fade (en)

fade is a game I helped create for a UNB research project. We presented the game at Different Games 2016 in Brooklyn, New York City.

Click here to play!

(update: someone has posted a Let's Play of the game!)

About the game:

A group of youth have developed a new video game about their experiences in the LGBTQ+ community as part of a dissertation by University of New Brunswick PhD candidate in sociology, Nathan Thompson.

Photo: Lance Blakey, UNB

The game explores the varied micro-aggressions that many members of the community deal with on a daily basis. It also deals with non-binary gender identities, something people may not be as familiar with.

In fade, the player takes turns playing two different characters, each of whom experience their day in slightly different ways. The game includes some unexpected revelations, some touching but emotionally challenging moments, and playful and interactive dialogue and characters.

Click here to read the press release.

Making the game:

Nathan asked me to join this project to help with the game development. Empathy games really interest me, so I accepted right away.

While I had made games about marginalized groups before, this was the first time I contributed to a project about the LGBTQ+ community. Working on fade definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things, like non-binary identities and microagressions. Hearing such a diverse and open group talk about their experiences was really interesting.

So once the six participants chose the main themes of the game, we worked together to design the game and storyline to emphasize these elements.

Photo: Lance Blakney, UNB

While the participants were in charge of content, I still helped by giving feedback on what was realistic and what was out of scope, or what would work well in a game or not. Once the game was designed and the script, characters and maps were made, I buckled down and built the game over two weeks in January.

Since we had a limited timeframe, the game is only 15-20 minutes long and is pretty linear, but based on our thoughts and feedback we’ve received, I think we succeeded in our goals. The group was awesome to work with, and I’m really proud of the game we made.

The trip to New York was a blast! It’s great that Different Games thought the project was interesting enough to have us present at their conference.

Photo credit: Jim!