These are games, zines, and other materials about transgender women, trans women, trans girls, male-to-female transsexuals (MTF or M2F), or trans feminine (transfeminine or trans femme) people.
This collection is part of my directory of other people's creations on itch.io, Curated Collections of LGBTQIA, where you can find more collections about other topics. I personally select and review each creation in them, even if they are different than my own views or experiences as a queer person myself.
Content: Rated G. Except for drug references on page 56.
Medium: Comic book.
Genre and subject: Fiction. Comedy. Furry.
About: As described by the cartoonist,
"This book collects the first year of Rae the Doe comics, chronicling the life and times of Rae the Doe, from meeting her girlfriend Mimi to coming out as trans to unionizing a haunted house. This book has it all: off-beat, wholesome jokes, a cast of loveable characters and lots and lots of puns. With over 200 pages, five never before seen book-exclusive comics, character bios, and a few other bonuses, this book has it all. Wait, I already said that. Ah, it's worth repeating. This book has it all."
Queer themes: Many characters are various colors of queer. The main character is a gay transgender woman who has a bisexual girlfriend.
Vibe: Laugh-out-loud funny.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: A computer game. It can run in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Platformer. Arcade.
About: Defend your home from the dysphoria monsters by collecting gender-affirming clothes that empower you to fight back against them.
Vibe: Cute, fun.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Warnings for police violence, PTSD, werewolf sex scenes, deaths of transgender people, discrimination against transgender women, and violence.
Medium: A lyric game.
Genre and subject: Fiction. Erotic horror.
About: You are a werewolf. Draw a map of your subways and document your efforts to love and survive in your city. Remember the other werewolves who you have lost or could lose any day. The narrating character is a trans woman werewolf. This game was written as a metaphor for some of the experiences of transgender women.
Vibe: Urban gore. Grief. Sensual. Tender. Visceral. Aesthetically powerful. Cathartic.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: Computer game. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Platformer. Comedy.
About: Inspired by the designer's personal experience! Run and jump to pick up all the estrogen pills that you spilled. With some surprising twists.
Vibe: Humor. Cute.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. 8 pages, with covers.
Genre and subject: Fan art created using collages of official or crew art of the characters.
About: This has a full-color scrapbook page about these four fictional characters who are queer in their canon, or at least according to their creators. Kieran Valentine from Monster High. Osana Najmi from Komi Can't Communicate. Luz Noceda from The Owl House. Bridget from Guilty Gear.
Vibe: Celebratory.
Content: Rated PG for swear words. Specific content warnings at the beginning of each chapter.
Medium: An illustrated interactive text created in Twine.
About: A semi-autobiographical story of a trans woman discovering that she is a plural system of dog therianthropes, and learning about that from her friends. Plural Stories review.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: A 16 page comic book.
About: The fan cartoonist remarks that many trans people such as herself liked the classic manga Ranma 1/2. In that martial arts comedy, the main character has been magically enchanted to change back and forth from boy to girl. Readers need some familiarity with the manga to appreciate this fan comic in which Ranma and friends have gone on hormones to live full-time as women.
Vibe: Sweet and fun.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Sex and violence in nature. Specific content warnings are on its listing page.
About: A short story inspired by the authors' experiences of being therian, trans, and plural. Plural Stories review.
Content: Rated R. Graphic gore, blood, medical abuse, sex organs, cutting. History of oppression of various marginalized peoples. Harms that happened in real life, as well as fantasy body horror.
Medium: Zine. Full color collages. Designed for reading on screen.
About: This criticizes psychiatry's history of pathologizing people who are transgender and would have been considered spiritually attuned in non-western cultures. The degradation of people who are mentally ill was unified with the degradation of people who are queer.
Vibe: Painful, raw, defiant. Celebrating those of us who have been demeaned: in other words, queer pride.
Content: Rated PG because of swear words only, otherwise it's friendly for all ages. Be warned that this story is from the perspective of a child in a domestic abuse situation. The abuse is emotional and mental only, not sexual or physical. Much of the story is about how scary it is to be controlled, manipulated, deceived, threatened, and isolated. PHOTOSENSITIVITY WARNING FOR FLICKERING LIGHTS AND SCREEN SHAKE, which you can turn down in the settings. Other warnings: glitches (intentional and unintentional), rejection, unreality, and breaches between fictional/real space.
Medium: A computer game that simulates a fictional person's desktop computer, where you can chat with characters and use applications, as part of the game play.
Duration: One play through is about three or four hours. You can only reach a save point when you have completed a chapter in the game, which depends on being able to solve the puzzles in that chapter, so a tough chapter might take you about an hour. Plan your play sessions of this game for when you can either commit that amount of time, or leave the game open in the background for when you can come back to it. I found it worthwhile to play the game again from the beginning to explore other dialog choices, because they do reveal more about the story, though every playthrough has largely the same storyline and ending.
Story: It's 1999, and the real friendships you've made in an anime fan forum are your cozy escape from the alienation you experience at high school and in your family.
Queer themes: Transgender girls. Queer youth. Self discovery. The closet.
Vibe: Each chapter teeters between the contrasts of love and safety, and terror and isolation. On the one hand: creative, fun, inspiring, cute, cozy, tender, loving, whimsical, silly. On the other hand: edge-of-your-seat fear of loss, rejection, and mental/emotional abuse. The thrill of satisfaction and competence from being able to solve hard problems and to have the support of others who care about you.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Interactive text created in Twine, with illustrations and background music.
Duration: 20 minutes.
About: A personal story of self discovery through art and games, particularly the fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Warnings for medical discrimination, and candid talk about sex organs and gender transition options.
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. After each therapy session, the game changes to her point of view, showing the impact of your decisions on her life.
Queer themes: Transgender women. Medical gatekeeping. Medical transition. Unlicensed medical transition.
Vibe: Judgment, hope, loss, dehumanization, determination. Some reviewers said this was so sad that they cried.
Content: G.
Medium: Zine.
About: Satirical prose and photography about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) pills, describing them as though they're reviewing the cuisine at a very fancy restaurant.
Relevance: The author goes by they/them and doesn't say what their gender identity is, but this is the same HRT regimen that many trans women take, so I'm putting this zine in this collection, because trans women and trans feminine people are most likely to enjoy reading it and find it relatable.
Vibe: Humor.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Full color magazine.
About: An anthology about testosterone (T), from authors of many genders. One of the things in this issue that is relevant to this collection is a piece where a trans masc person challenges the common misconception that T makes people angrier by surveying trans people about it. This also asked trans women how their moods changed when they went on hormones.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Full color magazine.
About: An anthology about testosterone (T), from authors of many genders. One of the things in this issue that is relevant to this collection is a piece by a butch trans dyke about the beauty she sees the effects of T in trans women.
Vibe: Body positive. Rethinking common beliefs and stereotypes. Righteous anger about having been wronged.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: A tiny computer game created in Bitsy. It runs in your web browser.
Duration: You will be able to see everything in one play through, within 15 minutes.
About: Walk through a museum of charts and graphs that show the facts we know about transgender people, debunking some common misconceptions. The web page for this game cites sources for this information.
Queer themes: trans men, trans women, trans youth, intersex people, transition, transphobia, detransition, and restroom access.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Explicit sex advice, with illustrations. Safe, sensible, and consensual.
Medium: Book. Zine. 18 pages long, with covers.
About: "This zine is about how trans bodies are beautiful. This zine is about the myriad ways you can love (and fuck) with your trans body. Yourself, others, the whole deal!"
Queer themes: This has sex advice for trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, and their partners.
Content: Rated G. Warning for descriptions of bullying and dysphoria.
Medium: An illustrated zine created in Twine. Its interactivity is in that you click to advance to the next page, but it's a linear piece with no choices.
Duration: A few minutes long. One play through to see all.
About: Non-fiction. A trans woman's personal memoir where she explains what she means when she says she is a pupper. It's a reference to a meme that felt really meaningful and helpful to her.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: A short story.
Story: The nice ghost haunting your house uses the fridge magnets to send messages to you. Time passes, and you get to know one another.
Content: Rated R, 18+.
Medium: An electronic zine
About being a very online trans woman, consuming pop culture and creating glitch art, to survive domestic abuse and widespread transphobia.
Content: Rated PG. It's about communal bathing, but it's portrayed in a way that's okay for audiences of all ages, so far as I've seen. (I haven't seen all the endings yet.)
Medium: Computer game. A short visual novel.
Duration: A play through is about fifteen minutes long. Replay it several times and make different choices to get all the endings. There is a fast forward button to make your replays easier.
Story: Your best friend invites you to her birthday party. It's at a Japanese bath house. You're a little scared to go. For one thing, you have a crush on her! For another thing, the rules in the bath house might not allow you.
Queer themes: Transgender woman protagonist. Women loving women. Bureaucratic discrimination against transgender people.
Vibe: Wholesome, tender, cute, wistful.
Content: Rated R. Content warnings for: artistic nudity, transphobia, and description of feelings about various body parts and functions, both dysphoric and euphoric. Menstrual cycles. Breast milk. Facial hair. Cannabis. Dissociation. Toxic masculinity. Religious intolerance and shame.
Medium: Non-fiction book. A zine available in several formats: for printing in full color and folding, for reading on the computer, and audio read aloud by the author.
Duration: The audio version is almost 20 minutes long. The print version is 22 pages long, not counting covers or end papers.
About/relevance: The author is a plural trans girl and doe therianthrope. In this zine, she describes her experiences as she began gender-affirming hormone therapy, and her perspective on this as a doe.
Vibe: Sincere, vulnerable, tender, wistful, hopeful, joyful.
