This Is Why Indie Games Are The Future
Examining how indie games challenge hegemony and build a more LGBTQ-inclusive gaming future.
The mounting popularity of video games as a form of entertainment has led to fairly young children hooked to their parent’s phones, tapping away at their screens past anything resembling a decent bedtime.
These children spent all of their formative years at least interacting with these games, if not consistently engaged in them. Constant exposure to male-dominated, predominantly white and heteronormative games in the developmental years of their lives leads children to believe that straight white men fight evil and save the world.
These children grow up to take courses in humanities or come across literary and visual content that plays its part in highlighting power structures and the global hegemony. This is when a child truly learns about hierarchical frameworks set to benefit certain privileged groups. While all this enlightenment definitely assists in evolving the child’s worldview, the norm has already been set for them years ago. Straight white men at the top of the pyramid is the norm for these misguided individuals and believing an alternate reality involves an arduous process of unlearning and relearning not everybody is interested to be a part of.
Of course, there are exceptions. Not every child is so heavily influenced, not every game that they might have played would’ve been biased and not every child would’ve grown up on video games. However, if and as long as there’s a huge part of the world’s population that does fall in the trap of playing such one-perspective games, then why not consider and push diverse-perspective games for the upcoming generations?
Fortunately, indie games have taken it upon themselves to finally do the job. In an attempt to defy the status quo and bring about diversity in mainstream media, some indie developers have come up with brilliant video games featuring LGBTQ+ relationships, people of color, and female protagonists.
An example of a diverse game pushing the boundaries is the spine-chilling romance game, Monsterhearts.
Set in a supernatural high school, the title involves playing as monsters attempting to find partners. Primed especially for queer relationships, anyone in the game can form a relationship with anyone regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. Avery Mcdaldno’s attempt at birthing a queer-friendly game is a big step against heteronormativity and male-female relationships being the norm in games.
The same creator also wrote Dream Askew, another politically aware game that revolves around creating and maintaining a queer community during the apocalypse. “We queers were always living in the margins of that society, finding solidarity, love, and meaning in the strangest of places”, says Mcdaldno. Dream Askey gives us fierce queer love exploring the story of a queer enclave amid the collapse of civilization. “We banded together to form a queer enclave — a place to live, sleep, and hopefully heal. More than ever before, each of us is responsible for the survival and fate of our community.” Living in a world where people belonging to the LGBTQ+ spectrum find themselves significantly marginalized, this extremely thoughtful game can be a source of solace and hope for them.
Another example of an indie video game doing its best to instill the essential concepts of patriarchy, misogyny and the LGBTQ+ spectrum is Analogue: A Hate Story.
The title is a decision-based visual novel with a brilliant concept. A futuristic spaceship society has gone into complete darkness because of the sheer amount of misogyny and patriarchy it fell into the hands of. Analogue attempts to explore the mystery of what happened to the spaceship while dealing with interpersonal relationships, traditional marriages and transhumanism. Christine Love, the writer of this wonderful novel, has done a brilliant job at incorporating an issue as heavy and grave as patriarchy in a video game.
With all that being said, it must not be forgotten that mainstream commercial games are slowly but surely getting better. They may still have a long way to go but credit should be given where it’s due. Assassin’s Creed is a prime example of a non-indie game incorporating the LGBTQ+ community as its main characters. All in all, it is safe to say that commercial games are gradually making the effort to be more inclusive but indie games are certainly leading the movement.
