Oh, hey, auntie pixelante has released another awesome Flash game

It's called Dys4ia and, basically, it takes you through transgender game developer Anna Anthropy's rather tumultuous experiences with hormone replacement therapy.

I'm sure some will say it's not really a game, at least not in the traditional sense. My response to that: Anthropy's not exactly a traditional game developer, so what did you expect?

Anyway, I quite enjoyed my brief playthrough of Anthropy's latest Flash-based effort. I'm sure this will sound awfully odd, but it's kind of like an extremely linear WarioWare game, as each segment has you complete a (generally easy) task while reading a small bit of on-screen text.

Although such gameplay--if it can be called that--could be be boring in the wrong hands, in Anthropy's hands it's surprisingly compelling. Of course, it helps that she keeps things interesting by rarely calling on the player to complete the same "task" more than once.

As for Dys4ia's superficial aspects: Its pixel-based graphics are, as is seemingly always the case in an auntie pixelante game, superb, as is Liz Ryerson's spacey, new-age-ish soundtrack.

It only takes a few minutes to complete a single run-through of Dys4ia, so if you have the time and interest I'd highly recommend giving it a go (here) as soon as possible.

See also: Previous auntie pixelante posts

The Great Gaymathon Review #49: Super Mario Bros. (Famicom)

Game: Super Mario Bros.

Genre: Platformer

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

System: Famicom

Release date: 1985

My question to anyone who owns a Famicom (or an NES) but doesn't own a copy of this game: What on earth is wrong with you? I know a large number of "must own" titles were released for Nintendo's first world-conquering console, but this one is the granddaddy of them all, and no Famicom/NES collection is complete without it. There are countless good reasons for that, of course, with the main one being that the game is supremely playable (and enjoyable) thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto and company's masterful programming--which makes all of the running and jumping and everything else in Super Mario Bros. feel so sublime--and level design. (Anna Anthropy, aka auntie pixelante, expertly expounds on the latter abilities in this blog post, by the way.) There's more behind the game's must-own status than that, though, or at least there is for me. I believe that another reason so many people have been enamored by Mario's first console outing over the years is how surreal it is. I mean, it's a bit like playing a dream, isn't it? A bizarre dream, admittedly, but a dream nonetheless. How else would you describe a game in which a mustachioed plumber battles walking mushrooms and flying turtles and once in a while plucks a flower from the ground that allows him to shoot bouncing balls of fire on his way to rescuing a princess named Peach?

See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts

Get yer pipin' hot Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars soundtrack here!

Now that you've not only played auntie pixelante's Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, but read a review of it (here), and read a pair of interviews about it (here and here), too, I'd say it's about time you downloaded the game's soundtrack, wouldn't you?

For those of you nodding your heads, here's a link to the site of Amon26, the man responsible for the twitchy title's wicked soundscape. Scroll down to and then click on "Lesbian SpiderQueens of Mars--OST" and, whamo, your day/week/month/year/life are set.

Eight more questions with auntie pixelante (or, why she won't make a game about 'a boy who hates his dad and wants to bone a princess')

In an interview I posted earlier this week, Anna Anthropy (aka auntie pixelante) kindly answered a few questions about her latest creation, the fabulously addictive Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars.

Well, consider today's follow-up to be a "bonus round" of sorts--in which the affable Anthropy answers questions related to two subjects that are near and dear to my heart: LGBT content in games and... Bubble Bobble.

The Gay Gamer: Pretty much every one of your games includes an LGBT character or storyline of some sort. Is that simply because you're gay, or are there other reasons you tend to include LGBT characters/storylines in your games?

Anna Anthropy: Well, who would I make games about if not myself? I'm a perverted queer transwoman--I'm not going to make a game about a boy who hates his dad and wants to bone a princess. That's why it's so important to me to make my voice heard, though: There are so few games by and about queer women.

Screenshot of Mighty Jill Off

GG: Why do you think so few of your colleagues in the industry do the same (include LGBT characters/storylines in their games)? Is it because most of them aren't LGB or T? Or maybe it's because even in this day and age there still isn't a much of a market for games that feature LGBT characters and/or storylines?

AA: Video game publishers cater to a very specific, exclusive culture: Straight manchildren. Because they're the ones immersed in the culture of video games, the ones who all the video games are designed for, they're the ones who become excited about making games and become the next generation of game developers. then they make games with their values, intended for an audience that is themselves. It's a vicious cycle. People to whom video game culture is hostile and dismissive do not tend to be the people who make space in their lives for making video games. That's something I'm trying to change: To get people like me excited about creating games outside the established games culture.

Screenshot of REDDER

GG: What is the key, in your opinion, to making LGBT characters and storylines more palatable to publishers, developers and even so-called mainstream gamers?

AA: Don't ask me how to make queers more appealing to publishers. I had to argue with Adult Swim for the inclusion of the word "lesbian" in the title of [Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars].

GG: Part of me wonders if the key, or at least one of the keys, to this may be to treat LGBT characters/storylines like you seem to, which is to adopt an attitude along the lines of, "Don't like it? Too bad!" Would you agree with that?

AA: Video games are never going to have anything to say to anyone until they become a place where sex and identity can be discussed in a healthy way, the same as any other form. I don't see any reason to be apologetic or coy; mainstream developers certainly don't apologize for their dull male power fantasies.

Ten questions with auntie pixelante (or, why the woman behind Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars wants you to have a 'big fat orgasm')

Shortly after her latest, greatest--in my opinion, at least--creation, Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, hit the 'net, Anna Anthropy (aka auntie pixelante) agreed to answer a few questions about what prompted her to make this turned-on-its-ear Wizard of Wor clone, why she had to censor it and how she feels about the LGBT media's "dismissive" response to it.

The Gay Gamer: You wrote on your site that you've been thinking about this game for four years (after Owen Grieve and his students gave you the name). What prompted you to finally create a game around that name? Did it come to you in the middle of a marathon session of Wizard of Wor?

Anna Anthropy: I was really focused on Wizard of Wor for a while, yes. I've always been impressed by how conscious the designers seemed to be of tension and pacing, between the speeding up of the maze, the radar-only invisible monsters, the high-stress worluk encounter at the end of each dungeon, and the surprise confrontations with the wizard himself. I like to use my games to get people to investigate older works that i want more people to play, like Bomb Jack with Mighty Jill Off and Monuments of Mars with REDDER.

GG: My first reaction upon playing Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars was along the lines of, "Man, this would have been perfect alongside the games at my childhood bowling alley/arcade." It gives me a vibe--in terms of sound and graphics and even gameplay--similar to the one I get/got from games like Robotron and Sinistar. Is that the kind of reaction you were shooting for?

AA: I've always admired the sort of design decisions that the arcade format promotes: Games need to be fast, to teach the player the rules as quickly as possible, to communicate everything that happens in the game clearly. These games from 1980s arcades--particularly Vid Kidz and Midway games--informed a lot of my ideas on game design, and I wanted for a long time to make a game that I could place side-by-side with them.

GG: I really like the one-handed nature of the game. Why did you decide to go that route--by eschewing the shoot button?

AA: Because it was an extra button I didn't think I needed. I felt like I could fit the player's entire vocabulary into the buttons she uses to move the protagonist. Relegating some of the most important actions to a secondary function is distance I thought the game didn't need. And I think it does a lot to characterize the spider-queen: She's powerful enough that just a glance at a woman is enough to ensnare her. So much of the game followed from that decision.

Saucy or simple?

I'm a bit torn when it comes to choosing a headline for a post--a Q&A with Anna Anthropy, aka auntie pixelante--that's going to be published this coming week.

Should I go for something "saucy": auntie pixelante's goal for Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars: to give gamers 'a big, fat orgasm'

Or should I go for "simple": Ten questions with auntie pixelante

It probably won't surprise anyone to hear that I prefer the saucy option, but I have to admit that it also gives me pause. Is it too sensational? Does it scream, a little too loudly, "click on me! PLEASE!!"

Regarding that latter comment, the fact is that I do want people to click on it. Not because I'm desperate for hits, pageviews, etc., but because I think Anthropy is a brilliant woman and I want as many people as possible to read what she has to say about her latest creation, Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars.

The question, then, is will the saucy headline draw people in or turn them away? 

Of course, the same could be asked of the simple option. Sure, it's the complete opposite of sensational, but it's kind of boring, too. Also, it doesn't really give any indication as to the content of the post.

What do all of you think? Should I go with saucy or simple--and why do you think I should use that option?

A somewhat gay review of Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars

My first thought upon playing auntie pixelante's latest creation--a twitchy, throwback of a game called Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars--was that it could confidently and comfortably sit alongside such classic quartermunchers as Robotron and Sinistar.

Of course, pixelante was inspired by Midway's Wizard of Wor while creating Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars--she even goes so far as to call the latter a "reinvention" of the former in a recent blog post--so it's likely she expected or at least hoped for such a reaction.

Regardless, her creation is a more-than-reasonable reproduction of those stress-filled games so many of us relished as kids. Calling Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars a simple facsimile of its predecessors, though, does both it and pixelante a disservice.

Sure, Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars looks and sounds a lot like the aforementioned games that inspired it--what with its sparse backdrops and pixelated baddies (who the titular protagonist taunts with appropriately lo-fi barbs like "I'm not finished yet!" and "Kneel before your queen!")--but it blazes a few trails, too.

Case in point: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, like many of today's Flash-based games, is a one-handed affair. The titular Spider-Queen's "bondage ray" is always on, so all gamers have to do is aim said ray at one of her highness' escaped slaves in order to wrap them up and rope them in.

If you think that might sap the game of the tension that's typical of the genre, think again. Even without a shoot button there's plenty to stress out about while playing Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars--especially when the attackable-only-from-certain-angles Armors, fiery Alchemists and slippery Assassins (all of whom are topless, by the way) start to fill the screen.

Thankfully, the tension never ratchets up so high that the game becomes unenjoyable or unplayable. Oh, you'll die--a lot, especially on the later boards--but if you're anything like me you'll have a blast right up until your last breath.  

Play: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars

In more serious Bubble Bobble news ...

In a (fairly) recent blog post, the always awesome auntie pixelante waxed poetic about how Bubble Bobble designer Fukio Mitsuji used "visual information to help the player understand the rules of a game."

Specifically, she focused on how Mitsuji explained, visually, using the giant frying pan seen in the screenshot below, the behavior of the game's fire/flame bubbles.

"Players pop the bubbles and the flames fall down to the wide, flat surface of the pan, which then catches fire--like cracking an egg and dripping it into a frying pan to sizzle," she writes. "The enemies that inhabit this stage bounce diagonally through the air; when they come down they touch the fire, pop into the air and come down as food that the players can gather. The word “POPCORN” written on the screen makes the metaphor complete."

If you're interested in game design in general and Bubble Bobble in particular--and who isn't interested in the latter?--I'd highly recommend reading the rest of pixelante's post (here).

Lesbian slaves in space, you say?

I'm always looking forward to some upcoming release or other, but right now I have to admit the game I'm most looking forward to is the one auntie pixelantie is working on about lesbian slaves in space.

What, you didn't know the self-proclaimed "freelance scratchware game creator and critic" (and all-purpose pervert) was working on such a game?

I didn't either, until I saw the following tweet (on Oct. 21): "Now i'm going to continue working on my game about lesbian slaves in space."

She mentioned the game once more over the weekend when she asked Christine Love (again, via Twitter), "is your dyke space princess game going to be done anytime near my dyke space queen game? we could have a DOUBLE FEATURE."

By the way, Love's "dyke princess game" just jumped to the number-two spot on my "most wanted" game list.

See also: 'auntie pixelante + WarioWare D.I.Y. = digital sex'

auntie pixelante + WarioWare D.I.Y. = digital sex

"When i was little, videogame creation was something mystical and inaccessible. I never imagined I could be making games with my own two hands. Children today will grow up in a world where digital game creation is not a distant fantasy, but something within their grasp."

What prompted Anna “auntie pixelante” Anthropy to post those words to her site? A week spent with WarioWare D.I.Y.

A few of the fruits of Anthropy's labor can be seen in the following video, posted on YouTube yesterday.



My favorite: the spanking microgame ("Give this pig 12 blows!"), though I'm also quite fond of the one that features the protagonist from Mighty Jill Off.

Buy: WarioWare D.I.Y.

See also: 'Best WarioWare D.I.Y. microgame thus far: Localize This' and 'Hey! You got your Cave Story in my WarioWare D.I.Y.!'

(Via tinycartridge.com)

I've rarely met a rant I didn't like

The always-amazing anna anthropy recently posted "a series of rants" on her site, auntiepixelante.com. Hopefully she won't mind if I share a few of my favorites here.

Game-making tools: "We need more tools for people who aren’t programmers to make games with. Game Maker is a start, and it’s brought a lot of people into making games who wouldn’t otherwise be, but we aren’t quite there yet. I want to hear the voices of people who aren’t already entrenched in game culture."

Get personal: "I want to hear stories that are personal. I’m tired of epics, I’m tired of saving the world and I’m tired of masculine wish-fulfilment fantasies. If I’m tired of that shit, there’s no way it’s going to mean anything to a player."

Storytelling: "Storytelling in games does not mean cutscenes, and it does not mean reading pages and pages of static text. We have to learn to tell stories with rules, with design, and with play instead of aping other cultural forms."

A screenshot from anna anthropy's latest creation, redder.
Check it out here.

Sadly, I'm not sure many game designers/developers/publishers agree with the things this self-proclaimed "pixel provocateur, dot-matrix dominatrix [and] artdyke" has to say. Actually, strike that--I'm not sure many mainstream game designers/developers/publishers agree with or even understand the things she's saying.

I can't imagine she's going to stop saying them, though, so hopefully the proverbial light bulb will go off over their heads sooner or later.