Anna Anthropy
Anthropy at the 2014 Game Developers Conference
Born	New York City, New York, U.S.^[1]
Nationality	American
Other names	Auntie Pixelante
Alma mater	SUNY Purchase Southern Methodist University^[2]
Occupation(s)	Game developer, writer
Known for	Developer of the freeware games Mighty Jill Off (2008) and Dys4ia (2012) Editor for The Gamer's Quarter

Anna Anthropy is an American video game designer,^[3] role-playing game designer, and interactive fiction author whose works include Mighty Jill Off and Dys4ia. She is the game designer in residence at the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media.

She has also gone by the name Auntie Pixelante.^[4]

Career

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Game design

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In 2010, working with Koduco, a game development company based in San Francisco, Anthropy helped develop the iPad game Pong Vaders.^[5]^[6] In 2011, she released Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars, a homage to Midway's 1981 arcade game Wizard of Wor with a queer theme and "some fun commentary on master-slave dynamics."^[7] In 2012, she released Dys4ia, an autobiographical game about her experiences with hormone replacement therapy that "[allows] the player to experience a simulation or approximation of what she went through."^[8] Anthropy says her games explore the relationship between sadism and game design, and bills them as challenging players' expectations about what the developer should create and how the player should be reprimanded for errors.^[9]^[10] Triad was included in the Chicago New Media 1973-1992 exhibition curated by Jon Cates (jonCates).^[11]

A Game Design Vocabulary

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Anthropy co-wrote the book A Game Design Vocabulary with Naomi Clark (game designer). Keith Stuart for The Guardian called it one of twenty books every player should read, writing that, "this excellent manual gives you an entire framework and language for thinking about how games are constructed."^[12]^[13]

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

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Anthropy's first book, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, was published in 2012. The book promotes the idea of "small, interesting, personal experiences by hobbyist authors ... Zinesters exists to be a kind of ambassador for that idea of what video games can be."^[14] The book also deals with an analysis of the mechanics and potentialities of digital games, including the role of chance in games and that games may be more usefully compared to theater than film ("There is always a scene called World 1-2, although each performance of World 1-2 will be different").^[15] Anthropy criticizes the video game industry for being run by a risk-averse corporate "elite" designing formulaic video games. Zinester calls for consumers to see video games as having "cultural and artistic value" similar to artistic media such as comic books. The video game industry does not allow for a diverse cast of voices, such as queer voices, to give their input in game development, which stifles the creative process. Anthropy writes:^[16]

"I have to strain to find any game that's about a queer woman, to find any game that resembles my own experience"

Games

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Afternoon in the House of Secrets^[17]
And the Robot Horse You Rode In On^[18]
Calamity Annie^[3]
Dys4ia^[19]
Encyclopedia Fuckme and the Case of the Vanishing Entree
Gay Cats Go to the Weird Weird Woods^[20]
The Hunt for the Gay Planet^[21]
I Love You, Alive Girl (in Hibernation Games)^[22]
Jennifer Janowski is Doomed^[23]
Keep Me Occupied^[24]
Mighty Jill Off^[25]
Ohmygod Are You Alright^[26]
Police Bear^[27]
Pong Vaders (on iTunes)^[5]^[6]
Princess with a Cursed Sword
Queers in love at the end of the world^[28]
Redder^[29]
Swords by Starlight in The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book (Simon & Schuster)^[30]
Tavern At the End Of the World ^[31]
Triad^[32]
When Pigs Fly^[33]

Bibliography

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Rise of the Videogame Zinesters Seven Stories Press, 2012. ISBN 9781609803728
ZZT Boss Fight Books, 2014. ISBN 9781940535029
The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture. Seven Stories Press, 2015. ISBN 9781609806392
A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2014. ISBN 9780133155181
Make Your Own Twine Games! No Starch Press, 2019. ISBN 9781593279387
Make Your Own Scratch Games! No Starch Press, 2019. ISBN 9781593279363
Make Your Own Puzzlescript Games! No Starch Press, 2019. ISBN 9781593279448

See also

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References

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^ "The power of Twine". polygon.com. February 2, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
^ Jed Lipinski (April 10, 2012). "Video-game designer Anna Anthropy describes the life of a radical, queer, transgender gamer". Capital New York. Archived from the original on June 20, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
^ ^a ^b "The Weblog Interview: Anna Anthropy Talks Indie Game Goodness". IndieGames.com. November 28, 2009. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Kopfstein, Janus (April 5, 2012). "Don't start a band: why everyone should be making video games". The Verge. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Koduco Games". Koduco.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ ^a ^b "PongVaders: Episode One Version: 1.0 Review". Macworld. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
^ "Review: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars". GayGamer.net. Archived from the original on April 15, 2011. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ "Dys4ia: Autobiographical Trans Video Game About Changing Gender". Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
^ "auntie pixelante › craft and punishment". Auntiepixelante.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2011. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Brice, Mattie (2017). "Chapter 9: Play and Be Real About It". In Ruberg, Bonnie; Shaw, Adrienne (eds.). Queer Game Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-1-5179-0037-3.
^ Cates, Jon (November 2018). Chicago New Media, 1973-1992. University of Illinois Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-252-08407-2.
^ Stuart, Keith (February 18, 2021). "Why do video games matter? 20 books every player should read". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
^ Stuart, Keith (February 18, 2021). "Why do video games matter? 20 books every player should read". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
^ Schultz, Marc (March 16, 2012). "What Videogames Can Be: A Q&A with Anna Anthropy". Publishersweekly.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Anthropy, Anna (March 16, 2012). "Excerpt: Rise of the Videogame Zinesters". Joystiq.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Anthropy, Anna (2012). Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Dropouts, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-60980-372-8.
^ "Afternoon In The House Of Secrets". Auntiepixelante.com. July 30, 2007. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Polson, John (February 13, 2013). "Browser Game Pick: And the Robot Horse You Rode in On (Auntie Pixelante)". IndieGames.com. Auntiepixelante.com. Archived from the original on January 17, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
^ "dys4ia". Newgrounds.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
^ Priestman, Chris (August 15, 2014). "Live the Carefree Joy of Animals in These Three Uplifting Games". Kill Screen. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
^ Johnson, Jason (February 11, 2013). "Anna Anthropy's Hunt for the Gay Planet Exposes How Far Games Need to Go for True Equality". Kill Screen. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
^ Carter, Chase (February 3, 2021). "Hibernation Games bundle delivers five journalling RPGs to help weather the cold". Dicebreaker. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
^ Anthropy, Anna Anne. "Jennifer Janowski is Doomed - Museum of ZZT". museumofzzt.com. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
^ Simon, Matt (March 8, 2012). "Occupy Rolls Out Its Most Subversive Tech: A Mobile Arcade Game for the 99%". Wired. Auntiepixelante.com. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
^ Gillen, Kieron (September 17, 2008). "Whip It: Mighty Jill Off". Rock Paper Shotgun. Rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ Alexander, Leigh (September 16, 2015). "This 'empathy game' reveals a real challenge for indie games". BoingBoing. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ "Sugarcane". Auntiepixelante.com. July 30, 2007. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ "Queers in love at the end of the world". Auntiepixelante.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
^ Gillen, Kieron (March 29, 2010). "A Scarlet Letter: Redder". Rock Paper Shotgun. Rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
^ d'Amato, James (December 8, 2020). The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5072-1286-8.
^ "Here are our WordPlay 2020 Speakers". Hand Eye Society. October 23, 2020. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
^ Anthropy, Anna. "Triad". Retrieved March 16, 2021.
^ Meer, Alec (August 3, 2009). "Don't Squeal, Piggy: When Pigs Fly". Rock Paper Shotgun. Rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.

External links

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Auntie Pixelante – Anthropy's official website
The Gamer's Quarter
Anna Anthropy at MobyGames

v t e Anna Anthropy
Mighty Jill Off (2008) Encyclopedia Fuckme (2011) Dys4ia (2012) Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013)