This is a collection of other people's zines, games, and other creations about being LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, or asexual) as well as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). In queer rights, we undermine ourselves if we center only those of us who are white. That has been a problem. The Philadelphia progress pride flag was designed to remind us of that. The Philly flag added black and brown stripes to the rainbow pride flag as a reminder that queer BIPOC are important to our history and solidarity in our movements for civil rights. Representation of these intersecting identities is important to include and celebrate in media and entertainment, such as the zines and games in these collections.
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. 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 so that you can fight back against them.
Vibe: Cute, fun.
Unrated.
Zine.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: Zine. Comic book.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Memoir.
Length: 8 pages.
About the cartoonist's experience of being a Chinese-American lesbian, focusing on his feelings about the family he grew up in.
Content: Rated R. "The game features an optional sexually explicit section, which requires the player鈥檚 consent before moving forward, and can be skipped in its entirety. The Abridged PDF removes this scene as well."
Medium: "a digital comic with light choose-your-own adventure mechanics". More than 130 full color comic book pages.
About: "... an award-winning interactive graphic novel telling the story of ... two men, with two polar opposite sexualities, working together toward one mutually fulfilling relationship."
Queer themes: Polyamory. Gray-asexuality. Men loving men.
Vibe: "gentle, optimistic, and optionally erotic".
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: Unrated.
Medium: Computer game. It can run in your web browser. It is playable, but its development is on hold.
About: "The invasion is happening. Your loves are away. Find them. This game is a strategic polyamorous love quest. You play an engineer on a quest to find your two loves during a time of war. You cannot fight, so it may be wise to avoid any armed forces."
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A point-and-click adventure computer game.
Genre and subject: Mystery. Comedy. Musical. Film noir. Stop-motion animation.
About: You are a private investigator trying to find a missing person.
Queer themes: Nonbinary protagonist.
Vibe: Delightfully bizarre humor.
Content: Rated G, possibly, but I haven't played much of it.
Medium: A non-violent platformer computer game. It runs in your web browser.
About: "Do you ever wonder why in games the lifebar in made up of hearts? And what is love? Starring Rocco Billy and Jack Lumber / Complete both levels to get the ending ..."
Content: Rated PG. Suggestive humor.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your browser.
About: Two players each control their character's arms. Try to make them have a normal handshake without accidentally hugging or making out.
Relevance: Each match has a random pair of characters. They can be the same or different genders. The designer submitted this game to Yuri Game Jam 2017.
Vibe: Goofy, silly, second-hand embarrassment, giggly, laugh out loud.
"Autobiographical zine, written in Taglish, containing illustrations and photos. 20 pages"
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.
Relevance: Without giving any spoilers, many of the characters in this game are queer people of color. You don't get to see your own player character, but there is an option to suggest something about your character's ethnic background. Early in the game, your companion asks you if you have any dietary restrictions. You can answer that you only eat a kosher or halal diet. Later, your companion will warn you if you try to consume something that isn't allowed in that diet. Your investigations will take you to some bars. If you said you were halal, then you will have the challenge of trying to find a non-alcoholic drink in the menu! I haven't checked to see if these choices will influence any of the dialog about Christmas, since the game takes place during that season.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: Zine.
Content: Rated PG-13 for sexual humor in dialog, as typical in a comedy movie with that rating. Content warning for needles: this short story is all about getting a shot. The characters describe the shot in detail and their anxieties about it, but it's not shown in images. There's also some dialog about food.
Medium: A computer game that simulates a video chat call with fictional characters. It can run in your web browser. It has voice acting.
Duration: One play through is about ten minutes. You can choose a few different dialog options, but there is only one story-line and ending. (The ending is a loop, it's not glitched.)
Story: You just came home from the pharmacy, and you're anxious about injecting yourself with your medicine. You call up your friends and they talk you through it.
Queer themes: Transgender men taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT, Testosterone) by self-injection. Queer community.
Vibe: The exact feeling of getting cheered on by your best buddies who know when to goof around and when to support you. Anxiety, trans joy, and laughing out loud.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: A visual novel created in Ren'py. There are a few meaningful choices, so you can replay to see other events. The ending gives a percentage of how much of the script you've unlocked.
About: This is the story of Casbah's first week living with their partner Marta... in an abandoned morgue.
Vibe: Very queer and punk. Tough as well as cozy. They love each other so much. I teared up a few times.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Computer game. A few minutes long. One play through will be enough.
Queer themes: Nonbinary protagonist. Inspired by the beginning of the Pok茅mon game where the professor asks if you're a boy or a girl.
Content: Unrated.
Medium: A huge and extremely complex visual novel created with Ren'py. Ten hours long, with replay value, because it has many meaningful choices.
Story: A high fantasy political mystery.
Relevance: Tagged as "bi." The woman protagonist has many options for romantic, platonic, and polyamorous relationships.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: An interactive prose piece created with Twine.
About: A description of two sapphic lovers and their home, a queer Jewish utopia, based on the author's life.
Content: Rated R, 18+. Content warning on page 1 for non-sexual nudity and needles.
Medium: Zine.
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 PG. Specific content warnings are in the front of the book.
Medium: Book. Fantasy novel.
Story: A company invented cleaner sources of power for the city. Why is someone stealing them? Because she discovered that the power comes from the stolen souls of witches like herself. She can't safely come forward with this information yet, and a police officer is hot on her trail.
Queer themes: Pretty much every character has one or another queer identity. Its focus is on characters who are genderfluid or on the asexual spectrum, and how they have feelings for one another.
Content: Rated PG-13. Some essays have content warnings at their beginnings because they talk about trauma and having survived sexual assault.
Medium: Zine.
About: An anthology of essays about learning martial arts as a tool for moving past trauma, and how martial arts instructors can teach it in a way that is suitable for students who have survived sexual assault or who are sex workers, who need this instruction the most.
Queer themes: Written by a community of queer and trans people of color.
Vibe: Serious. Painful. Direct. Useful.
Content: Rated PG-13, because although most of it would rated G, there is a chance that you might stumble into some fatherly advice about the importance of using condoms. Other content warnings: description of depression and anxiety.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your web browser.
Duration: Each play through is about ten minutes. Play through it several times, choosing different dialog options to see what they reveal.
Story: You haven't spoken to your dad much since you've been going to college. Now you're on a long car ride together. He cares about you, no matter what... right?
Representation: Gay men. Coming out.
Vibe: Awkward, defensive, tense, caring, sweet, anxious, wistful, dread, frustrated, nostalgic.
Content: Rated PG. Firearms, blood, mines.
Medium: Comic.
About: A historical fiction ghost story romance. "In 1950s Vietnam, a lost soul comes to the aid of his lover's field under attack by American troops."
Vibe: This summary could have been for a very grim story, but it is not.
