By underlining the apparent disparities in income between infamous A-list companies and minor individual or collaborative enterprises, Ruberg points out that for queer indie game-makers the economic challenges are on a par with the social ones. As such, the writer challenges the idea that video games are solely created for entertainment purposes and highlights that “the contributors to the queer games avant-garde are acutely aware of the political backdrop of their work” (6).Ħ One of the primary points of focus of the book is the fact that Ruberg pays attention to indie aspects of queer game-making. An interesting connection is made between the rise of the queer games with that of an alt-right sentiment in US politics and, more specifically, around the time of the 2016 elections, which the writer sees as a reactionary call of queer artists against systemic discrimination. Before delving further into these categories through each interview, Ruberg builds a brief, albeit coherent theoretical and historical framework around notions of queerness, gaming, and the avant-garde.

white cisgender male consumers, after all-queer games appear to break ties with it not only in terms of representation and visibility, but also in structure, aesthetics, ethics, and objectives. Considering that the history of video games has long been of narrow scope when it comes to its audiences-it has been catering mostly to the imagination of very specific identity groups, i.e. This time, however, the writer departs from the format of academic analysis and opts for an interview-based approach in an attempt to provide space for queer game makers to emerge and share thoughts, experiences, and concerns with regard to the medium.ĥ As its title predicates, the book explores the concept of “the queer games avant-garde” which Ruberg identifies as a “movement” as well as network of artists that have been on the rise since the early 2010s and whose work bears distinct queer characteristics that go against the grain of traditional gaming and game-making. The book establishes a continuity on the said area of research interest as it is a follow-up to Ruberg’s 2019 work on Video Games Have Always Been Queer (NYUP 2019). ISBN: 978-1-4780-0658-9ģ Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis, Ph.D, Aristotle University of ThessalonikiĤ In The Queer Games Avant-Garde: Reimagining the Medium of Video Games, Bonnie Ruberg has pieced together a series of interviews with game makers which focus on the queering of video games as well as on the creators’ personal narratives and aspirations related to the creative process. 1 Bonnie Ruberg, The Queer Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video GamesĢ Duke University Press, 2020.

Queer Game Studies by Bonnie Ruberg