My partner has given me the challenge of consciously playing games made by female/LGBTQ+ devs for 3 months. I’m gonna start with Magic Knight Rayearth and Celeste. But I figured I’d ask the best place on the internet for their recommendations to keep this thing goin and spread awareness for these games!
Any console is fine! Would love some PS2 titles if possible! Love you guys!
Napple Tale on DC was recently translated into English!
@connrrr thats 100% on my list!! Such a sweet lil game. Excited to play thru
G String
80 Days
Sable
Pathologic 2 (Alphyna Golubeva was the main narrative design lady)
Phantasmagoria 1 and 2
Wizardry Tale of the Forsaken Land was I believe directed by the Animal Crossing head honcho lady
Kind of a random list but these spring to mind
You could add Phantasy Star IV and to a lesser extent (specifically M2's Sega Ages version of) Phantasy Star and 7th Dragon stuff to the Rieko Kodama stack, and here are three very different games that first came to mind for no reason at all:
king’s quest (roberta williams)
Came here to say this. My earliest gaming memories are playing King's Quest games with my mom. Beautiful times. That was a loooong time ago and, as you mentioned, maybe those games are rough to go back to now, but thank you for at least giving them a nod.
I only know more contemporary (well, within like the last 10 years) stuff in this category rather than earlier, but hopefully that‘s still useful. Here’s some queer and/or women developers I would recommend:
**Squinky**
https://squinky.itch.io/
**Nathalie Lawhead**
https://alienmelon.itch.io/
**Ada Rook (who also does very good music)**
https://adarook.itch.io/
**Lilith Zone**
https://lilithzone.itch.io/
**Kitty Horrowshow**
https://kittyhorrorshow.itch.io/
**Sylvie**
https://sylvie.itch.io/
**Team Lazerbeam**
https://teamlazerbeam.itch.io/
EDIT: Hey wait a minute, _I'm_ queer! You can play my tiny games if you want: https://mnemogenic.itch.io/
I still haven‘t played the full game, but hey it’s Friday, so maybe I'll just play it at work.
I played the demo though, and I really enjoyed it.
https://hubol.itch.io/igua-rpg
Once again, something else I haven't played, but I've watched my friend play and when I have time I really wanna give this a shot.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1745510/Lunacid/
@Mnemogenic I’m so hype on this. Def been searching for some quality modern games too for this lil challenge! I’ll check em out!! And I’ll check your games out too!!
@tokucowboy I’ve started stacking Rieko Kodama games now and PS IV is on my list but I’ll give that Sega Ages version of PS a shot!! Thank you for the recs!!
Might be kinda difficult depending on how familiar you are with emulating old japanese PC stuff and the language barrier buuut i would recommend at least checking out some stuff from Kotori Yoshimura. She's probably one of the first trans women in Japanese game development and she did some really interesting stuff aside from starting the thunder force series.
Star Cruiser is the most accessible game of hers i think and it's still a blast to play. It also later got a mega drive port.
Wibarm is kinda the predecessor to Star Cruiser but it‘s way more rough and clunky to play but i’d still say it's worth checking out.
I haven‘t played it myself yet but am about to grab it and have heard excellent things, but Unsighted is currently on sale on the Nintendo eShop and one of the lead developers is a trans woman if I’m not mistaken. It looks like a really interesting game that checks a lot of boxes for stuff I like: cyberpunk, roguelike, a Majora‘s Mask-esque time limit, and Metroidvania style progression, although it’s not the typical Metroidvania formula. I'm really excited to give it a play.
Edit: I believe it is also currently on sale on GoG.
yes to star cruiser and wizardry (brenda romero worked on a bunch of those)!
and unsighted is by a couple who are both trans women!
space channel 5 is art directed by a woman and space channel 5 pt 2 is directed by her! (yumiko miyabe)
phantasy star is $2 on the switch eshop right now
also Playboy: the mansion was directed by brenda romero too.
feel the magic xx/xy's designers and lead artists were women too
also our very own Hyper Gunsport, basically everything that was added past the original Gunsport was done by a woman (lotte may)
So an update for this post I made a while back!! I’ve finished:
Magic Knight Rayearth for Saturn
Napple Tale for DC
Celeste for Switch.
Currently starting up Child of Light and following up with Hades and then the 2013 Tomb Raider. Wanted to bring this thread back up to see if there were any more recs y’all had in mind!! The internet is very limited in lists (except for Itch.io, thank goodness)
Also, Magic Knight Rayearth was my first ever Saturn game and it was SO MUCH FUN. Such a great and charming and full of care Zelda-esque action RPG.
@exodus I def got that Phantasy Star remake once I saw you AND Christa Lee tweet about it!! Oh dang that’s some good recs right there.
I preordered the Limited Run physical of Hyper Gunsport 😎
Wait… Playboy: the mansion was directed by Brenda Romero!?!?
Mighty Jill Off is specifically about a lesbian bdsm dynamic, made by a queer woman
I didn‘t see Christine Love mentioned, so I guess I’ll recommend her games. I‘ve played Digital, don't take it personally, Analogue and Hate Plus, which all have aspects of them that are interesting. Analogue and Hate Plus are the best and most polished, but for some reason I like don't take it personally more. I haven’t played Ladykiller or Get in the Car, but those might be better!
I feel like I don't hear her talked about as much as I used to. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe I should actually play her newer stuff.