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Melbourne Queer Games Festival shortlist released

The Melbourne Queer Games Festival has released its shortlisted titles for 2018.

The shortlisted games (as follows and in no particular order) will feature as part of a two-day celebration of queer games that begins today.

Shrug Island – The Meeting

  • Developer: Tiny Red Camel
  • Platforms: PC via Steam ($9.99 USD)
  • Summary: “Shrug Island – The Meeting is a warmly wistful adventure, a shared journey into questions of fluid identities through a playful celebration of music, mystery and nature’s dances.”

That Boy is a Monstr

  • Developer: TimesNTroubles
  • Platforms: Browser-based game (play here)
  • Summary: “Dating while gay and transgender, and the miscommunications that come with it.”

All Walls Must Fall

  • Developer: inbetweengames
  • Platforms: PC via Steam ($9.99 USD)
  • Summary: “All Walls Must Fall is a Tech-Noir Tactics game set in Berlin 2089, where the Cold War never ended – set entirely in the city’s gay clubs.”

Kitty Powers’ Love Life

  • Developer: Magic Notion
  • Platforms: PC via Steam ($12.99 USD), iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
  • Summary: “An inclusive, comedic relationship simulator hosted by drag developer Kitty Powers.”

Disaster Log C

  • Developer: Sofdelux Studio
  • Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux via Itch.io (name your price)
  • Summary: “Two girls try to survive a rainy apocalypse, and may or may not fall in love along the way.”

Saving You, From Yourself

  • Developer: pc0hidq
  • Platforms: Browser-based via Itch.io
  • Summary: “You play as a therapist who decides if someone is transgender or not.”

Pendula Swing

  • Developer: Valiant Game Studio
  • Platforms: PC via Steam (Part 1 is free, Part 2 is $4.99 USD)
  • Summary: “Tolkien meets The Great Gatsby in Pendula Swing, an episodic adventure game set in a fantasy version of the American Roaring 20s.”

Strange Flesh

  • Developer: blazing cheeks, Ursa Maximus and Fann
  • Platforms: Windows, Mac or Browser-based via website
  • Summary: “A porny, leather-clad 2D beat ‘em up with cigars, hypnosis, and bdsm themes.”

Lucah: Born of a Dream

  • Developer: melessthantree
  • Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux via Itch.io ($20.00 USD for hyperviolence mixtape)
  • Summary: “Lucah, The Marked Child, is cursed to have their inner demons come to life anywhere they go.”

The Colored Moth

  • Developer: Ahmed Khalifa, Christopher Michaels
  • Platforms: Browser-based via website
  • Summary: “A narrative game made in Bitsy to explore the idea of being different in religious society and being outed and betrayed by a close person. The game is inspired by true events.”

Striped Swipers: When Booty Calls

  • Developer: Joshua Casiano
  • Platforms: PC via Itch.io (demo currently available)
  • Summary: “An adventure game following 3 burglars and the quest for booty.”

Northanger Abbey

  • Developer: Spiral Atlas
  • Platforms: PC, Mac via Itch.io
  • Summary: “A queer version of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.”

Love on the Peacock Express

  • Developer: Various
  • Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux via Itch.io (name your price)
  • Summary: “Solve mysteries and kiss older women in this WLW visual novel set on a curious train.”

One Button Nipple Golf

  • Developer: jrap
  • Platforms: Browser-based, PC via Itch.io (name your price)
  • Summary: “People always hurt me because they take sex more seriously than me. Would they treat me so differently If we’d just got naked and played golf?”

Starcatchers

  • Developer: Sean Wejebe, David Jalbert
  • Platforms: Browser-based, PC, Mac via Itch.io (name your price)
  • Summary: “A precision maneuvering game about two stargazing boyfriends.”

Genderwrecked

  • Developer: Ryan Rose Aceae
  • Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux via Itch.io ($6.66 USD or more)
  • Summary: “A post-apocalyptic genderpunk visual novel about traveling broken lands and kissing/fighting/talking to monsters in an attempt to learn the true meaning of a mysterious force called GENDER.”

Newfound Courage

  • Developer: Curtis Campion, Kurt Prieto, Lee Arthur, Jessica Kelly
  • Platforms: PC via Steam (coming soon)
  • Summary: “Newfound Courage is a story-driven adventure game about a gay hero.”

The above titles will feature in a special livestreamed event that starts at 6.30pm AEDT today, Monday 22 October, over on Twitch.

Congratulations to the games (and their developers) shortlisted for this year!

For more on the Melbourne Queer Games Festival, head here.


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.