Queer Quest: Self Care and the Game Design Process

Watch Session:

Abstract:

The queer scene is known for self care, the tech and game dev scenes are not. In October I ran a Kickstarter for my game Queer Quest (a queer-as-fuck point-and-clit adventure game, think a gay Monkey’s Island meets feminist Leisure Suit Larry). During that month, Queer Quest was written about in Huffington Post, Ms, Bust, Kill Screen, and various other publications. It was also Greenlit on Steam. However, the Kickstarter failed, the trolls were loud, and the process was long. This talk is about the self care tactics I adopted to keep my momentum and spirits high while enduring a very stressful month of promotion. I’ll talk about things that worked, things that didn’t work, and what I would do differently. This is about what the game dev scene can learn from the queer community, as well as how to find balance between building a passion project without losing yourself.
Bio:

[She/her/they/them]

Self-taught programmer by day, video game designer by later day. Currently making Queer Quest, a queer-as-fuck point-and-clit adventure game. I like making faces at babies, giving other people’s dogs new names, and eating Nutella out of the jar with a spoon.