Sapphic Stereotyping

Making Institutionalised Heteronormativity Crystal Queer

Cara Alex Brown

Abertay University - School of Design & Informatics
(May, 2018)
Declaration
Author: Cara Alex Brown
Student Number: 1305765
Title: Sapphic Stereotyping – Making Heteronormativity Crystal Queer
Qualification Sought: BA (Hon) Computer Arts
Year: 2018

I. I certify that the aforementioned project is my original work

II. I agree that this dissertation may be reproduced, stored, or
transmitted in any form and by any means, without the prior
written consent of the undersigned.

Signature: Cara Alex Brown

Date: 16/05/2018

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Abstract
As modern socialism continues to grow, the issues surrounding healthy mass-media
representation grow ever more prevalent. Lingering biases built on a historical
foundation of racism, homophobia and sexism have emerged into a more critical
light than has ever previously fallen upon them.
This dissertation filters representational issues of social constructivism and popular
geopolitics specific to the worldwide lesbian community through the lens of a
dating simulation game in the interest of commentary and critique. As a societal
construct, heteronormativity controls our day-to-day lives, and few influential tools
employed by the hegemonic elite maintain this status quo as effectively as media
representation. Mainstream media have always excluded LGBT identities and
particularly shunned healthy depictions of queer women. To not be represented is
to be symbolically annihilated, and can lead to lack of understanding, acceptance,
and compassion by the masses.
Narratives based on prolific tropes, stereotypes and implementation strategies
directly demonstrate how and why negative representations inflict so much
damage. I have personally conceptualised, developed and produced an
interactive narrative experience consisting of 4 characters, 8 environments, 40
playable routes and 5 possible endings. Each character provides a unique insight
and commentary into a subset of issues, and the overarching plot dissects how we
consume media while urging that we, as a society, stop supporting negative
representations in the name of progress in favour of holding out for positive
representations to design a healthier future that ends the continued reproduction
of shallow, poorly developed characters.

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Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Games Industry & Potential Market
2.1 Symbolic Annihilation
2.2 Statistical Analysis
3. Existing Examples & Influences
3.1 Gay Buttons & Heteronormativity
3.2 Life is Strange
3.3 Dream Daddy; A Dad Dating Simulator
3.4 Steam Library
3.5 Yuri Game Jam
4. Methodology
5. Project Development – Theory & Narrative
5.1 Initial Concept & Alterations
5.2 Stereotyping & Tropes
5.3 Strategies Used to Uphold Heteronormativity
5.4 Narrative Overview & Story Premise
5.5 Script Writing; Robert McKee
6. Character Designs & Social Constructivist Commentary
6.1 Hayley – Discomfort Strategy
6.2 Ronnie – Subtext Strategy
6.3 Nami & Mari – Comfort Strategy & Hidden Character
7. Other Design Decisions & Implementation
7.1 Environmental Design
7.2 Lighting & Colour Theory
7.3 User Interface
7.4 Game Engine & Code
7.5 Asset Implementation
8. Summary & Conclusions
8.1 Successes & Failures
8.2 Alterations if Reproduced
8.3 Continuance Plans
9. Appendix
10. References

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Figure List
1. Life is Strange (Square Enix, 2015)
2. Dream Daddy – A Dad Dating Simulator (Game Grumps, 2017)
3. Love on the Peacock Express (Trainmilfsgame, Yuri Game Jam. 2017)
4. Cheryl Blossom (Riverdale, 2018)
5. Hayley: Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)
6. Ronnie: Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)
7. Nami/Mari: Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)
8. Environmental Designs, Set 1 (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)
9. Environmental Designs, Set 2 (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)
10. User Interface (Cara Alex Brown, 2018)

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Introduction
“While the study of gender and games, especially female characters and female gamers, has
already become a mainstay tradition, the study of sexuality in games has been more elusive.”
- Østby, K J. 2017
With the rise of modern socialism, equality is one of the topics at the forefront of political
discussion. Part of this is, of course, representation in the media. It is no secret that the spotlight
has always been biased towards those who are heterosexual and white; the golden age of
Hollywood is evidence enough. Lately however, steps have been taken to try and alter what is
shown to us; striving to provide a more comprehensive representation of the worlds’ population.
Diversity provides us with more scope for storytelling, unexplored and neglected narratives,
multifaceted characters, and more. A plethora of possibilities are at our finger tips.
Sadly, it is not that simple.
Despite the vast range of identities in the world, the media chooses to reflect a mere subset of
them. Even the more diverse characters that are being introduced are often hindered by the
heteronormative and racial biases so prevalent in our society. The term “heteronormative” was
popularized by Michael Warner (1991), and refers to “denoting or relating a world view that
promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation” (Oxford Dictionary, 2017).
One of the ways this is reinforced is the use of tropes – commonly repeated stereotypes and
storylines that are predictable, shallow, and superficial.
With this knowledge, I decided to explore and critique these issues through the lens of a dating
simulator; providing a narrative that subversively looks at these issues and provides a commentary
on them. This was achieved via applying the theories of popular geopolitics and social
constructivism; taking political, cultural, and societal issues, and opening them for discussion with
a general audience through what’s considered “low-brow” media (e.g. film, television, games). By
doing this, I hope to add to the dialogue surrounding representations of queer women in popular
media, and to provide insight for consideration to those who may not have been faced with these
issues before.

The Games Industry & Potential Market

Unlike other forms of media, such as film and television, the games sector is often dismissed when
expecting an upheld level of inclusion. It could be thought that this is partially due to games being
overlooked themselves; many view them as juvenile and inconsequential. It is already proven that
this is not the case, with the market for sales in the US having a near-tie between the 18-35 and
50+ demographics (ESA, 2017) and the industry having a revenue of £80.8 billion in 2017
(Newzoo, 2017). However even if it were juvenile, Sesame Street – a children’s television show –
has always been at the forefront of inclusive messaging. Ignorance is learned, not born, and if
children’s media can expose the world to multicultural representation, then why can’t games? One
argument is that it is due to society’s attempt at “symbolic annihilation”, a term coined by George

5
Gerbner that infers that underprivileged demographics are neglected in the media and therefore,
out of existence intentionally; “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence;
absence means symbolic annihilation” (Gerbner and Gross 1976: 182).
It is a naively inaccurate assumption that diverse games wouldn’t sell. For one, it disregards
multitudes of identities of players in the audience; a bizarre feat given that Asia is leading the
industry. Furthermore, it undermines the players themselves. To assume that gamers would only
want to play white, straight men discredits a mass chunk of the populations’ intelligence, depth,
and ability to empathise. However, when looking at specifically LGBT representation, some argue
that inclusion is not necessary as there is a lacking market. Setting aside that you do not have to
be LGBT to enjoy LGBT media – BAFTA winning “Life is Strange” (Square Enix, 2015) being a
leading example – the numbers within the industry can be analysed. According to statistics from
the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 155 million Americans regularly played video
games in 2015. We also know that 27% of that market is aged 18-35 (ESA, 2017), that 10 million
Americans identify as LGBT, and 58% of those are Millennials (born 1980-1998) (Gallup, 2017).
This means there are roughly 6 million LGBT individuals who are potential sales in a mass 27% of
the games market, and this is without taking into account individuals from alternate ages or
countries. The numbers speak for themselves, and the potential for sales to the LGBT market alone
is vast. Adding the sales of heterosexual players with no qualms about the content only strengthens
an already substantial potential.

Existing Examples & Influences

Currently, most queer representation is achieved through what game designer Anna Anthropy
called “gay button” mechanics, a term then popularised by Adrienne Shaw. When speaking about
the issue, Shaw states that if “the player needs to push a ‘gay button’ […] to see samesex
relationship in games, then anyone who doesn’t know or is unaware that the button exists can
continue to consume the heteronormative-dominated texts” (2009). An example of this would be
the Mass Effect or Dragon Age games by BioWare (1995-ongoing). In these titles, player
characters can pursue relationships with members of any gender, no matter their own gender.
However, characters are often not inherently written as LGBT, are not recognised as LGBT, and
do not tell LGBT storylines. Due to this and other examples like it, this kind of representation is
thought of as superficial; it allows players to experience it through the lens of heteronormativity,
only showing queer content if pursued by the player thus “plac[ing] the burden of representation
on players themselves” (Shaw, A. 2009).

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 With games that follow this format
not included, the number of titles
providing healthy and significant
LGBT representation drastically
reduces. The aforementioned “Life is
Strange” (LiS) is considered one of
these. LiS follows the story of teenage
Maxine “Max” Caulfield and her
abilities to travel through time. The
core of the game features around
Max’s relationships, especially that of
Figure 1 - Life is Strange, 2015. Chloe Price – a rekindled childhood
friendship. The pair are often considered to be a couple, justified by a kiss that you can choose to
have the two share. However, this is a gay button – it only happens if you make it so. Furthermore,
the characters’ sexualities are left ambiguous. Thankfully, the developers have chosen to explicitly
affirm questions fans had in the sequel – a prequel story focussing on Chloe’s romantic relationship
with friend, Rachel Amber. Said series is critically acclaimed, having won a multitude of prestigious
awards. Part of this success is largely credited to the characters relationships and the neglected
demographic its story is highlighting; queer media is relatively untouched, so diversity alone is
allowing uncommon and emotional new narratives to garner attention.

Figure 2 - Dream Daddy - A Dad Dating Simulator, 2017.

Another key example, while targeted at queer men, is Dream Daddy; a Dad Dating Simulator
produced by Game Grumps (2017). A spin on the otome genre, this dating simulation experience
tells the story of a customisable “Dadsona” self-insert character and his daughter, Amanda. There
are 7 pursuable dads, each with their own stories and unlockable endings. Romance games such
as these are generally targeted at women and portray cliched, unhealthy relationships stemming
from sexist ideals (e.g. the “Shall We Date” series). The flip-side is those targeted at a male
audience, which are generally hyper-sexualised fetishization games (e.g. HuniePop). Having such
a well-recognised group produce a westernised addition to the genre, featuring entirely around
gay male relationships, was a huge deal. Furthermore, one of the characters – Damien – is a
transgender man whose gender is only mentioned in passing (he references his binder, used to
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flatten breasts) and is treated with normalcy. The player character is able to define themselves as
trans without any in-game penalisation or alterations as well. This is the way these stories should
be told as it normalises these identities to an audience who may have never been prior exposed to
them. Characters of any identity – gay, transgender, disabled, etc. – should be given proper
development and have deep, interesting narratives told; same as any other character. These
narratives should not fixate on who they are, as these identities are the day-to-day life of
multitudes of people and are not plot points. Being disabled does not negate inability and angst,
just as being trans does not negate a tragic tale of self-acceptance. People are more than their
identities, and this should be reflected in character design; else they will continue to fall short and
the world will remain creating 2D, shallow depictions. Dream Daddy took a step in the right
direction with Damien and this, plus the combination of being produced by a popular media
team, and LGBT promotion created buzz, and Dream Daddy became known as one of the hit
games of 2017 (The Guardian, 2017).
Thanks to the success of Dream Daddy as a title, many other indie companies have come forward
aiming to create similar content; something that is desperately needed, as is transparent if you
look at the current Steam library. Searching for “LGBT” under visual novel returned only 9 hits –
3 of which featured explicit tags (e.g. nudity, sexual content), highlighting fetishization culture.
Trying an alternate route and searching specifically “lesbian” returns 14 hits, 9 of which include
explicit tags. Lastly, trying again using the term “yuri” – a Japanese categorisation relating to
media featuring lesbianism, generally intimately – returned 46 hits. However, multiple of these
were separate chapter listings of the same game, and a whopping 21 titles included explicit tags.
Indie developers out-with Steam are
trying to break this pattern with
projects such as the Yuri Game Jam
(YGJ), a project that has ran for
three consecutive years and
produced 69 entries in 2017. In their
own words, YGJ was formed with
“the intention of creating more
games about relationships between
women”. Two shining examples from
its library are “Love on the Peacock
Figure 3 - Love on the Peacock Express, 2017.
Express” – self-described as a “short
mystery MILF (Mother I’d Like to [explicit]) dating sim” featuring older women, ala Agatha
Christie novels – and “Last Night in Tokyo” – a short kinetic novel based on real-life events from
the LGBT scene in Japan. These creators are breaking boundaries. By producing healthy, diverse
content, indie developers are putting the heat on AAA companies to uphold the same standards.
The more it is achieved by those with little-to-no resources, the more apparent it becomes that
larger companies should be managing the same.

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Methodology
The development of this project underwent a six-step process, which will be broken down and
summarised in the following methodology.
Research: Research was undertaken to develop both a contextual basis, and to have an
understanding of the production process required. First looked at was previously published studies
and theories about LGBT representation, how it is implemented, tropes, heteronormativity, and
popular geopolitics. Research then progressed into studying script writing, coding languages,
appropriate game engines, development procedures, and creating a comprehensive plan with this
gained knowledge.
Narrative Development: Taking aforementioned information on plot structure and LGBT tropes,
it was applied to develop characters, construct key plot points, and then build a comprehensive
story blueprint to guide the game production.
Script Writing: Following the narrative guide to ensure cohesivity, a full script was written and
appropriately formatted; covering introduction, all 3 character routes, 5 endings, and structuring
how they tie together with an overarching sub-plot. Narrative followed the “multi-plot” theory, the
most well-known application of which can be seen in the classic movie, “Love Actually” (2003).
Asset Production: With the script fully detailed, an asset list of all required environments, character
sprites, expression alterations, user interface controls, branding items and miscellaneous pieces was
produced. This was then worked through to create a complete asset library for implementation
into the game upon production of functioning code.
Coding: The game engine Ren’Py was chosen for development, due to being tailored specifically
for visual novel production. After teaching myself the particular flavour of the coding language
Python that Ren’Py uses, I proceeded to code the complete game, including UI, menu systems,
decision tracking, and player data input and recollection.
Iterative Process: As each of these stages progressed, they were constantly reworked in an iterative
process. Feedback was used for alternations across a multitude of areas – such as changes to the
script where appropriate, choosing optimal character designs, and colour schematics – and the
game was repeatedly tested after each new block of code was applied to ensure functionality. As
the novel reached fruition, each branching path and possible ending had to be tested to ensure
full functionality and cohesivity. Ensuring the routes didn’t backtrack, and each made sense no
matter the options chosen took more than intended and resulted in 40 optional play paths.

Project Development – Theory & Narrative

As aforementioned, this project followed development of a visual novel dating sim focused around
stereotyping in the media and the issues surrounding it. My original idea had been to create a
dating sim showing healthy sapphic relationships. However, after researching thoroughly into the
current market and seeing works such as those being done by YGJ, I felt as if these avenues were

9
already being explored. It was then that I had the idea to create an “anti-dating-sim” dating
simulator. It is not anti-dating-sim in that it is against the genre, instead its narrative goal is the
opposite of the standard; by pursuing romantic relationships, you can only achieve the bad
endings. To reach happiness, you must focus on yourself.
Stereotypes portray a shallow, narrow-minded bias of a person that is often based off some form
of bigotry. The general public is socially informed by what they consume, and by only showing
these perceptions of specific demographics, how and what people think can be influenced. One
of the primary ways that this is achieved is through tropes. A trope, as defined by the Oxford
Dictionary, is “a significant or recurrent theme; a motif”. There’s a vast range of tropes targeting
all forms of people and storylines, including classically renowned examples such as “Damsel in
Distress” and “White Knight”. From analysing the database at TVTropes (TVTropes, 2018) – a
website that looks at these structures, defines, and categorises them – I was able to garner
knowledge of commonly used tropes when representing lesbianism.
The first set target how lesbians are represented physically. The two most prominent are the
“Lipstick Lesbian” and the “Butch Lesbian”. Lipstick Lesbians, as the name hints, are hyper-
feminine women who appeal to the male gaze. They have gradually become the standard
representation and take influence from the pornography industry; female-female attraction sells
to men, so it has become prioritised and known as “commodity lesbianism”. If a lesbian is
represented who does not fit this, they will generally be a Butch Lesbian. Butch Lesbians are a
common stereotype; masculine, often overweight, tattooed women in plaid who avoid
traditionally “girly” activities. The issue with these tropes is that of pigeon-holing. Lesbians, just like
everybody else, do not function solely on a scale of butch-to-femme. They are diverse individuals
and deserve to be represented in such a manner. Furthermore, issues lie within the way lesbian
relationships are often paired. If relationships stray from the femme-femme standard seen in
commodity lesbianism, then generally the relationship will be aggressively butch-femme. This is
done to parallel heterosexual relationships; the concept that both a masculine and feminine energy
is required, such as yin and yang. However, this goes against the concept of homosexuality
entirely. In no homosexual relationship can the question “who is the man, and who is the woman?”
be applied, as it is irrelevant. The entire basis is that both parties are either male or female, and
enforcing heterosexual ideals and societal gender norms onto them is damaging for all who are
involved.
Another incredibly problematic trope that was heavily used in older media is that of the “Pyscho
Lesbian”. This derived from the queer coding of villains, a recognised issue perpetuated by many,
including big names like Disney. Psycho Lesbians would be crazed, deviant and would often end
up dead. This trope upholds an uncomfortable subtext; go straight, or go crazy. As they were
usually villains, their deaths were commonplace. However, the killing of LGBT characters became
so prevalent that it has become a trope of its own; “Bury Your Gays” (or alternately, “Dead Lesbian
Syndrome” if applied specifically). These tropes had a resurgence in 2015/16 which threw it into
the spotlight for criticism, showing how often creators would kill off gay cast. Andrew M. Butler
spoke poignantly on the matter, stating that homosexual narratives “often end with funerals rather
than weddings”. Taking it further and looking at the social implications of this, he stated that the
“rejections of happy relationships and endings for gay characters suggest not only that
heterosexuality is sacred, but also that homosexuality is punished for attempting to even exist on

10
equal terms.” While these tropes had begun to die down again, they have sadly made a resurface;
one of the leading examples being in the popular CW and Netflix TV drama, “Riverdale” (2017-
ongoing). While the first season was a commercial success, the second season (late 2017-ongoing)
has been criticised for its convoluted, and somewhat juvenile, narrative. This is largely due to the
reliance on such dated tropes. A key example of this is the character of Cheryl Blossom.
Throughout the entirety of the
show, Cheryl’s morality is a
consistent grey area. At times she
may seem to be a bully – the
cheerleader, the prom queen,
manipulative and cutting through-
and-through – but at other times,
she goes out of her way to show
kindness, compassion, and assist
the main cast. However, her
actions grow rapidly more
Figure 4 - Cheryl Blossom. Riverdale, 2018 psychotic, including such feats as
burning down her entire house – nearly killing her own mother in the process, – and making her
best friend believe she was being stalked by a serial killer, with her life at risk. It was then revealed
that her actions had been the result of being a closeted lesbian who holds resentment towards her
mother due to her lack of acceptance. Furthermore, the narrative deteriorated further into a gay
conversion therapy plotline; with catholic overtones to boot. Not only is all of this a cliché, dated,
and incredibly problematic way of handling such sensitive and controversial topics, but it is also a
key example of how tropes can be damaging, and the resurfacing of queer-coded “psycho
lesbian” villainy.
Of course, it is not as simple as merely creating tropes; they have to be implemented. Brookey
and Westerfelhaus analysed how this is achieved and summarised it with three strategies in their
paper, “Hiding Homoeroticism in Plain View” (2002);
o The Comfort Strategy - “depicts gays in ways that support rather than threaten the
heterosexist order”, often having them as comedic relief, self-policing and
asexual/apolitical. They will be lone queer characters with no romantic interest of their
own; they are the impossibly perfect upholders of the heteronormative social structure.
o The Discomfort Strategy – “portrays gays in negative terms—as depressed and disturbed,
as pathetic victims, or as dangerous predators—and thus reaffirms homophobic biases held
by many mainstream audience members”. This strategy relies on appealing to bigotry and
fear to maintain the bias the hegemonic elite has constructed to control representation.
o The Subtext Strategy – “hides the presence of gays—and any gay sexuality—through the
inclusion of subtextual cues that are easily read by the gay audience but are virtually
invisible to unsympathetic and unknowledgeable mainstream audiences”. This is the trap
that the original LiS fell into; having queer coding, but refusing to give confirmation.
It was this research that led my narrative development. By creating characters based on each of
these strategies, combined with recurring tropes, I produced a critical analysis of lesbian
representation in popular media. This has been titled “Safic”; a play on the words “sapphic” –

11
meaning “lesbian, relating to the Greek lyric poet Sappho” (Merriam-Webster, 2018) – and
“fiction”. The story premise is as follows;
“Safic tells the story of a girl in her early 20′s trying to navigate through university and lesbian
self-acceptance. Are budding romances all that they seem, and can balance be found between
love and adulthood’s ever-looming responsibilities? Confusion and inner-conflict come to a head
and, perhaps, putting oneself first is the hardest thing to learn of all.”
Creating a natural, relatable work was incredibly important to me, following the impact of other
such titles like Night in the Woods (2017) and Undertale (2016), hence the story focusing around
a girls’ university experience. Obviously, the story is not just one of academia. Instead, as stated,
the dateable plotlines are an analysis of negative representation in the media. There is a
misconstrued belief that to get equality, we must support all representation given to us – even the
negative, stereotyped, and biased.
This is far from true.
We do not have to compromise on how we are depicted. Our experiences, our lives and our culture
are just as valid as any other and deserve to be shown as such. By dismissing the toxic romantic
paths offered to you in-game, you choose not to consume negative media and are no longer
supporting these depictions. Instead, by focussing on yourself the player will choose to focus on
self-love; recognising that they deserve better, and not offering compromise. This is symbolic of
our choices as an audience – how we do not need to support negative media in the name of
progress, and how by doing so we may instead be allowing these depictions to reoccur. Instead,
we should abstain and only support healthy representations, and that will pave the way to a more
diverse, relatable, equal, and interesting narrative landscape.
With all of this in place, I plotted and wrote a full script based on the aforementioned multi-plot
theory. There is little written about how to successfully write games narratives as of yet, especially
dating simulators, as it is a relatively new genre. Due to this, I referenced script writing aimed
primarily at film – in particular, studying the work of Robert McKee in his book, “Story: Substance,
Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting” (2006). “Story” is oft referred to as one of the
“bibles of script writing” and is required reading for related courses at renowned institutes such as
Harvard and Yale.
The overarching plot that ties the multi-plots together is the aforementioned studying dynamic;
the playable character is in her final year of university and is aiming for an internship in central
Europe. Focussing on these career goals is the only way to benefit the character, and if the player
allows themselves to be distracted by the purposefully poorly written and stereotypical
bachelorettes, then it always ends badly. Each of the characters was developed based on one of
the three implementation strategies established by Brookey & Westerfelhaus, and an
amalgamation of some overly prevalent tropes that we commonly see.
Each of these characters, their design, their narratives, and the commentary they provide will be
discussed further below.

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Character Designs & Social Constructivist Commentary

Figure 5 - Hayley, Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display

The first character for discussion is Hayley, the bachelorette developed using the discomfort
strategy. Hayley was primarily an example of the previously discussed “Psycho Lesbian” trope,
paired with “Bury Your Gays”. As these two tropes are such overused, problematic and prevalent
examples, I wanted to combine them for the greatest impact.
When choosing her for romantic pursuit, you quickly fall into a relationship. However just as
quickly, it becomes unstable. Her mood-swings are chaotic, she’s invading your personal space,
and your character appears to constantly be on the wire – never knowing what may set her off.
Eventually, your best friend and flatmate – Ronnie – notes that her belongings have been going
missing, and you notice yours have too. Questioning Hayley about it, she takes it as an accusation
and it escalates into a fight. This comes to a head at your graduation, when it is revealed Hayley
was responsible for the thefts and there’s a physical altercation. Ending the relationship and
cutting her from your life, you return home. A week later you receive correspondence informing
you of your rejection from your internship, and a secondary letter containing a threatening note
and a human ear, belonging to Ronnie. Horrified, you call emergency services and proceed to
have a frantic discussion with the dispatch officer. You’re left waiting for the police to arrive, trying
to process the knowledge that Hayley would go so far due to you rejecting her affections. You
blame yourself, thinking that if you’d focussed on your studies instead of ever pursuing her, Ronnie
would still be alive.
Overall, this story arc features many of the the key elements generally found in a psycho lesbian
storyline; chaotic instability, overblown reactions, deceit and bodily harm. The plot can often seem
overly dramatic and unbelievable, but that is the nature of these character types.
When considering her appearance, it’s notable that she is the only white character in the cast. This
was intentional, as a subtle parallel to other negative stereotyping – the racial profiling of villains.

13
By having the most psychotic and dangerous character be Caucasian, it strays from steeping into
other problematic tropes so as the focus remains on the LGBT commentary. Her design is also
overweight, but not overtly so, so as she can still be deemed “conventionally attractive”; a critique
on similar moves done by many different media formats – including games, modelling, and film
– in which they claim moderately curvy women as “plus size” to avoid showing alternative body
types. Lastly, both her styling and name are a nod to the emo/scene movements of the 2010’s.
During this time the lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams, became a recognised icon and
many styled themselves after her. Most of said fan base were teenaged or young adults and, as
is common with groups of adolescent girls, gained a negative reputation for being overdramatic,
attention seeking and “crazy”. Hormones are hard enough to deal with, but young women’s
interests tend to be patronised and demeaned with every new movement. Despite this, the
stereotype exists nonetheless, and Hayley’s vaguely alternative design and naming is a nod to
said subculture.

Figure 6 - Ronnie, Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display

The second character to be spoken about is the players aforementioned best friend-cum-flat mate,
Ronnie; the subtext strategy character. By pursuing Ronnie’s path, the player observes a critique
of some less dramatic, but arguably even more significant tropes due to their real world parallels;
in particular, those of the “Best Friend” and “Lesbian Until Graduation (LUG)”. These both have
similar connotations. The Best Friend trope encapsulates the idea that intimate relationships
between women are not on the same level as heterosexual ones, and that it’s “merely close
friendship”. This is extremely prevalent in Japan, where such notions are actually accepted in day-
to-day society; it’s accepted and expected for teenaged girls to feel romantically towards their
friends, with the belief that doing so means they will understand “real” and “adult” romance better
when it happens, as it will be on a more significant level when it is with a male counterpart. Where
the Best Friend trope disregards the attraction altogether, LUG dismisses it as merely a phase.

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“Everyone experiments in college”, a commonly heard phrase in American fraternity/sorority
movies, truly summarises this trope in its entirety. While there are many people who do harmlessly
experiment to figure out their own identities, enforcing this trope disregards all LGBT people –
homosexual, bisexual, or otherwise orientated – who are trying to discover and accept themselves,
and live their lives.
As you progress throughout her narrative arc, she proceeds to make advances on the player
character, ultimately having them kiss, with further intimacy between the two implied. Her
behaviour leads the character to believe the two are romantically involved, something she is
overwhelmingly happy at as she’s had feelings for Ronnie for several years but had always
assumed her to be straight. Content to have been proved wrong, the player eventually broaches
the idea of looking for a new apartment together after graduation, only for it to deteriorate into
an argument about the true nature of their relationship. Ronnie proceeds to deny the two were
ever involved, brushing it off as a college experience and explaining the need to only take “real”
things into her life after academia; i.e. disregarding her experiences in favour of heterosexuality.
Unable to understand your distraught reaction, Ronnie acts as though you’re the one at fault and
leaves the flat. You see her again come graduation and she again tries to brush off the situation,
but you stand your ground. Eventually, we see that the player has been rejected from the
internship, and is left crying; hurting over the loss of opportunity, loss of her best friend, and the
mistreatment and belittlement of her sexuality.
To add to this, Ronnie’s physical design was also taken into account; being reflective of the Lipstick
Lesbian. This adds to her arc being male focussed as she’s designed to be attractive to the male
gaze, she treats her lesbianism as a phase - which is often treated as a way to garner male
attention in media – and she disregards sapphic relationships as lesser when compared to
heterosexual ones. Her design as a black woman was also a conscious choice; similarly to why
Hayley was chosen to be white, Ronnie was designed black to parallel old stereotypes that black
women cannot be truly effeminate, soft, or wear vivid colours. The name Ronnie is also a nod to
popular culture; this time to the hit ABC TV show “Once Upon A Time” (2011-2018). Ronnie, who’s
also known as Regina, is one half of a popular fan “[relation]ship” from the show; SwanQueen.
This pairing has become infamous for its queer-baiting, with the writers upkeeping enough of a
dynamic between the two to keep LGBT fans pining, while resolutely portraying them both in
solely heterosexual relationships.

15
 Figure 7 - Nami/Mari, Character Design & Emotive Sprites Display

The last pursuable character to be spoken about is Nami, the comfort strategy character. Another
example of Bury Your Gays – done twice to emphasise its overuse as a trope, - Nami’s path gives
an alternate view. Where Hayley was psychotic, Nami is empathetically calm; her character being
a depiction of what is known as the “Magical Queer”. These character are generally all-knowing,
ever compassionate, comedic relief, and there purely to benefit the heterosexual main character
while having little-to-no story themselves. They’re an “acceptable” form of homosexual, as they’re
written asexually, aromantically and apolitically. They’re not a threat, either to heterosexual
relationships – as they won’t pursue romantic or sexual intentions with anyone – or to heterosexual
morals – as they have no relationships of their own, viewers are never faced with having to consider
their homosexuality. Therefore, “ignorance is bliss”. These characters oft die via self-sacrifice to
ensure the survival of the heterosexual main cast.
As the player progresses through Nami’s narrative, she will fall into a relationship with Hayley
instead. This is due to the asexual nature of Nami’s characterisation, meaning that even when you
pursue her romantic path, she is still unavailable. Hayley is hostile towards Nami from early on,
showing herself to be jealous of your connection. This leads to a scene the player witnesses in which
the playable character themselves is not present, showing Hayley threatening Nami into avoiding
you to put an end to your friendship. At graduation, the player sees Nami after having been
avoided for weeks and decides to confront her. However, upon going to do so, Hayley lashes out
at them. An argument ensues, and the player later wakes up in hospital. After a discussion with
Ronnie the player discovers not only that they have been rejected for the internship, but that
Hayley pushed them in front of a car. They were only saved due to Nami throwing them out of
the way, taking the blow themselves and dying en route to the hospital. They’re left hurting and
blaming themselves for all outcomes, but minorly comforted in the knowledge that Hayley has
been apprehended for her actions.

16
Where Ronnie’s design was feminine, Nami’s is masculine; capturing the “Butch Lesbian” trope.
However, her design is reserved; negating the common stereotypes of being overweight, or overly
tattooed. This was to parallel another Butch trope; making them masculine, but only moderately
so, allowing them to still be considered attractive to men without making them question their
heterosexuality. This allows her to fall less solidly on the masculine scale, and instead border into
androgyny. Furthermore, her being Asian is commentary against the traditional female Asian
stereotypes; that they must be small, fragile, weak and effeminate. Following the naming
dynamics, Nami was a homage to the Harvest Moon series and their character by the same alias;
an incredibly queer-coded design who, despite this, is still available as a heterosexual romance
option.
Pictured above alongside Nami is Mari, a hidden character who is only seen if the good ending
is achieved. While her character was given less development as she is only pictured for a scene
and there is little interaction comparatively, some consideration was still given to her design. As
Nami was never truly pursuable, Mari was depicted as Asian so as to provide an Asian romance
route. Furthermore, the dialogue between the player and she is light-hearted and comedic in
nature, done to reflect their comfort and happiness in each other’s presence. As she was designed
after the screen resolution being determined, and as she was hidden and therefore never used on
promotional materials, her design was only produced from the thigh up.

Other Design Decisions & Implementation

Figure 8 - Environmental Designs, Set 1

17
 Figure 9 - Environmental Designs, Set 2

Alongside characters, a full set of environments had to be produced as well. While writing the
script, it was structured so as scenes took place in common areas to allow for reuse of assets.
However, ensuring they all tied together to appear as one consistent work was of primary
importance. This was achieved in a number of ways. Firstly, a comprehensive colour palette was
developed that was strictly used across each environment. This consisted of more desaturated
colours than the character designs to stop them from drawing focus, and a bias towards pinked
hues to provide a feeling of warmth and to highlight the sapphic content. The primary colours of
the characters – all from one side of the colour wheel; green, yellow and blue – feature heavily in
their desaturated forms, and were chosen to directly contrast the overarching pinks. The designs
in which these pink tones are less prevalent are the hospital – the environment whose colour
palette sticks out the most, done intentionally to highlight the clinical atmosphere of medical
wards – and the bedroom seen in the good ending. This was done so as to separate it from the
environments from the main storyline, helping to set it in the future and depict it as a clean break
from the critique-heavy setting of the main game. Furthermore, all line art was produced using
set weights, set brushes, and in the same colour to add further cohesivity.

One of the strongest elements of environment design, and one I wanted to pay close attention
to, was that of lighting. Creating realistically lit environments was key to controlling the mood of
each scene, without allowing it to become too invasive. Each of the characters was designed
with a set of two bounce lights – both neon; one pink, one blue – to add a modern 80’s aesthetic
similar to that of San Junipero (Black Mirror, 2016). For balance, this is why each of the
environments was tailored towards pink and blue hues. Furthermore, pink glow lighting was used
repeatedly throughout. Where this wasn’t used, a warm yellow light was used instead where
appropriate; either to add warmth, or to provide an obtrusive light (e.g. in the hospital, and the
fluorescent lighting on the bus).

18
 Figure 10 - User Interface

This “pink and blue” theme was continued further with the design of the user interface. The logo,
menu windows, icons, interactive boxes, highlighted text and more were designed and altered to
maintain this harmony. Sharp, geometrically unusual designs and subtle detailing were used to
further add to the “modern 80’s” vibes, and a “neon 80’s light” aesthetic font was used
throughout. Also, the “next page” arrows seen consistently throughout the game were changed
to tilted love hearts to add to the romantic overtones.

All of these elements come together - the character lighting, environmental design, and UI – to
provide a visual unity that ensures the assets all look appropriate together.

With cohesive assets produced, they then had to be implemented. As previously explained,
Ren’Py was chosen as the appropriate engine due to being specifically for the production of
visual interactive narratives. However, it uses an odd flavour of Python that is specific to it, and
required me to learn the coding language as I went. While referencing their self-published
guides, I managed to comprehensively code the game including 40 possible routes, user input
and recollection in the form of player names, transitions, expression changes, a complete
customised menu system, and decision tracking to allocate the appropriate result from the 5
possible endings.

Summary & Conclusions

This dissertation and project have shown only a small introduction into the issues facing sapphic
representation in the media. However, I feel as though by exploring these issues through a
popular geopolitical critique, and by offering commentary on recurring tropes and stereotypes,
Safic has managed to achieve its goal; to become a relevant and worthwhile addition to this

19
discussion, and being a viable tool to open up these topics to those who may be previously
unaware of them.
Through exposure of this project to an audience – via playthroughs and discussions, primarily at
the Abertay Digital Graduate Showcase – I’ve garnered a generally positive response. People
have been receptive and appreciative of the commentary, have understood the messages being
portrayed, and have encouraged me to take Safic further.
Overall, the complimentary nature of all the assets was a resounding success, as was the
amount and complexity of code achieved. However if I were to undergo this project again, there
are a number of things I would do differently. Structuring the plot in an alternate manner to
offer less options would’ve resulted in far less branches, requiring less difficulty with the code and
saving me time to focus elsewhere. Furthermore, I would rework the character expressions to be
more vibrant, and would make the backgrounds more complex; adding minor animations,
particle effects, and day/night cycles.
Through this project, I have developed a comprehensive skillset to take forward with me upon
graduation from academia. I have managed to fully produce a game – from start to finish –
entirely by myself. This has provided me with experience and insight into what it takes to
produce a game, the indie development scene, and the work undertaken by multiple different
job roles. In the future, I endeavour to alter Safic with the aforementioned ideas, and any further
changes that are brought to my attention and are appropriate. This will allow me to ultimately
publish the title for free, with a donation option for if the buyer sees fit, with the aim of
showcasing it at indie festivals were possible. This has been encouraged to me thoroughly from
Biome Collective and is a step I plan to work towards; hopefully with both their support, and
that of my media connections at PinkNews.

Final Word Count: 6,569

20
Appendix
The “Shall We Date?” Series:
A dating simulation game brand developed for mobile format. There’s two branches of the games,
offering both paid and free options. The titles generally feature fantasy romance settings – vampires,
wizarding schools, ninja warriors, Alice in Wonderland, etc. – and follow a Mary Sue character as she
is seduced, or seduces, her chosen bachelor. Due to being developed by a Japanese company, the
games fall victim to many common narrative issues – most prominently, consent. Characters are
repeatedly shown to have things done to them against their will, to have men force themselves on
them in the name of seduction, and to be threatened/put in harms way while having it depicted as
something romantic. The game relies on gacha (prize box) systems to keep the player interested, with
monthly events, customisable avatars, and limited-time items. Furthermore, the game is played via a
ticket system, requiring some form of “token” to play the next chapter. This requires significant
passage of time or micro-transactions, as a means of pulling the playtime length out.

HuniePop:
“An adult hybrid tile matching puzzle game and dating sim”. This title features a set of dateable girls
who you pursue via a match-3 style mini-game. This, combined with dialogue options and other
mini-game elements results in intimate date scenarios, including a final mini-game in which the
match-3 is symbolic of sexual intercourse. This includes full support with the art and sound assets of
the game.

Night in the Woods:

A story-focussed exploration game following Mae, an only child who has returned home after
dropping out of University. Back in her home town, she is confronted with the changes that have
befallen the area, reunites with old friends, and confronts a dark secret hidden in the nearby
woods. Your gameplay decisions impact the course of the story significantly. It gained prominent
recognition and support due to its raw storyline and handling of relatable topics; most notably,
the uncertainty and anxiety felt during transition periods in your 20’s.

Undertale:
A roleplaying game that follows a human child that has fallen into the “Underground”, a region
below the surface of the Earth that is separated by a magical barrier and filled with monsters.
The player then proceeds on a quest to reach the surface, making decisions of mortality that
impact the story and developing relationships along the way. Similar to Night in the Woods,
Undertale was renowned for its touching relationships, raw storyline, and handling of themes
such as anxiety and loneliness.

Harvest Moon:
A farming simulation game with pursuable romantic subplots. The dateable characters change
with each game, and usually result in a child with the idea that they would one day take over the
farm.

San Juinpero:
A widely regarded episode of Black Mirror, and one of the only ones to feature a happy ending.
San Junipero tells the story of two girls – Yorkie and Kelly – as their relationship unfolds.

21
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