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The makers of My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant – one of the lamentably rare queer oriented games out there – have released version 1.5, which aims to increase the game’s accessibility, while dropping Nintendo references in protest of the Japanese giant’s handling of Tomodachi Collection: New Life‘s same-gender relationship bug.

My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant now includes subtitles for the hearing impaired and a high-contrast mode for those who have difficulties with vision.  According to Up Multimedia developer Luke Miller, despite having the “limited resources of an indie company” it was rather simple to implement some of the practices put forward by the Game Accessibility Guidelines.

Meanwhile, it has stripped references to the Nintendo classic The Legend of Zelda:  Ocarina of Time that were originally part of My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant.  According to Miller, from an Up Multimedia press release:

…as gay artists, how can we give icon status to a company that actively removes same-sex references from its games?

What is particularly disheartening about Nintendo’s actions is that it shows that the near absence of gay and lesbian characters in video games is not always an oversight but often the result of deliberate decision-making by developers to exclude people like us from computer games.

You can read our thoughts on My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant here, while the game is available for Mac, Linux, and PC here.  It’s also up for Greenlight on Steam as we speak.

Shadow of the Eternals, the episodic spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, is coming from Canadian developer Precursor Studios through a crowdfunding campaign that has raised over $100 000 in one day for the title.  Precursor recently released a nine-minute in-game preview of an early scene – one which should be familiar to fans of Eternal Darkness (this writer included) as it appears to be a re-creation (or a re-imagining, perhaps?) of a sliver of the Charlemagne-era Anthony mission from the original game, now bracketed by vaguely sapphic cutscenes about a handmaiden and her lady.

So why is Shadow a “spiritual successor” and not a direct sequel?  Why isn’t this on Kickstarter?  What, if any, involvement is there from Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights and producer Nintendo?  Hit the jump to find out.

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A few hours into Cart Life I realized my character, a Ukrainian immigrant named Andrus, would not be able to make rent.  We were going through the mundanities of selling newspapers and drinks from the plain little cart we’d leased next to a bar.  Chat up customers.  Adjust your prices if too many think they’re out of line.  Cough; smoke a cigarette.  Eat a granola bar because you don’t have time to step out for lunch.  Worry about all the extra supplies that you bought earlier in the week that you just won’t be able to turn a profit on by the time rent is due.

Rent.

How much is rent?  How much am I making?  I press the space bar and check, and my stomach sinks.  There is no way we’ll make rent.  I wonder if the landlord will give me some extra time to pay – but he’s the guy who goes out of his way to tell me that he wouldn’t buy one of my 99 cent newspapers because he gets the news for free on TV.

And it hits me:  Why would I play a game about things I can worry about in real life when I could be blasting zombies in the face?  I could just turn this thing off.

But I can’t.  Andrus and I are in it together.  I confuse “I” and “we” when I talk about the game with others, thinking of the tired, lonely, hopeful, brave man who found a place in my heart.

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It’s been over a decade since Silicon Knights and Nintendo published Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a clever and relentlessly bleak Lovecraftian survival horror for the GameCube.  There have been rumours of a sequel ever since, but after faltering on some ambitious titles, Silicon Knights fell on hard times -with lawsuits, layoffs, and bad press to follow.

However, the little-known Canadian studio Precursor Games (whose website was dead or down at the time of writing this article) has just announced Shadow of the Eternals, a “spiritual successor” to Eternal Darkness, complete with a teaser video that shows some pretty advanced assets (including glimpses of the chapel in Amiens and a room housing the Tome of Eternal Darkness) considering that a crowdfunding campaign is set to be launched for the title in two days.  Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack will be involved with the game, which will be released in installments à la The Walking Dead and recalling the episodic design of Eternal Darkness.  Precursor Games confirmed that the following plot synopsis, which may have been leaked ahead of schedule, is of Shadow of the Eternals:

When Detective Paul Becker is called to one of the bloodiest gang massacres in Louisiana state history, only two survivors remain from a brutal conflict between two rival cults. As Becker begins his interrogations of the suspects, their combined recollections will uncover the truth about the ‘Eternals’.

Featuring an ensemble cast of heroes and villains, Shadow of the Eternals will span over 2500 years of history throughout Egypt, England, Hungary, and the United States. Players will question the perception of reality as they try to balance the mechanics of combat, magick, and sanity events to progress through the adventure.

Shadow of the Eternals will take players on a memorable journey throughout time; weaving historical fact with disturbing fiction to create an experience unlike any other.

Crowdfunding for Shadow of the Eternals begins on May 6th, and the title is set for release in 2014.  Here’s hoping Precursor can shake off Silicon Knights’ recent history and recapture Eternal Darkness‘ magic.

A few years ago, Rockstar made a big  splash with The Ballad of Gay Tony.  It may be the first time that a character’s not being straight was trumpeted in the title of a major studio’s release, but the game’s eponymous character was not the first gay Tony in a game from a big-name developer.  He was about fifteen years late to that party…
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Though Microsoft has yet to confirm the existence of a new Xbox console, developers claim to be hard at work on games for it, with an anticipated late 2013/early 2014 release window.  In hardware development time, that’s not a long way off, and more and more leaks regarding the console, codenamed “Durango,” have come to the fore.

One of the strongest rumors for some time has been that the console will ship with a new version of Kinect, and that it may be required in order to use the system.  Increasingly, however, reports are coming that the console will also require an internet connection to use. Kotaku, in particular, has had numerous sources state this, and last week one of Microsoft Studio’s higher-ups went on a bit of a Twitter rant in response to complaints about the always-online model – which has been loudly called in to question following the release of Sim City 5 in March of this year.  Though I wouldn’t say a Microsoft employee’s Twitter blow-up about the subject confirms anything about Durango, Microsoft’s response was to apologize for the employee’s tone without addressing the claims or concerns about the always on-line model at all.  Take that as you will.

For now, these reports remain just that – reports – but with E3 2013 a few months away, and with its competitors already having tipped their hands, it seems likely Microsoft will have to show its cards soon.

Image: Columbia Pictures

Let’s face it:  Alien franchise fans have had a tough go of it in the video game world – especially recently, with the Aliens: Colonial Marines fiasco.  It’s a shame, especially given how willing the series has been to flout gender norms:  making a hero out of the icy female pilot; creating one of the defining pieces of action movie history and populating it with increasingly useless space marines and increasingly powerful civilians, girls, and women (hint, hint, anyone who ever wants to make another Alien video game ever); and flirting with the archetypical old-Hollywood fey villain in Prometheus, but ultimately giving him room to be the most interesting character – HAL 9000 by way of Sir Alec Guiness – all done up in superlative Michael Fassbender packaging.

So it’s nice to see that a bit of queer fan love is getting thanks from the series’ central (human) figure.

Chris reported last week that Geeks OUT was planning on “holding a gala event celebrating Sigourney Weaver as a queer geek icon and muse.”  That event, Dream Weaver, held on Thursday April 4th, featured a gallery exhibition of artwork celebrating the powerhouse actor and voice for LGBT rights.  Though Ms. Weaver was unable to make it because of a commitment to a Broadway play, she sent quite a lovely letter of thanks to Geeks OUT:

… I am extremely touched and thrilled to be honored by Geeks OUT as a queer geek icon and muse. It means so much to me that my work has been relevant and encouraging to the LGBT community.  I support each and every one of you to be exactly and gloriously who you are and all you can be. The planet needs your individuality and talent and power to make it a more humane and respectful and fantastic place, where everyone is valued and celebrated equally. So rock on and geek out, my friends. Have a wonderful time tonight…

What a fantastic message to hear from one of the muses.