For a while I've been in love with the works of Anna Anthropy - known often as just "Auntie Pixelante". Lately she's been focused on making a lot of "mini" games but they're still pretty fun all the same. For a while now though she's been talking about work on a game about her trans experiences and that really interested me. Finally on Friday it arrived on Newgrounds so I thought I'd share a link to it now.
The game's called dys4ia. "Dysphoria" is often a term used in the trans community to describe someone having feelings of dysphoria with their own body. Dysphoria is the opposite of euphoria, which of course would be joyous emotions. One of the common labeling of "transgenderism" these days is "gender dysphoria". So that's where the title comes from.
While it is really just a bunch of small interactive vignettes, it stands as a very strong piece of work. It's certainly not a typical game but how could one be made over such subjects? The game travels through Anna's life pre-transition, attempting to transition, and where she is heading now. Although I'm not a transwoman I could certainly understand where she's coming from. Aside from woman-specific things I definitely have felt like she has, such as feeling like a spy in the bathroom or being so thankful to have someone with me along the way.
There's just so much about dys4ia even though it only lasts about 5 minutes. It brings up things that I'm sure most people have never even thought about, much less expected to be reality for certain people. It also leaves with a nice message for trans and non trans people. If you have a few minutes to spare I strongly urge you to try it out.
2 comments:
I wasn't aware this had come out until I saw you and Bryan post about it, but I'm so glad I took the time to give it a go (I know, 5 whole minutes, what a sacrifice...-_-).
I'll admit there weren't any themes addressed that I wasn't necessarily aware trans individuals go though, but I found the medium of expression a really unique and engaging way to convey the experience. Also, as someone who suffers from a relatively high level of self-loathing (yeesh, TMI), I thought the final bit where you navigate your pixel avatar through the maze to the various mirrors really evocative, even though I do not share the same experience with trans issues as Anna.
Speaking of which, I wonder if her book is out. I really can't wait to give it a read. I wish I was in the US so I could attend one of her talks sometime. We really need more developers like her to keep pushing the boundaries of games as an artistic medium, I think!
Ah, glad to hear you enjoyed this one, too, Marcus. It really is quite an interesting product, isn't it? I love how Anna always makes things that are off the beaten path and interesting. Sure, this isn't a game most people will play over and over and over again, but I'm pretty sure that's not the point. Anyway, hopefully loads and loads of people will give it a try and learn a little something from it.
Post a Comment