LGBTQIA+ in the game industry

Disclaimer: This DevLog is intended to help anyone, who is in a similar situation we are in at the moment. Everyone has to make their own decisions. This merely is our own honest view and opinion, based on our experience. We would love to hear from you, what you think about it all. We wish you all the success and fun you deserve with the development and release of your game! eXplore Studio

Embracing and advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community is something eXplore Studio proudly stands for. Our next game will certainly have themes of being queer and different; and in real life, we are all for standing with diversity as a company. We have already seen through our work the importance of different opinions for creating the most creative and interesting games. This can be most successfully done by including people of all characteristics and experiences. We love to be part of developing games which will appeal to a wide range of people, exactly because they have been designed by a wide range of people. Not only does this help as a Studio though, it is of personal importance to us all that people can bring their full selves to their work. Unfortunately, wider society is not always the best at accepting the LGBTQIA+, but we strive to make our studio as open minded and accepting as possible. This includes creating policies and carrying out training that ensures we get it right. It even extends into our social media presence and keeping our pages safe for everyone. For example, any hatred posted on our Discord server will mean the individual in question will be banned from the server to protect our other users.

Research from GLAAD tells us that almost 1 in 5 American gamers identify as LGBTQIA+, though many still face discrimination and harassment when gaming with others. We see any form of bigotry, homophobia and transphobia as a huge issue facing the industry. It is something several of us have even faced when playing video games online. Hence for us, it is clear we must create a community that makes sure queer gamers feel welcomed. Many people can find comfort in the escapism of video games, and particularly for our indie game The Kaiyo Mission, there are strong themes of coming together in harmony. This is something we wish to see in our real world, especially given the political, social and health issues facing minority communities. Therefore, we aspire that everyone of any identification can find joy in our game and be inspired to take its messages into their everyday life. Overall, for us at eXplore Studio, we would like anyone considering interacting with our community to know they are safe and accepted just as they are. We make games to bring love and understanding into a world which is not always easy to navigate. Most importantly, we stand with LGBTQIA+ communities, always.