Making Monsters: Exploring the Potential of Queer Game Design Methodologies in the Creation of Non-Human Avatars

Queer game designers are pushing the medium in new directions, subverting heteronormative design philosophies (Clarke, 2020) and resisting sanitised representations of LGBTQ+ identities (Yang, 2020). Games have proven to be a compelling tool for queer makers to enter into meaningful intersubjective dialogue concerning queer identity

politics and lived experiences within their communities (Yang, 2020). My research focuses on the queering of player-character design in games, utilising the themes and systems of monstrosity. Monsters are useful devices for exploring queer themes as their existence within a text demarcates and dissolves

boundaries between identity categories, such as gender, sexuality and human/non-human (Graham, 2002); they also embody otherness, impurity and threat, from the perspective of heteronormative human protagonists (Carroll, 1990). Monsters are prevalent in games, dispensing surmountable challenges for the player's entertainment,

designed to be defeated, and limited in their affordances (Svelch, 2023). Juul (2013) states that failure/defeat is an important component of what makes structured play pleasurable, but that time spent failing is unpleasant. Halberstam (2011) contends that the maximisation of (commonly accepted measures of) success is fundamentally a heteronormative endeavour and that to be queer is to actively embrace

and revel in failing at heteronormative virtues. There are examples of games that glorify spectacular failure in the general sense (Ruberg, 2019), however, player-monster games rarely position the player in a role that personifies and celebrates failure/defeat, leaving a significant gap in the knowledge of this design space.

To address this gap, my research will answer the following: 1. What are the different affordances between monsters in player-versus-monster and player-as-monster game formats through their capacity to define and dissolve identity binaries? 2. How can avatar design be queered in games by creating a monstrous body for the gamer that utilises

affordances found in non-player monsters? 3. Through practice-based research, what can be learned more broadly about queering the design process in games? To answer these questions, I will undertake practice-as-research, supported by analysis of existing games. I will conduct comparative formal analysis (Lankoski & Bjork, 2015) of thematically and systemically analogous

monsters across player-as-monster and player-versus-monster games, to outline the disparity between their technical affordances. I will also undertake textual analysis (Cole & Barker, 2020) through a queer lens, reading these monsters through their capacity to dissolve identity binaries (e.g., gender, sexuality, human/non-human)

based on their qualities and positioning in relation to the player. I will conduct practical experiments, prototyping small-scope games (Waern & Back, 2015) positioning the player as the monster. Each experiment will utilise a specific example of game-monstrosity, using affordances identified by my

comparative analysis. I will document this work through reflection-in-process and reflection-on-process (Scrivener, 2000) throughout each experiment. This will provide contributions to knowledge through practical insights into queering popular design conventions and the methodology of building a game around the affordances of the

player-avatar. I will share the creative process with my existing (Northern Ireland Game Developer Network, IMIRT, AMAZE) and future networks, through blogs and outreach work, aimed at improving impact on design professionals.