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Start Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In 2016, Queer OS: A User's Manual presented a queer transformation of our relationship to data from the core of an operating system, the kernel, upwards through writing code as a developer. In 2020, Bonnie Ruberg, in The Queer Games Avant-Garde, described how queer creators are transforming the games industry and the labor still needed for greater acceptance. Both works have pushed for applying a queer lens to the micro, programming level, and the creation of more queer games at a macro level as media people can experience. What is now necessary is a shift from "What are queer games?" into the more challenging pedagogical question of "How do I make a queer game?” raised by students who are interested in not only understanding queer games, but in developing queer games themselves.
This paper begins with an examination of how game design is commonly taught. The dominance of tutorials and teaching resources focused on mechanics such as interpersonal violence in game spaces, we argue, biases what students think is possible. These same tutorials and guides often influence what students produce in courses, especially when the pedagogical focus is on technical solutions instead of how ideologies become embedded in system design. We propose solutions for incorporating not only more queer games as examples, but also modeling a queer code pedagogy where students are taught to question the tools they use, how values are embedded in them, and what the affects these combinations will have on players.
Be gay, do code: Challenges for teaching game design and the need for queer code pedagogy
In 2016, Queer OS: A User's Manual presented a queer transformation of our relationship to data from the core of an operating system, the kernel, upwards through writing code as a developer. In 2020, Bonnie Ruberg, in The Queer Games Avant-Garde, described how queer creators are transforming the games industry and the labor still needed for greater acceptance. Both works have pushed for applying a queer lens to the micro, programming level, and the creation of more queer games at a macro level as media people can experience. What is now necessary is a shift from "What are queer games?" into the more challenging pedagogical question of "How do I make a queer game?” raised by students who are interested in not only understanding queer games, but in developing queer games themselves.
This paper begins with an examination of how game design is commonly taught. The dominance of tutorials and teaching resources focused on mechanics such as interpersonal violence in game spaces, we argue, biases what students think is possible. These same tutorials and guides often influence what students produce in courses, especially when the pedagogical focus is on technical solutions instead of how ideologies become embedded in system design. We propose solutions for incorporating not only more queer games as examples, but also modeling a queer code pedagogy where students are taught to question the tools they use, how values are embedded in them, and what the affects these combinations will have on players.
Bio
Daniel Cox is a PhD student in the Texts and Technology program and a full time instructor in the Games and Interactive Media department at UCF.
Kenton Taylor Howard is a full time instructor in UCF's Games and Interactive Media program. He recently completed a PhD in UCF's Texts and Technology Program as well; his dissertation title was Critical Modding: A Design Framework for Exploring Representation in Games.