QUEER WOMAN FEELING TERROR SINCE 1992

TRANSSEXUAL GAME DESIGNER

I am Rosemary, a game designer in Chicago, IL.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to make games. I found so much escapism from my life in games, and grew to love them wholeheartedly. I let myself get lost in imagined worlds, allowing myself to feel at home in a reality that didn't feel like home until I was much older and learned why.

When I was in my early twenties I played dys4ia by Anna Anthropy, a game about her experiences with gender dysphoria and transitioning. It captured my attention immediately with its strange game design and vulnerable subject matter. Soon after, I would buy and devour her book, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. It was a beautiful book on making weird, small, personal indie games; something that could convey a vulnerable experience like she had when she made dys4ia, or just a fleeting feeling you had that day.

I started making games in Adobe Flash, mostly simple choose-your-own-adventure games where I explored a lot of my anger in my early twenties (these games no longer exist). Later, I moved onto mainly using GameMaker. When I went through my own gender transition and a lot of my anger went away, I instead began designing games that were about sadness and queerness. Nowadays, in my thirties, I work as a professional cook, and so a lot of my time is occupied and finding the moments to string together to make a videogame have become rare. Recently, however, I have found a lot of creative release in designing Table-Top Roleplaying Games, which I intend to use this website to document the designs of.

PROJECT: MARK OF AUGURY

PROJECT: MOLE