The history of LGBTQ + visual novels

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• The history of LGBTQ + visual novels

LGBTQ + Game Week 2021

(Image credit: TechRadar / R Healey Art) Welcome to TechRadar LGBTQ+ Gaming Week 2021. During this week-long celebration, we spotlight issues and voices within the LGBTQ+ gaming community. Learn more here. Despite an increase in the number of LGBTQ+ characters in AAA video games, including Ellie in The Last of Us and Chloe in Life is Strange, there still aren't many. LGBTQ+ people have often turned to indie games for queer stories, and when it comes to the queer indie scene, there's one genre that's king. If you scroll through the LGBTQ tags on itch.io or Steam, you'll find that a large portion of the LGBTQ+ indie games available are visual novels. This includes popular queer games like Butterfly Soup, Dream Daddy, Heaven Will Be Mine, and Ladykiller in a Bind. But why are there so many queer visual novels? What attracts LGBTQ+ developers and gamers to the medium? In an attempt to answer this question, we look at the history of the queer visual novel.

The ingredients of the first visual novels

The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Image credit: Square Enix) The game that could be considered the first iteration of the LGBTQ+ visual novel and the first LGBTQ+ game is Caper in the Castro, a point-and-click crime game. click released in 1989 by CM Ralph. You play as lesbian detective Tracker McDyke, searching for a woman named Tessy LaFemme, who has gone missing. The game was a tribute to San Francisco's LGBTQ+ community and included many tongue-in-cheek references and queer puns, including a villain named Dullagan Straightman. Caper was also distributed as "charity software", with everyone who downloaded the game asking to donate to an AIDS relief organization. The game was met with positivity from the underground LGBTQ forums it was originally distributed on, especially since it was the first time anyone had created a game with LGBTQ+ characters or themes. In an interview with Paste Magazine in 2014, CM Ralph talked about how they also created a straight version of Caper called Murder on Mainstreet, which was published by Heizer Software. "Basically, I changed the names and the places," Ralph told Paste. "My reasoning was that I wanted to reach the general public; 1988 was very different from 2014 in terms of how LGBT people and issues were perceived and treated." "LGBTQ+ developers may have investigated the visual novel and dating sim because they devised a model for depicting romantic narratives, whether straight or not." While the game itself was revolutionary in its content, it was clear at the time that there was still no place for queer games in the mainstream. While Caper in the Castro was not a visual novel, point-and-click adventure games are considered the forerunners of visual novels. While point-and-click games are more puzzle-focused, visual novels have embraced their style, but with a greater focus on storytelling. The Portopia Serial Murder Case, which is widely considered the first visual novel, has been cited as being directly inspired by American point-and-click adventure games such as King's Quest. Portopia creator Yuji Horii said that the game was designed with the goal of introducing Japanese audiences to American adventure games. Dating sims came a bit later and can be seen as a type of visual novel that focuses on romantic characters. While the origin of the dating sim cannot be traced as easily as that of the visual novel, the first game to popularize the mechanics and aesthetics of both mediums is Tokimeki Memorial. This game introduced concepts like managing romantic relationships through daily activities and choosing from a set of options that affect the story and the romantic partner you end up with. It also popularized the use of interchangeable backgrounds and sprites, which can be seen in many visual novels today. Visual novels are the foundation of romance in games, though they are rarely acknowledged.

The Queer Visual Novel Boom of the 2010s

Spring leaves no flowers (Image credit: NPCKC) It should be noted that according to the Visual Novel Database, there were Asian visual novels featuring same-sex romantic relationships published as early as the 1990s, but they are a bit harder to find. because many have not been translated into English. . According to the LGBTQ video game archives, queer visual novels didn't make their mark in the West until the 2010s. It seems they took a surprisingly long time to reach English-speaking audiences, and queer developers made sure they did. do by creating your own. Notable queer visual novels of the early 2010s included Ladykiller in a Bind, Christine Love's early visual novels, Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story; and analog: a story of hate. The first is a story about queer teens and the internet, and the second is a transhumanist visual novel about reading the logs of the crew of a ship that has mysteriously disappeared. The popular erotic rom-com game Ladykiller in a Bind will be released in late 2016, followed by Butterfly Soup, an innovative queer love story about teens of Asian and American descent, and Dream Daddy, one of them. one of the most popular gay dating sims, which was released in 2017. In 2015, the first Yuri Jam, a two-month game focused on making video games (specifically dating sims and visual novels) featuring sapphic relationships, was hosted on itch. io and culminated in the creation of over 30 sapphic games. It was followed in 2016 by the first Yaoi Jam for male relationships in video games. These games are annual and the last Yuri Jam attracted more than 40 participants. Creating queer-themed game jams on itch.io has definitely encouraged the creation of queer visual novels, which is why the itch.io library is full of them. Itch.io has one of the strongest collections of LGBTQ+ indie games, from a fan-made Life is Strange dating sim to a gay mecha brawler to a short text game about watching a movie. gay cowboy. It's clear that queer game developers have found places to thrive that didn't exist when CM Ralph had to "straighten out" Caper in the Castro for the general public.

Why are LGBTQ + developers drawn to visual novels?

Highway Blossoms (Image credit: Studio Élan) One reason LGBTQ+ developers are drawn to visual novels is that the genre is relatively user-friendly. "Visual novels are a really great medium for a lot of people, but I think part of their appeal is their ease of creation in terms of the skills required and the actual financial cost." Minute - Élan Studio "Visual novels are a great medium for a lot of people, but I think part of their appeal is how easy they are to create in terms of the skills required and the actual financial cost," says Minute, the lead programmer. from Studio Élan, who made Highway Blossoms and Heart of the Woods. “To create a visual novel, all you really need is a story and a basic understanding of the system you're using. The Ren'Py visual novel engine has a very low barrier to entry, but it's powerful enough that you can create amazing things with it too. Everything else like custom art, music, UI etc. is just icing on the cake as the availability of free resources on the web right now is amazing. Minute also explains that people with marginalized identities may not have the resources, time, or connections to make a great game, but they do have stories to tell, and "visual novels are a way to celebrate that." representation of LGBTQ+ people in video games, LGBTQ+ people were taking it upon themselves to do it with the resources they had.All the way back to Caper in the Castro, there has been a continuum of queer people playing queer games, and while some gamers may ignore visual novels, have played an important role, and one that should be celebrated. Mainstream video games have yet to catch up when it comes to the diversity that can be found in visual novels. While queer representation may appear in the action-adventure and first-person shooters these days, the humble visual novel has a place in queer gaming history, and whenever LGBTQ+ developers feel the need to tell their own stories, they always will. Harriette Chan is a cheesecake enthusiast, a video game enthusiast, and a disgruntled student. When they grow up, they want to be a writer, an archaeologist, or a barista. Either way, they'll understand. They are currently working on their BFA in creative writing.