Of all the games, zines, and other things that other people have created and put on itch.io, these ones are my best favorites of all time. Some of their creations even had a pretty big impact on me and how I think about life and what I do. These are all just so good. They're the best and I recommend them all to everyone whose tastes are similar to mine. -Orion Scribner
Rated G. A mini zine that you can print on a single sheet of paper and fold.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Zine. Designed for reading on screen.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction.
About: An introduction to what it means to be femme. Femininity is a rigged game against women, so femmes create their own.
Vibe: Defiant. Empowering. Queer positive.
Content: Rated PG-13. About police violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people.
Medium: Zine. Full color. Designed for reading on screen.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. History.
About: The history of movements for LGBTQ rights, especially those connected with Stonewall, and the history of LGBTQ being seen as mentally disordered. Science is finding more and more that being queer is natural and healthy. Western society tends to see any difference as sickness. Oppressors use that as a weapon against anyone who doesn't conform.
Vibe: Queer positive.
A solidly researched and gorgeously illustrated comic book summarizing what we know now about COVID-19 and how to protect yourself and your loved ones. There are versions of this book for printing, re-posting as images on social media sites, or reading on screen (which is also screen reader friendly with full at text).
Content: Rated R.
Medium: Poetry zine.
About: A zine of poems about the etymology behind queer words.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Warnings for medical discrimination, and candid talk about sex organs.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your web browser. Illustrated interactive fiction created in Twine. After you have played through all the endings, watch the epilogue, which is a short animated video.
Story: You are a therapist. Decide how much to test your patient or support her goals for a healthy life. After each therapy session, the game changes to her point of view, showing the impact of your decisions on her life.
Vibe: Judgment, hope, loss, dehumanization, determination. Some reviewers said this was so sad that they cried.
Rated G. An icon to put on things that were made by real people rather than being g-nerated by artif-cial int-lligence, similar to labeling products as organic.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: A computer game created in Bitsy. It runs in your browser.
Accessibility: There is no audio, so it's friendly to Deaf/HoH players. The light pastel color scheme would be difficult for people with low vision or sensitive to eye strain.
Duration: About fifteen minutes to play the whole game.
Story: You are a ghost. Your human boyfriend has a human boyfriend. You like being in a polyamorous relationship, but you feel jealous, so you're talking with your therapist about it.
Vibe: Sad, lonely, anxious, grief, hope.
A Bitsy game about identifying with creatures cast as villains in fantasy. Thoughtful, powerful, meaningful.
Rated R.
An essay about how your creative work is improved by being way too passionate about a certain thing in them, whatever that may be. That can be something you're literally horny about, or it can be anything you enjoy to an extreme that most people find baffling. Whatever sort of excitement you feel, pouring it into your creations makes them better than if you (pretended that you) didn't care, so don't be embarrassed about it.
Content: Rated PG-13. Warnings for alcohol, drugs, body horror, scary moments, trauma, grief, kink, fantasy racism, and gross-out humor about spoiled food and unsanitary things.
Medium: Computer game. Mostly a visual novel with a few puzzles.
Duration: Hours for each play through. You have to play the game over from the beginning to get the other endings.
About: Science fiction with some elements of comedy and horror. The first truly artificially intelligent robot asks you (a failing journalist) to help investigate the disappearance of their creator.
Content: Rated PG. Some body horror and gore.
Medium: Illustrated fiction book.
About: A science fiction zine of interviews with mostly queer aliens. Most of their genders and their society's ideas of what constitutes a gender are very different from those in real human society. Still, their personal struggles and anecdotes echo those of the queer folk who we know in real life.
Vibe: Tongue in cheek humor. Fun, silly, weird, and feel-good. Queer positive.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: A zine. 16 pages, with covers. Layout for reading on screen.
About: A workbook for describing your gender by plotting it on a grid, where the reference points are other concepts than a male-female axis.
Vibe: Innovative, approachable, makes difficult concepts look easy.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Icons.
About: Alterhumans who create things can mark them with these paw-print icons to "let your audience know your project was made with love by you, and not an AI generative program." These icons were inspired by hand-print icons that say "human made" or "made by humans" to express this same idea. This variation is for people who don't like being called human.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Full color magazine.
About: An anthology about testosterone (T), from authors of many genders. Some of the things in this issue:
Vibe: Body positive. Rethinking common beliefs and stereotypes. Righteous anger about having been wronged.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all.
Medium: A journaling game.
About: Re-imagine what you did that day in the way that a character from a children's picture book might have done it in an even more charming and fanciful way.
Vibe: Genuinely cute, wholesome, fun, charming, uplifting. Good for helping you see and appreciate the little adventures in your everyday life.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all.
Medium: live-action role-playing (LARP) or lyric game.
Duration: All day.
About: Role-play that you are a functional human who has your name and is great at getting things done: "... live out your wildest dreams! Like, cleaning the bottom of the sink, calling your aunt back, doing the dishes, or even just taking a shower!"
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: An informational web page.
About: These are some important reasons not to use art-ficial int-lligence to gen-rate text or illustrations. It links to some of the first news articles that made me realize that these types of tools have so much potential for abuse and violation of privacy that they're nothing to laugh about.
Content: Rated PG. The process of preparing dead bodies for burial or cremation is shown, though in a tastefully simplified way. There are still needles and other things that are uncomfortable to think about.
Medium: A computer game.
Story: This is a realistic story about what it's really like to be a mortician, preparing dead bodies for their burial or cremation, and attending their memorial services. This is about some real-world ethical problems involved in respect for the dead and their surviving loved ones. For example, environmental damage from embalming, nice mom and pop businesses getting bought out by uncaring corporations, getting pressured to up-sell when that feels exploitative, and families who ask you to go against the last wishes of the deceased.
Vibe: A lot of heavy duty feelings about things that you might not have thought about before, though the story ends on a hopeful note about being able to do what you feel is right. Good for a day when you have the strength to face the taboo topic of mortality. Expect to need a hug or at least some grounding, and to feel motivated to do some paperwork and research in real life for your own end-of-life plans instead of trying not to think about them.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A physical game for two players, in person.
About: You each put on a wizard hat, grab a book, and take turns casting spells by reading a single powerful word out loud from that book, either countering or one-upping the previous word.
Vibe: Comedy.
Content: Rated G. Suitable for all ages.
Medium: A computer game created in Bitsy. It runs in your web browser. About five minutes long. You can see everything in one play-through.
About: The author remembers racist microaggressions she heard when she was a child and the hurtful impact that these had on her. This is the most useful resource I've seen for explaining what microaggressions are.
Vibe: This game is about something very sad and painful to experience as a child, and it conveys those feelings well.
Content: Rated G. Content warnings for body horror and involuntary transformation.
Medium: Interactive fiction created in Twine, in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. There are a few meaningful choices at the beginning, and the rest is a linear story.
About: You live in a fairy tale land and need a magical makeover so you can sneak in to a party. (You are an adult human whose gender isn't specified in the narration.) You end up getting transformed into something pretty but weird. Depending on which guise you take on, you have a different adventure. The original concept was that this was supposed to be a parody of a fad for mobile games about make-overs.
Vibe: Beautifully written and humorous. Reminiscent of other fun, nostalgic deconstructions of folklore and fantasy, and just as good as the best of them: Fractured Fairytales, Dealing with Dragons, and Shrek.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Interactive fiction created in Twine.
About: You wake up in the body of a billionaire and try to spend all his money before either the day ends or you get caught and stopped. (As a bit of artistic license, the game pretends these are all liquid assets that could be spent at a moment's notice.)
Most people find it difficult to think about very large numbers. This game is meant to make it easier to imagine just how much money a billionaire has by looking at everything that could be done with it if it was being used to solve familiar problems in the real world.
Playing this can have a long-term impact on how you think of the imaginary social construct of "money," the vast gulf between an ordinary person's idea of luxurious wealth versus someone who has more money than makes sense for a private individual to possess, and how the exact same number of dollars can be either life-changing or inconsequential to people of differing economic status.
Vibe: Comic mischief. Humor that punches up and not down. Economic outrage.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Interactive fiction created in Twine, though its elaborate randomization and careful juggling of numbers in your stats makes it look much less like it was created with that tool. Impressive. Every play through is unique.
About: Science fiction. You are looking for a safe planet where the last humans could live, but it's a long and dangerous trip through space, and you might have to settle for a new home that's not so safe. The Earth is hard to replace.
Vibe: Grim, lonely, epic.
Rated PG-13.
A collection of handbooks for anyone running or playing any sort of live-action role-play (LARP) or tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) to make sure that it's an enjoyable and safe time for everyone involved.
Rated PG-13.
A handbook for anyone running or playing any sort of live-action role-play (LARP) or tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) to make sure that it's an enjoyable and safe time for everyone involved.
