192
Part VII. Making Queer Games, Queer Change, and Queer Community
18. Mo Cohen: On Self-Care, Funding, and Other Advice for Aspiring Queer Indie Game Makers 205
19. Jerome Hagan: Are Queer Games Bringing "Diversity" to Mainstream Industry? 215
20. Sarah Schoemann: The Power of Community Organizing 223
Afterword. The Future of the Queer Games Avant-Garde 233
Appendix. Queer Indie Games to Play at Home or in the Classroom 245
Notes 257
Bibliography 265
Index 271
