For a long time, video games have struggled with unintentional and problematic queer representation. But in recent years, some titles have been making big strides towards equality. One of the best examples is Larian Studios' blockbuster RPG Baldur's Gate 3. It includes a plethora of gay romance options and sensitively created trans characters. We finally have gay story games nowadays!
Mae Borowski, a twenty-year-old college dropout, is back in her small hometown of Possum Springs for the first time since she moved away. She's a bit of a troublemaker with a rap sheet, but she's also a sucker for the charms of small town life.
Night in the Woods' characters from her horror-novel-reading mom to her fox-and-bear friends Angus and Gregg are all flawed, relatable people. The story gay game as a large Furry fanbase and is openly pansexual, and its portrayal of mental health is particularly strong.
The gay gameplay is focused on exploring and chatting with the townsfolk and the community, often focusing on small decisions like which conversations you choose to have or what routines you decide to develop with the people you meet. This emphasis on heartfelt conversations over grand mystery plots or cliffhanger endings is what gives the storytelling gay game its emotional impact.
Midnight Scenes is a gay story game series of short horror-themed adventures that take on the vibe of The Twilight Zone. This fifth entry in the series, titled A Safe Place, is perhaps the darkest one yet. Its protagonist is a teenager who has locked himself in his room and barricaded the doors, only going out to get food from the grocery store across the street.
His existence is threatened by his oppressive home environment, intransigent parents and terrible nightmares that push his sanity close to the precipice. It's up to you to help him confront terrifying truths buried deep inside himself. This is a story-driven point-and-click horror experience that will chill you to the core. Its colorful pixel art is inspired by classics like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
The bulk of Stardew Valley revolves around exactly what you would expect from a farming gay story game - you plant and harvest crops, fish occasionally, talk to the people who live in town, all while raising your approval rating. As you spend more time with the residents of this charming, rural-seeming community, events unlock - sometimes touching, sometimes absurd.
It's hard to think of a blockbuster gay storytelling game with the same kind of intimacy as this one. It's a project that took Eric Barone four and a half years to design, program, draw, compose, record, and animate alone.
His goal was to revive the harvesting sim genre, which he feels has been lost over the past decade. And he achieved it, turning repetitive monotony into therapeutic compulsion. He's found a home in his pixelated farm.
When The Last of Us first released in 2013, it was hailed by critics and gay gamers alike as a groundbreaking achievement in video game gay storytelling, bringing the medium closer to what you'd expect from prestige TV. Its resonant themes and fluid gameplay were coupled with intensely realistic and emotionally charged performance-captured cutscenes.
The Last of Us tells the story of Joel, a smuggler who is tasked with escorting a teenage girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. The show's first season was directed by Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole) and Ali Abbasi (Border).
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star as Joel and Ellie, with Gabriel Luna as Tommy, another member of the survivor settlement in Jackson County. The series also stars Merle Dandridge, who voiced Marlene in the video gay story games and appeared on well-known television shows like 24 and Sons of Anarchy.