Hook, Line & Sinker: Exploring Queer Identity and Experiences Through Video Game Design

Abstract

This practice-enabled research thesis investigates how a narrative-driven video game can employ naïvely illustrated artwork to visual queer identity and experiences. Drawing on the researcher’s experiences as a queer adolescent navigating a religious secondary school education, the study explores ways in which the crafting of video game assets can be used to interpret queer oppression, and failure. Methodologically, the thesis employed a heuristic inquiry that imported iterative design and auto-biographic elements to assist in the creation of a video game (Hook, Line & Sinker). The project's significance lies in its exploration of handcrafting, linear narrative, ironical humour and world creation as a means of expressing identity oppression experienced by queer secondary school students.