Exploring Masculine Stereotypes Through A Queer Lens in Kinetic Novel-Making

Sammanfattning

Queerness has an established history in screen-based media, be it in film or digital games, yet its representation is often poor in execution, mired with stereotypes, forced tropes or simply weak writing leading to insincere and even problematic depictions of the Queer community. Queer independent game developers champion depicting queer people in order to offer better and more authentic experiences, but even they are not exempt from mistakes, often due to a lack of time, resources and funding. This thesis aims to learn more about the origins of queer stereotypes and queer coding in Western film and how it has impacted modern games, followed by the generation of an original Kinetic Visual Novel as a research-inspired praxis informed by both research as well as theauthor’s personal experiences of his own queer habitus. The aim is to explore subverting players’ expectations of visual stereotypes and tropes by actively challenging norms in character design and writing. As this work is a mix of plaited exegesis with other methods, the results will be reflective of the work the author has done. It will be tied in with information gained from player and stakeholder interviews and reflected upon from a unique perspective of a queer author and artist.