“I don't think games are just for ‘gamers’ anymore,” says D. Squinkifer, a.k.a Squinky, a new media artist and co-founder of the worker co-op game studio, Soft Chaos. It’s a future they foresee after 15 years of working in the video game industry. "I've seen a lot of video game-inspired aesthetics and ideas make their way into other forms of media, like film and TV, theatre, music, and literature, which really goes to show that games are just a part of culture now."
Squinky, who has worked as a game developer for various companies, found that making games on their own terms allowed them to tell more diverse stories and broaden the scope of their work to include art installations and interactive theatre. “I began to deliberately explore more personal themes in my work, becoming influenced by, and then becoming part of, a burgeoning queer games movement.”
Squinky leverages their experience as a trans, non-binary artist to create games that are rooted in storytelling. For Squinky, queer games do more than feature LGBTQ2IA+ characters, they introduce us to new ways of playing. Queer games tell stories in more interactive ways where the focus is less on winning and more on creating an emotionally resonant experience.
“I think that the increased accessibility of game development tools and corresponding growth of indie games, brings about more opportunity to deliberately design games with particular social impacts in mind, rather than simply reflect what corporate executives think will sell well to consumers.” They added.
In 2014, the International Game Developers Association (IDGA) launched a biannual Developer Satisfaction Survey for game developers worldwide. From 2014-2017, "advancement of game design" was chosen by respondents when asked what they considered to be the most important factor for the growth and success of the video game industry.
In the most recent IDGA survey conducted in 2019, "more diversity in game content" became the top response to that question for the first time. As the video game industry grows, so does the need for more diverse games and gaming experiences.
“The amount of non-straight white male protagonists in video games is starting to become more mainstream, which I find super exciting for our industry because we're getting more interesting stories outside of ‘burly dude saves weak woman,’” says Jesse Houston, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix Labs, a Vancouver-based video game studio.
In 2019, Phoenix Labs launched Dauntless a free-to-play, action role-playing video game where players team up as Slayers fighting to save humanity after a disastrous event known as the Upheaval tore the world apart and released Behemoths—gruesome creatures that prey on the surviving humans.
“I think that shared adventure is super powerful. The more we can have the video game industry build experiences that are about bringing people together to find joy as a group, the better,” Jesse says.
Dauntless which has grown into a community of over 25 million players worldwide was one of the first cross-play and cross-progression games released.
Cross-play—players using different platforms (gaming consoles, computers, smartphones) to play the same game together—and cross-progression—the ability for players to save their gaming progress and share it between multiple platforms have made gaming more accessible to a wider audience.
“I want to create experiences that are approachable for a multitude of players. I don’t want people to feel like they need to qualify themselves as gamers before they can play a game,” Jesse explains. “Qualifications can create barriers and there shouldn’t be gatekeeping in gaming.”
As gamer culture expands, new kinds of game players are emerging that want more out of their games. They are looking for interactive and social games: games that tell a story, are thoughtful and represent them.
From Squinky's experience, both on-screen and off-screen diversity and representation are necessary to create more inclusive games. It can be the difference between marginalized voices being better represented or gaming studios falling back on stereotypes.
It is important as Squinky notes, to foster change by “empowering marginalized creators, improving working conditions for game workers, ensuring everyone is paid fairly for their labour, has a say in the creative and financial decisions at their workplace, and is allowed and encouraged to have a life outside of games.”
In addition to their work at Soft Chaos, co-founded with their friends Allison Cole and Jess Marcotte, where they focus on “intimate, vulnerable playable experiences of many kinds: video games, tabletop games, larps, installations, and performances,” Squinky is also working on SECOND PUBERTY, an album of deeply-personal bite-sized games.
Gaming experiences like these that can resonate with players of different levels and backgrounds and encourages community is something that more creators want to achieve.
Whether you’re building an island in Animal Crossing, conquering Behemoths in Dauntless, or forming livestreaming communities with other players on Twitch, video games allow for creativity, expression, and connection.
“Nowadays we put more thoughtfulness into [creating] video games,” Jesse says. “We ask ourselves, ‘Why does it make sense for there to be floating islands and giant monsters?’ ‘What’s the story we want to tell?’ What’s the core experience and what should a player feel after each session?’”
Want to learn more about video game development?
Watch workshops from our Girls and STEAM event to learn about game design and the basics of cinematic and 3D animation.