The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games

by Bonnie Ruberg

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

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Video Games, Gaming, Games, Queer Studies

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2020

Reviews

[Alex Niederberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Queer Games Avant-Garde is a lovely collection of bite-sized interviews with queer game creators. Ruberg's approach is to design questions that draw long responses while keeping them out of the spotlight. I usually prefer more conversational and active interviewers, but this was definitely the best choice for the project. Similarly, Ruberg's curation is interesting, grouping the interviews into sections bridged by little micro-essays. Continuity is more gestured at with various threads (empathy games, intersectionalism, queering mechanics, etc.) that emerge and submerge without becoming a central thesis. The author refuses to jam these interviews in a more traditional shape and simply lets the subjects speak for themselves, which feels honest to the subject at hand.

[Alex]

It's actually wild how a game called "Consentacle" exists and I had never heard about it before reading this book.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting. I'm not much of a gamer myself - although I have played occasionally - but I attended a conference on M.R. James and his ghost stories last year, and this ended up on the reading list. I can't remember how, as it's got nothing to do with James or ghost stories, for that matter, but I'm glad it did. I probably wouldn't have come across it otherwise.

The book consists of twenty interviews with different queer game-makers. This makes it very accessible to people who, like me, haven't read much about gaming and don't know anything about the history or culture of it. There's a wide variety of game-makers, too, from people who work independently or in established studios or in academia, for example, as well as numerous intersectionalities, which gives a wide spectrum of different approaches to queering game creation. I think the most interesting chapters for me were the one with Mattie Brice, who talked about food and video games, and the one with Seanna Musgrave, who talked about VR and an absolutely fascinating game of hers called Animal Massage, which contrasted interactions with animals in virtual reality with external tactile simulation - when the player saw birds, Musgrave would stroke them with a feather, for instance. That's the kind of weird shit that appeals to me, not gonna lie.

I was also interested to learn how much crossover there is between game creation, film studies, fine art, and performance art - which probably seems obvious to a lot of people but which never occurred to me. Apparently a number of the games discussed in the book have been exhibited in galleries or museums, which again... fascinating.

This is the first book about gaming that I think I've ever read. I hope the rest of them are this good.

[Jonathan Ehrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read! Interviews with queer people defining the cutting edge of games, up to and including my former manager and mentor Jerome Hagen. A lot of great discussion comes out of them - what does it mean to be a queer game? Can game mechanics be queer? What does it mean when queer ideas penetrate AAA and the mainstream but queer games themselves are still hard to find because they're only available on a few platforms?

Lots of food for thought all over the place, a great read and easy to pick up and put down in bite sized pieces.

[Vance Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book - I got I got the holidays last year. I really enjoyed the topics and perspectives touched on in this book, it just felt a bit like a slog at times because of my lack of familiarity with nonfiction, especially interview based work. But the games discussed here were SO interesting and exciting. I’ll definitely be checking them out and diving deeper into queer games.

[Ratatoskr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I am queer, I am not a gamer, and so this book opened up a whole fascinating world of which I was not previously cognizant and introduced me to lots of really interesting creators. Now I need to actually stick my toe in the water and play one or more of the 50+ games listed in an appendix.

[Audre · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a queer game creator, I always asked myself if I was enough to respect the people that opened this way before me. This book gave me the answer : there is not one normative way to create queer. I should do what I want to, and not trying to please anyone. This was a big reassurance and a huge inspiration to help me follow my path. And that what I will do

[Geneva or Styx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read and a pretty solid variety of developers are highlighted in this book. I do wish there were more nonwhite folks interviewed about, but nonetheless the interviews were great and made me feel inspired and a tiny bit hopeful about the games industries future just because of all the older game makers already there.

[Naseem · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must-read. My full review for Bitch Media here: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/qu...

[SJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book of mostly interviews with queer/LGBTQIA gamemakers

[pawel · Rating 4 out of 5]

besides an imperfect title, a pleasant book of interviews with game creators. got it for Liz Ryerson, stayed for literally everyone

[Suzanne Berget · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many games and game makers I haven't even heard of! Very educational :D

[Erick Sala · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent cross-section of queer game devs and their views on the games industry as a whole. As well as the impact of their works.