It’s Pride Month, but it’s also June in Houston, so I’m spending all my time inside with the blackout curtains drawn hiding from the sun. Luckily, there are plenty of great video games with queer characters and stories to keep me occupied. Here are 10 from my own personal library I recommend.
10. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
Developer Dontnod helped launch this queer game renaissance with Life is Strange, and those game should definitely be on everyone’s to-play list. However, their recent release, Lost Records, is another fine addition to their catalogue. Part supernatural mystery in the woods, part coming-of-age story, it follows a young would-be filmmaker as she navigates strange phenomena and her own blossoming sexuality.The game’s use of piecing the world together through the use of an old ’90s camcorder is a genius meta commentary on the camera mode of modern games, adding a neat mechanical twist on what could have been a compelling, but standard adventure game.
9. Cookie Cutter
Every Metroidvania fan is sitting on their thumbs waiting for Silksong. Until then, try Cookie Cutter, a cyberpunk, hyper-violent sidescroller with a kick-ass lesbian protagonist. You play as Cherry, a gynoid trying to rescue her girlfriend/creator after the local megacorporation has kidnapped her and nearly destroyed Cherry. Cherry is a joy to control, carving her way through enemies with bloody enthusiasm. It ends with the greatest literal kick in the dick in game history, so you’ll always have that to look forward to.
8. Unsighted
On a similar note, Unsighted is an isometric Metroidvania about another LGBTQ+ robot trying to save the ones she loves from a twisted world. This time, you’re Alma, a warbot in a race against time as all your fellow automatons lose the “anima” that gives them sentience. It’s a simple enough game with a brutally beautiful combat style and a story that mimics living with disability as well. The pixel art is gorgeous, and the gameplay surprisingly deep for something developed by a two-person team.
7. Tacoma
Developer Fullbright’s Gone Home remains a groundbreaking entry in both the evolution of the adventure game and the acceptance of queer themes in gaming. That said, their sci-fi follow-up, Tacoma, is a rarely given the same love. You play as a non-binary space salvager, Amy, who investigates an abandoned station to find out what happened to its crew. In addition to Amy, several of the characters whose lives you piece together from recordings are queer. It’s a cutting commentary on familial rights, the right to autonomy, and the anti-labor movement that more people should play in addition to its famous predecessor.
6. Haven
When Haven first launched in 2020, its two protagonists were only available to play as a man and a woman. In 2022, developer The Game Bakers released a free update that allowed you to customize Yu and Kay to be a same-sex couple. This came with full voice acting, so it was more than just some new art and dialogue screens. The game follows a couple that has run away from their disapproving families to survive on an uninhabited planet, gathering resources and fighting local fauna to upgrade their home base. The world is much more expansive than most survival games, and playing the pair as a queer couple adds a whole new dimension to their elopement.
5. Rollerdrome
Heavily inspired by the classic film Rollerball, you play as Kara, a roller-skating, gun-toting competitor in the titular game. Announcers refer to Kara exclusively by they/them pronouns, signaling that they are non-binary. Another player does pointed refer to them as she/her, but he’s also a sore loser alpha male type so take that with a grain of salt. The playstyle is basically an arena shooter meets Tony Hawk Pro Skater (it was developed Roll7, who does the OlliOlli series) with a breathtaking minimalist art style reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge. The difficulty, like all Roll7 games, spikes hard about halfway through, but the settings have some nice assists if you just want to get on with the story. Plus, there’s a level set in what is clearly meant to be the Houston Galleria!
4. Unpacking
The coziest game to ever curl up in a beanbag chair, Unpacking is also a masterpiece of environmental storytelling. Over the course of several levels, you help an unnamed protagonist unpack a series of apartments and later houses, making sure everything is in its proper place. The character’s narrative unfolds through the items you put away, like pictures and clothes, showing how her life changes over a generation. As you play, you realize she is both Jewish and either bisexual or a lesbian. It’s subtle and extremely homey, the perfect game for a lazy afternoon avoiding the outside.
3. Date Everything
Imagine a dating simulator where EVERYTHING is on the table, including the table. In the recently released Date Everything, you can romance your own bed, the dust bunnies under the bed, a D20, the walls, your computer, and a dozen other fully-voiced NPCs. Naturally, many of these characters are a variety of sexualities and genders, so you’re never starved for representation. It’s a clever concept that breathes new life into the dating sim.
2. Baldur’s Gate 3
The latest entry in the Baldur’s Gate series is probably the gayest thing ever expressed in interactive media. Your player character wakes up in a mindflayer dungeon and is in danger of being transformed into one because of a parasite implanted in them. This launches an epic quest to rid yourself of the parasite. Everything else is an open-world RPG. Not only can you customize your gender, pronouns, appearance, and sexuality to whatever you want, the fantasy world is full of queer characters across the spectrum. All of it is handled with humor, taste, and a clear respect for the LGBTQ+ community. You’ll be lost for days wandering this perfectly crafted, extremely queer world.
1. Paradise KIller
My personal favorite discovery over the last couple of years is Paradise Killer, an open word detective game about horny gods and the predatory nature of religion. Lady Love Dies is a celestial detective tasked with solving a murder on an island that is about to be apocalypsed. You guide her through interrogations and explorations, learning about the strange gods of the world and how they use worshippers as fuel for their attempts to create a utopia. Lady Love Dies can have romantic trysts with several of the characters, men and women (or however you want to define some of the unearthly denizens). It’s a bold take on the mystery game set on a fantastic world that is horny, weird, and very worth the time to play around in.
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