Coming of Age (Online): Imagining Queer Futures

Producer: Julie Fukunaga

What does it mean to (be queer) and come of age on the internet?

In the past ten years, the queer games movement has exploded. Around the world, more and more people feel like they can make free and simple and strange games - ones that speak to queer stories and experiences. But it wasn’t always this easy.

Some queer gamers used the earliest, clunkiest internet to find each other in crisis, to find friends, community, and a lifeline support in a time when no one was paying attention. Follow the journeys of queer gamers as they reflect on their earliest experiences online - experiences of freedom and discomfort, of community and isolation. They’ve since become architects of the internet, contributing to online communities as media scholars and game developers, but for these queer gamers, it all started way back.

Featured voice (subjects names if they want to share): Pedro Gallardo (he/him), Teddy Pozo (they/them), Kat Brewster (they/she)

Au Clair de Lune (Sunhiilow)

Sad Day Slow Game Music (HeatleyBros)

PlaymateX, In My Head (Podington Bear)

Flight of Lulu (Possimiste)

Notice the Absence of You is Here (Monplaisir)

You Can Calmly Put This Thing Together (Junior85)

Opening Credits (JohnnyRipper)

Route 3 (Mikel (Game Chops))

Various themes from Animal Crossing