Initial Research 6

i've been looking into more aspects of video games and have started to look in more detail into LGBT characters in gaming and the response to them.
Bioware appears to have the best representation of LGBT characters so far, with multiple romance options and inclusion of transgender characters. Certain characters can only engage in certain types of romances, such as Dorian can only have a successful romance with a male inquisitor, whereas other characters such as Iron bull and Josephine can be romanced no mater the gender of the inquisitor. There are also characters that can't be romanced with as they have other aspect to their characters story that are more pressing to the story and their development.

I have been watching Extra Credits on youtube, a channel mainly dedicated to gaming and games development- i need to take notes on some videos.
I have been playing through undertale as it has fun and good game play, and resembles an jrpg with it's graphics and menu fight mechanics. The art style is very retro, and seems easier to replicate than going straight into trying 3d graphics and animations, which i am still working on.

i have started to look into articles on JSTOR about LGBT representations and will go through them thoroughly at a later time. 

I intend to do more work on unity and blender, as well as trying to learn how to use game maker, as it has a simpler coding base and seems like a good starting point.

this guy is so fun

sans being sans-y

hes so cool

adorable goat mom

where the feels struck... again

Initial Research 5- games

Ive been looking at game formats and engines, and with the time to make the project it seems like a 2D game would be a good place to start. I have started working with two new softwares that use 2D art and pixel art, GameMaker and RPG maker MV. The graphics are similar to the classic Nintendo and Pokemon games, in that there is a 2d map that the player can explore. These platforms also let you edit and alter the graphics and sprites any way you want, so the game can me as detailed as you want. 

I've been looking into the Final Fantasy series in more detail as they have a vast range of graphics, from pixel to hyper realism and their game play is good. Ive also been looking into Pokemon games and under tale, particularly the early Pokemon games and the ones produced for game boy advance as these are the games I'm most familiar with in terms of game play as I grew up with them. 

classic Pokemon battle graphics

Final Fantasy 1 in fight graphics

Final fantasy 15 in fight graphics

I have looked into some articles from gaming magazines about the game production process and the stages involved, as well as looking at some concept art books from game special editions- mass effect 3 and Total War Shonen 2, as they provide a great insight into the thought process of the designers and artists and it's interesting to compare the original designs to the game play graphics. The concept art is vastly more detailed and stylized than the game graphics, which I'm guessing has to do with the fact that concept art doesn't have to move or be able to be manipulated by the player, so there is more artistic freedom. It also doesn't have to be digitized and can be done in practically any medium, though most artists use computers solely as it is easier to go from the artwork to the game software that way.

Pokemon emerald on game boy advance sp

opening graphics to Pokemon red

Initial Research 4

I've started to look into the production of games and how the development process goes. I have started playing around with Blender and Unity, which are free 3d modelling, animation and game-making software, and am starting to get to grips with them. I've been playing through games and watching play-throughs of different games and genres in order to see the different art styles and player interfaces, and see how different genres handle story lines and main and sub-quests.


I have been playing games that I know have LGBT characters such as dragon age 2, DA: inquisition, the Mass Effect series and Life is Strange in order to see how the games handle themes and story lines and how they handle the representation of the characters. I've also looked into LGBT steryotypes and what are the most common ones that are portrayed in media

Blender Logo- 3D modelling and animation software

 

Unity Logo- game making platform that can also produce animations.

Initial Research 3

Grell Sutcliff

I looked into the character of Grell Sutcliffe in Kuroshitsuji (black butler) as I really like the manga and anime series. Grell is confirmed by Yana Toboso ( mangaka) as being a pre-op trans woman, and this factors into a large part of their story line as their opening into the series is when they make friends with another character Madam Red. At first it is because Grell admires the way in which Madam murders her victims as there is usually a lot of blood and Grell really likes the colour red. In the manga when Grell asks why Madam kills her victims and it is revealed that it is due to the fact that they can have children when she can't, Grell sympathises with her as they too cant carry children, and this forms part of the bond between the two. This is left out of the storyline in the anime, and it is just shown that Grell likes the madam and agrees to kill her due to the killing alone.
One thing that is confusing for a while was Grell's gender identity, as until Yana wrote Grell's confessional, it was very unclear, and it is still a big topic of discussion in the fan base as to how exactly to refer to them. Most of the other characters in the series refer to them using he/him pronouns and titles, whereas Grell refers to themselves using feminine titles and corrects the others quite a few times when they refer to them as a he, usually quite violently. This causes some issues with representation as it is not clear what exactly Grell is representing. They're incredibly flamboyant and flirt with every male character at some point, but this could be Grell being portrayed as the stereotypical flamboyant gay man, and the other characters  call them gay at times. It still doesn't seem completely clear on what Grell is supposed to represent, but they are still a great character none the less.

Grell and Madam Red official art from Yana Toboso's Art Book

 


Grell Sutcliff cover art

Initial research 2

Revolutionary Girl Utena Poster

Looked into Takako Shimura- mangaka who writes and illustrates LGBT themed anime and manga such as Wandering Son and Sweet Blue Flowers( I also looked at studio ghibli as they use a similar art style- particularly in "when marnie was here"). this lead onto other anime and manga that are lgbt inclusive such as Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon ( BUT NOT THE ENGLISH VERSION AND THEY MADE 4 CHARACTERS WHO ARE IN GAY RELATIONSHIPS INTO COUSINS OR BROTHERS WHICH IS NOT THE RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC OF THE STORY AND CHANGES PARTS OF THE PLOT COMPLETELY)
Other anime and manga use lgbt characters but don't focus the main plot line around it, though sometimes the representation of the characters can be very stereotypical and a bit dubious at times.

Wandering Son cover art