The Queer Games Avant-Garde - How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games Book

In The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Bonnie Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video game developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games.

Speaking with insight and candour about their creative practices as well as their politics and passions, these influential and innovative game makers tell stories about their lives and inspirations, the challenges they face, and the ways they understand their places within the wider terrain of video game culture.

Their insights go beyond typical conversations about LGBTQ representation in video games or how to improve “diversity” in digital media. Instead, they explore queer game-making practices, the politics of queer independent video games, how queerness can be expressed as an aesthetic practice, the influence of feminist art on their work, and the future of queer video games and technology.

These engaging conversations offer a portrait of an influential community that is subverting and redefining the medium of video games by placing queerness front and centre.

Interviewees:
Ryan Rose Aceae, Avery Alder, Jimmy Andrews, Santo Aveiro-Ojeda, Aevee Bee, Tonia B******, Mattie Brice, Nicky Case, Naomi Clark, Mo Cohen, Heather Flowers, Nina Freeman, Jerome Hagen, Kat Jones, Jess Marcotte, Andi McClure, Llaura McGee, Seanna Musgrave, Liz Ryerson, Elizabeth Sampat, Loren Schmidt, Sarah Schoemann, Dietrich Squinkifer, Kara Stone, Emilia Yang, Robert Yang

"Bonnie Ruberg and twenty-two incredible game makers give voice to a game revolution. The queer games avant-garde isn't just pushing at the boundaries of the medium, it's exploding what games can be into millions of multi-coloured worlds where we can all play! An exuberant and essential exploration of the personal, political, and playful."
Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor of Media Design at Parsons School of Design

"In their new book, Bonnie Ruberg introduces and documents the provocative, playful, and occasionally weird world of queer game-making. The Queer Games Avant-Garde provides a compelling collection of interviews from many of the designers who dance at the edges of what games can be. This book is recommended reading for designers, artists, researchers, and anyone who takes play seriously."
Carly A. Kocurek, author of "Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls"