Queering Game Development

Robert Yang (@radiatoryang)Parsons the New School for Design MFADT

NYU Game Center

Queerness and Games ConferenceUC Berkeley

27 October 2013

First person modding as political practice- mods aren't “real games”?- modder inferiority complex- modding as path to “break in” AAA- distribution? How to play a mod?

- who REALLY owns your work?- who is “allowed” to mod?

For more info, c.f. “People's History of the FPS”

Paratext, packaging, production value

JOUI-F*CKING-SSANCEBIG TOE IS SO BIG

“NVIDIA: IT'S IN THE GAME”

CANDY

Game Design

Game Studies Game Development

Game Studies Game Development

YES!!!

Game Studies Game Development

MODDING!!!

"... First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."

“... programs must be written for people to read, and

only incidentally formachines to execute."

- one of the most influentialtexts on programming

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10by Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian BogostJeremy Douglass, Mark C. Marino, Michael MateasCasey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter (2012)

Criminal Code: Procedural Logic and Rhetorical Excess in Videogamesby Mark Sample (2013)

“Screen essentialism”

" the graphical user interface is …often uncritically accepted as the ground zero of the user’s experience”

- Matthew Kirschenbaum (2008)in “Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination”

Dead Island

default_player_setup.scr:

sub Skills_Purna(){[...]Skill(“TeamSpirit2Purna”);Skill(“FeministWhorePurna”);Skill(“MeleeDurabilityPurna”);[...]

}

"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."

- developer's response

default_player_setup.scr:sub Skills_Purna(){

Skill("TeamSpirit1Purna");Skill("SharpApprenticePurna");Skill("BoostAura1Purna");Skill("GLMeleeDmgPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("ComboCriticalProbPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("MoreCraftedAmmoPurna");Skill("RVTiefPurna");Skill("TSDmgIncrasedPurna");Skill("CraftedWeaponKillFuryPointsPurna");Skill("ChanceToFireUpEnemyPurna");Skill("TeamSpirit2Purna");Skill("FeministWhorePurna");[…]

}

“... programs must be written for people to read, and

only incidentally formachines to execute."

- one of the most influentialtexts on programming

"I found a way to alter the items you get when choosing a chapter."

- a Dead Island modder, on thefunctionality of default_player_setup.scr2+ weeks after release / day one patch

"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."

- developer's response

“PRIVATE” TO WHO? JUST TOEVERY SINGLEDEVELOPER?

“OBSCURE DEBUG” AS IN “RUN THIS EVERY TIME APLAYER STARTS A NEW GAME”

“... programs must be written for people to read, and

only incidentally formachines to execute."

- one of the most influentialtexts on programming

A BRIEF PRIMER TO READING SOME CODE:

// don't drink too much

beersDrunk = 4 ;

A “comment” is a note for humans; a summary of what code below does, or an explanation of something not obvious from the code already

Computers are good at remembering things in the form of “variables”...Imagine your computer memory is like an attic, filled with boxes.

The name of the variable; the label on a storage box.

A value for the variable;the thing inside a storage box.

There are also “types”; is it a small, long, big box?What kind of thing is in the box?

SOME CODE:

myGender = true;

// from “Gender is not a Boolean”, Kate Compton, Lost Levels 2012

SOME CODE:

// “true” means man?myGender = true;

SOME CODE:

isMasculine = false;

SOME CODE:

// values from 0.0 to 1.0// 0.0 gender means “fem”gender = 0.3222;

femininity = 0.8215;

SOME CODE:

// multiple choice, discreteenum Gender { Masculine,

Feminine,Genderqueer,Lasagna,All }

myGender = Gender.Feminine;

SOME CODE:

// gender as 4 dim. rotationmyGender = new Quaternion

( 0.24, 0.119, -54.2, 295 );

“... programs must be written for people to read, and

only incidentally formachines to execute."

- one of the most influentialtexts on programming

Queer Theory Game Development

YES!!!

YOUR ALLIES!!!!

- digital humanities!!!!- creative coding movements!!!- hacker spaces, direct action!!!- everyone in this room!!!!!- Different Games!!!- Transcode!!!!- Code Liberation!!!!!WE CAN DO IT WE CAN DO IT

SOME QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF OR YOUR TECHNICALLY-MINDED ALLIES:

- What sum of code and assets facilitate this simulation / interaction?- How was this ________ built?- Why did they do it this way? What are other possible implementations?- What happens if I change ________ ?- Cheap / expensive? Static / dynamic?

Elegant / “hack”? Stable / instable?

C'MON LET'S CHASE THEF*CKERS INTO THE MATRIX

thanks for listening bye(questions? twitter: @radiatoryang)