#aevee bee

[laciere]

Bo Ruberg: We Know The Devil is, as you say, about women who love other women, yet you've written online about being "against representation" in video games. What does that mean and how do you reconcile those approaches? Aevee Bee: That article was a little manifesto. When I say that I'm "against representation," I mean that representation can't just be a list of identity categories. It's not really representation unless you're creating complexity; without complexity, characters feel insincere and incomplete. The dumbed-down version of a queer person, or the queer person that never expresses their sexuality--these characters don't actually require you to empathize with queer people, because these characters have no sexuality. When you erase that, you erase their anchor, their passion, their frustrations, or their flaws even, especially their flaws. You're not doing empathy work if you're not engaging with these things, because these are the stumbling blocks for empathy. Sometimes people are like, "I like gay people who don't act gay." You know? Those are the people you're catering to when you make those sorts of characters. Identity is so important to talk about, yet it can be so limiting. I've been having a lot of discussions with queer activists and queer scholars about this desire to all call ourselves "queer," like we're this amorphous blob. That can actually be incredibly unhelpful because it doesn't acknowledge the very real differences that often exist between queer people. Our experiences are specific to our lives. Focusing only on identity, especially identity without experience, reduces everyone to an abstraction. Ruberg: Given how much you value the specifics of individual queer experience, how would you describe the complexities, as you call them, of your own queer identity? Bee: Being a woman is really important to me. Transness is also really important to me. In terms of sexuality, I tend to talk about how sexuality is practiced and understood rather than talking about specific attractions. What's the point of trying to say, "Oh, I have this very specific sexual identity" when sexuality is really hard to separate from gender identity and expression? Sexuality is more complicated than we often give it credit for. For example, I'm less interested in saying "I identify as bisexual," than I am in thinking about the ways that I love women and the ways that I love men and how those are unfortunately incredibly different because of all these social pressures, my own histories, and my internalized baggage. How do we navigate that together with another person? What does a relationship with someone like me look like? it's one thing to be like, "We have this list of labels," but we have so few models for what those labels are supposed to look like.

"Aevee Bee: On Designing for Queer Players and Remaking Autobiographical Truth", in The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers are Reimagining The Medium of Video Games (2020, Duke University Press)

[erintoknow]

The fundamental limitation of dystopian fiction is that it focuses on exploring a single ideological victory and what its complete takeover of society would look like. The unconscious premise is that there will only be a single dystopia, and that dystopia must rise above the others to become absolute. In reality, all of these dystopias can compete and ally with each other; we have a cyberpunk dystopia living right next to a fascist one, separated by a state line, a county line, or living within each other, parasites within parasites. But what if none of these factions need to seize total control in order to make our lives hell? What if they are already doing whatever they want?

[biocrafthero]

Some Queer Games and Devs to check out this Pride Month

Hello! I play a decent amount of video games, and like making posts about them. This year, I've been making a lot more posts analyzing and promoting games I particularly enjoy. I'm making this post as a way to share games that have queer developers and/or topics to celebrate this year's Pride Month.

All games' websites will be linked in their respective sections, and I urge you to check out any of the games that speak to you. There's a decent amount of variety on this list, so please give all of them a look!

Please note that all of these games are ones I have personally played--I am not including games I have not played yet for myself. If you were hoping for your favorite title to be on here, I am very sorry but chances are I just haven't heard of or played it yet.

ANATOMY (2016)

ANATOMY is a horror game released in 2016 by developer Kitty Horrorshow (she/her). While the game does not contain any queer themes, the dev is openly transgender.

The plot of the game coincides with the gameplay, which centers around walking through a nearly pitch-black house collecting tapes and putting them in a tape player. Despite its simplicity, the game has been commended by many for being "the scariest game they have ever played." The story of the house is uncovered as you listen to each of the tapes, and reentering each time the game shuts you out.

This game features themes surrounding body horror and psychological horror, and one moment that can be seen as a mild jumpscare if it is not expected.

A full playthrough takes about an hour, with multiple endings. However, all roads lead to the same destination.

ANATOMY is available for $3 USD on itch.io.

We Know The Devil (2015)

We Know The Devil is a visual novel developed by the team Worst Girls Games, which consists of Aevee Bee (she/her) and Max Schwartz (any). Music for the game is composed by Alec Lambert.

The plot of the game surrounds three teenagers who have been sent to a religious summer camp in the American midwest. With just one week left, they're all hoping for everything to be smooth sailing, but nothing is ever that simple. On this fateful night, they must face the devil; two will make it out, but one will be left behind.

The gameplay focuses on making decisions on who gets paired up together, and consequently who gets left out of the interaction. These choices determine what ending you get and there are never any wrong answers.

Queer rep in this game consists of polyamory, lesbianism, transgenderism, and transhumanism. There is also mentioned homosexuality regarding a male character that is only ever talked about in passing.

This game contains themes surrounding religion, internalized homophobia, along with general homophobia and transphobia. There are scenes that depict underage drinking, vomiting, body horror, and some moments that can be interpreted as self-harm. Some sound effects in the game can be jarring, along with the track "Incense (Smoke & Honey)" from the OST, a song that plays in three of the four endings.

A single playthrough can take about two hours depending on reading speed. There are four endings, meaning a minimum of four playthroughs.

We Know The Devil is available for $6.66 USD on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and itch.io.

There is also the demo for the game, which is free to download off of the game's itch.io page and baked into the Switch port.

Heaven Will Be Mine (2017)

Heaven Will Be Mine is a visual novel also developed by the team Worst Girls Games, with soundtrack once again composed by Alec Lambert.

The game's plot centers around three factions in the solar system. They have all been called back to Earth under threat of death; two factions want to stay in space, while one is choosing to return. At the start of the game, you can choose one out of three characters to follow the POV of, each belonging to one of the three factions.

Gameplay is similar to We Know The Devil, meaning that you make decisions throughout the story that determine what ending you get. There are no wrong choices, only ones that lean in the favor of one of the faction out of your options.

Queer rep in this game consists primarily of polyamory, lesbianism, transgenderism, and transhumanism. There may be more I am forgetting to mention.

This game contains scenes depicting violence, body horror, and discussions about sexuality, abuse, and trauma. This game is meant for a more mature audience than the others on this list. Some sound effects and music in the game can be jarring. There may be content warnings I am forgetting to put here.

The game has three major story routes and three endings, and each playthrough takes around four to five hours depending on reading speed. At minimum, you will need to play this game three times.

Heaven Will Be Mine is available for $15 USD on Steam, iOS, and itch.io. It should be noted that the price on iOS is different than on other platforms, being listed at $5 USD.

In Stars And Time (2023)

In Stars And Time is a turn-based RPG developed by insertdisc5 (she/they) and published by Armor Games Studios. Music for the game is composed by Studio Thumpy Puppy.

The story follows your typical RPG party, starting the day before the final dungeon and final boss. However, when you go in, you get caught in a trap and die. Time suddenly rewinds, and you find yourself at the day before your party entered the dungeon. You are caught in a time loop, and must find a way to stop the final boss and escape the loops.

Gameplay mostly consists of turn-based combat with enemies, and making the right dialogue choices when talking to NPCs and your party members. There are several puzzles throughout the game that encourage you to use the looping mechanic to solve them.

Queer rep in this game consists of transgenderism (transmasc and nonbinary explicitly, but there are some characters that can be interpreted as transfem, agender, and/or genderfluid), aromanticism, asexuality, lesbianism and homosexuality, and a plot thread that involves t4t romance. All six major characters have canonical pronoun sets. There may be more rep I am forgetting to include here in this list.

This game contains scenes of mild violence, self-hatred and other heavy mental heath topics, one scene of child endangerment, unreality, and optional scenes involving self-harm and suicide.

The average playtime for this game is 26 hours, which increases to 36 depending on how much optional content you engage with. There is technically one ending, but an optional plot thread can get you an alternate version of the ending screen. This plot thread is highly encouraged to be followed.

In Stars And Time is available for $20 USD on Steam, itch.io, Nintendo Switch, and PS4 and PS5.

There is also a previous title titled START AGAIN: a prologue, which is available on Steam and itch.io. This game does not need to be played to understand In Stars And Time, but is highly recommended nonetheless.

Some personal anecdotes regarding each of these games:

In Stars And Time is one of the few games where I saw a character (Siffrin in this case), pointed at them, and said "They're just like me!"

We Know The Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine both have themes of queer solidarity in the face of oppression and it fills me with rebellious rage (positive).

ANATOMY is one of my favorite games ever made, and is objectively the scariest game I have ever played.

Almost all of these games have made me almost cry, which is a very high bar for a game to reach. The only one that didn't is ANATOMY, mostly because it evokes more fear than it does tears for me.

We Know The Devil in particular evokes a very specific nostalgia for me, so the setting and characters hit differently for me than they may for others.

I played In Stars And Time shortly after a breakup and consequently developed the most horrific crush on the character Isabeau. It is frankly quite embarrassing.

[horrorgems]

Just finished playing the visual novel We Know The Devil by Aevee Bee and Mia Schwartz over the weekend and I’m still digesting everything. Such a good game, such a good experience, it’s trans and queer and I cannot recommend it enough . Just… so much love in my head for this

[osg-pod]

We just invented a holiday, it's called National Podcast Feed Surprise Drop day and we're inaugurating it with a special interview Alice conducted with Worst Girls Games author Aevee Bee! Check out our Heaven Will Be Mine episode and then give the interview a listen, or be crushed by our Gravity!

https://on-the-shoulders-of-giants.zencast.website/episodes/bonus-interview-with-aevee-bee

[honestlyvan]

I never ever care about how the science fiction premise works; I promise, from the bottom of my heart, to believe in the explanation of absolutely anything you tell me, even if the explanation is "I don't even feel like explaining it." Science fiction or fantasy isn't even a good way to describe Dangan Ronpa; it's just pure Anime, reality cartoonishly distorted in ways that will make feel real. My earnest belief is that science fiction or fantasy should do the same, alter reality only insofar as it brings out the truth reality can't bear. I have no use for explanations that don't offer me that.

Aevee Bee, "In Searing Pink"

[hidden-tea-party]

Sorry if im just annoying, but one of the writers of We Know The Devil (Aevee Bee) is also a big umineko enthusiast

no annoyance don't worry! all media is umineko - the grand conspiracy

(even though I've never actually heard of we know the devil... does that make me uncultured or unburdened by knowledge? who's to say)

[stupidstupidratcreatures]

there are people on the blogging website for gay idiots that love reading paragraphs about games who dont know who aevee bee is

[wonderful101gecs]

wait, i just realized you are not Aevee Bee (award-winning writer and co-creator of WKTD and HWBM, games which helped me work out some of my gender fuck), you are are Codex Entry (award-eligible youtube video essayist, fellow pathologic and morrowind obsessive, and general cool chick, who also helped me with gender fucj too)!

hello

sorry for the confusion

JFDKSHFDKLS i apologize, I'm a huge HWBM fan who lowkey relates to Saturn a bit too much and am planning on making a video about it in the near-ish future so the pfp felt like a natural choice. Hello, happy to hear i helped u with gender fuck o/

[nephriteheart]

I really miss reading aevee bee talk about just about anything. she went all in on cohost and it's gone now, and I wouldn't begrudge her for just giving up on Online. but reading the things she wrote did so much to change the way I understand the world. I hope she resurfaces somewhere.

[laciere]

Bo Ruberg: In making video games about queer and trans characters, like We Know The Devil, do you draw from your own personal experiences? Aevee Bee: Yes, but it's more complicated than that. I've been thinking a lot about this idea of "empathy games." You're supposed to be able to experience what it's like to be this other person, right? To me, that sounds very similar to the confessional writing that a lot of queer artists get pushed into. It's like, "Tell us about your queerness" rather than "Create a new experience for yourself." I'm wary of confessional work, but also confessional work is just hard for me to do. I have other ways of getting at similar things. We Know the Devil is super autobiographical, but it's also about me unpacking that autobiographical history and finding alternative avenues out of it. A confessional story about my own childhood would be this static product, like, "Look at this. Here is a thing that happened. It's tragic and bad. Empathize with it."Instead, the game offers alternatives. It says, "Here's a thing that brings you in and allows you to both experience queer suffering but also to escape from it." In making a game like that, you can control and process your personal truth instead of just reproducing it. Rather than give an outsider ownership of whatever queer story I'm telling, I feel like I'm giving other queer people the ability to reclaim and control their own stories and their pasts. Maybe that's too idealistic, but a lot of people have interpreted We know the Devil as being about how they were able to process, understand, or control a queer narrative. The game has these tragic endings but then it has this really powerful, subversive final act that allows you to break through. I think that's part of the game's success. Ruberg: You make an important point about the value of designing queer games for queer players, rather than for the mainstream. Are you also interested in straight, cisgender people playing your games? Bee: I'm not trying to make games for straight people. At some point, I had the revelation that I didn't need to make work that was accessible for as wide an audience as possible. I was like, "oh wait, I can make this stuff for a niche audience and be successful." That was informed by my journalism around #GamerGate, because I was like, "Why are we making stuff for these people who don't understand, who don't want to understand, or who are actively trying to attack us for doing this sort of work?" We don't need to talk to them. Rather than putting all your energy into trying to convert the one person who is really angry on the internet, why not take that time and create work for people who actually matter? With that said, with We Know the Devil, I wrote a very honest and personal story that was true to myself and that is inherently accessible for others. The game is about women in love with other women, but a lot of folks who don't identify in that way still really relate to the narrative. If you're interested in making games, you should be thinking about it that way rather than trying to create something for some other person. Instead, be like, "I am creating this thing for myself and you are invited to participate. I am asking you to open yourself and leave behind certain assumptions." That's what good stories do. They invite you in.

"Aevee Bee: On Designing for Queer Players and Remaking Autobiographical Truth", in The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers are Reimagining The Medium of Video Games (2020, Duke University Press)

[cielsosinfel]

I just logged into my DW for the first time since July and saw I had a draft version of another reading log, with books I completely forgot about reading lmao. lmao.

cw for some mentions of SA/CSA for the last two books.

I'll jot some quick thoughts (and one actually written out bit of the draft about Amanat):

Amanat: Women's Writing from Kazakhstan, translated and edited by Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega: This is the first anthology of Kazakh women's literature available in English, and for many of the stories it's the first time they've been published in translation (all originally written in Russian or Kazakh.) It was very interesting! I liked a lot of the stories, though I felt the quality of translation greatly deferred throughout the book... A lot of the stories have a heavy focus on the anxieties of post-Soviety society, the disconnect on a generational and an individual level of pre-, during-, and post-Soviet Kazakhstan culture and society. it made me desperately wish more writing from this literary tradition were available to read in English. One entry in particular, an excerpt from the longer novel The Nanny, made me want to read the novel in full so badly! But this is all that's available...

Stories I particularly enjoyed: Aslan's Bride by Nadezhda Chernova, tl Fairweather-Vega Hunger (excerpt from The Nanny) by Aigul Kemelbayeva, tl Batayeva Propiska by Raushan Baiguzhayeva, tl Fairweather-Vega The Beskempir by Zira Naurzbayeva, tl Fairweather-Vega The Rival by Zira Naurzbayrva, tl Fairweather-Vega Black Snow of December by Asel Omar, tl Fairweather-Vega

The Queer Games Avant-garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games, edited by Bo Ruberg*: To be honest, almost every game and game developer in this was someone I was unfamiliar with. But I appreciated reading Aevee Bee's interview a lot, her view on "representation" and putting one's own experiences and identities into their work resonated. Robert Yang also had an interesting interview; those are the only two developers whose games I'd actually played before reading lol.

I actually posted a few excerpts that stood out to me here on my sideblog: https://laciere.tumblr.com/tagged/bo%20ruberg

Wanting: Women Writing About Desire: This is an anthology from many different women of many different backgrounds, writing about their relationship to sex and actively desiring sex. I REALLY LIKED THIS. I don't feel I can go into it now, it's been too many months. There are a lot of good pieces about desire after sexual violation, or even desire in the midst of sexual violence. It has one of the most honest and brutally powerful pieces about CSA and the suffering wrought by traumatic bonding that I have read. There's also a piece about a butch lesbian struggling with butchness and what she's allowed to desire, that spoke to me.

And there were more I liked a lot! it was a library book I should borrow again, probably.

How to Cook your Daughter: A Memoir by Jessica Hendra: This is a memoir about the author being sexually abused by her father, who was a major celebrity and a very abusive, very unwell man, and confronting him about it in adulthood. I found this incredibly cathartic to read. I want to buy my own copy eventually.

CW for the aforementioned topics but this passage in particular was deeply affecting to read, for me:

[highfructosefemur]

I like Aevee Bee’s sense of imagery and writing, but the “Golden Endings” for both their games really rub me the wrong way, spoilers obviously

A vital component of both WKTD and HWBM is the fact that the protagonists are semi-literal metaphors for various minority groups, but the most complicated ending to get has them fully reconcile with their differences and go out as friends as allies. Which is fine and dandy, but does the author really want us to root for the ultimate heartwarming glorious victory for these characters being “haha let’s poison the water supply and begin the apocalypse” and “let’s plunge humanity into an apocalyptic space war”? Like yeah fuck the establishment but you girls are going off a little too hard.

It makes me think of those embarrassing YES QUEEN SLAY montages in the wake of those Game of Thrones episodes, where tearing down the old horrific opressive system immediately segues into becoming the new horrific oppressive system. “I want to become the Bydo from R-Type” is top nonbinary goals though, I can’t disagree with that.

One of my perennial probably-never-gonna-happen projects is doing a deep dive into the parallels between how Disco Elysium blurs the line between political theory and physics and the way We Know the Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine do the same. Like, they're by no means compatible systems of metaphysics, and given both the timing of their authorship and the circumstances of their publication I strongly doubt that either one influenced the other, but there are some very conspicuous points of intersection.

(Incidentally, if the way that Disco Elysium literalises the dialectical weight of history in its setting's laws of physics is living rent-free in your brain, you'd probably get a real kick out of We Know the Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine, assuming that frank discussions of religious trauma and transphobic violence aren't deal-breakers for you.)

[biocrafthero]

I forgot where I read it (it's probably just somewhere on Aevee Bee's cohost page idk) but I remember seeing that part of the original concept for WKTD was like, everyone got a secret character sheet only they could look at which contained things like their whole shtick and individual goal and everyone had to do stuff as a team while keeping their secrets and tbh that'd go hard as a framework for a TTRPG

[imminentduckthreat]

i know signalis got its flowers and then some, but idk, i want it to be way more overhyped than it is this is gonna be way more suspicious a statement when i release Lulled

i swear, these depressing sci fi lesbians are different. i started working on them in 2018 (probably. it has to be a way back because i still thought i was a lesbian at the time). if anyone gets to complain it's either Alex Garland or Aevee Bee. or anyone involved in Zero Escape

[anantradingpvtltd]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] In The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Bonnie Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video game developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games. Speaking with insight and candor about their creative practices as well as their politics and passions, these influential and innovative game makers tell stories about their lives and inspirations, the challenges they face, and the ways they understand their places within the wider terrain of video game culture. Their insights go beyond typical conversations about LGBTQ representation in video games or how to improve “diversity” in digital media. Instead, they explore queer game-making practices, the politics of queer independent video games, how queerness can be expressed as an aesthetic practice, the influence of feminist art on their work, and the future of queer video games and technology. These engaging conversations offer a portrait of an influential community that is subverting and redefining the medium of video games by placing queerness front and center. Interviewees: Ryan Rose Aceae, Avery Alder, Jimmy Andrews, Santo Aveiro-Ojeda, Aevee Bee, Tonia B******, Mattie Brice, Nicky Case, Naomi Clark, Mo Cohen, Heather Flowers, Nina Freeman, Jerome Hagen, Kat Jones, Jess Marcotte, Andi McClure, Llaura McGee, Seanna Musgrave, Liz Ryerson, Elizabeth Sampat, Loren Schmidt, Sarah Schoemann, Dietrich Squinkifer, Kara Stone, Emilia Yang, Robert Yang Publisher ‏ : ‎ Duke University Press (20 March 2020) Language ‏ : ‎ English Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1478006587 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1478006589 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 408 g Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.03 x 22.86 cm Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India [ad_2]