I’m personally having trouble with a few in this group. This group was your idea @bmo, so maybe you can help!
I need recommendations for:
1 - Dev with a disability - I haven’t come up with any for this one.
2 - Main character with a disability - So far I’ve only thought of the game ‘Beyond Eyes’.
5 - Indigenous developer or collective - Never Alone, Papo & Yo, Gravity Ghost, and Mushroom 11 are the ones I’ve found, but I wouldn’t mind some more options.
6 - Indigenous main character - Only have ‘Never Alone’ on this one so far.
1 - I made the category on devs with a disability reflect both visible and invisible disabilities because both are important but also because it is likely you will find devs that experience mental illness as disability easier than you will a physical disability. Games like Neverending Nightmares, Depression Quest or Actual Sunlight, all made by devs who experience one or another form of mental illness (from OCD to anxiety and depression).
2 - Beyond Eyes is a good title. Another is Perception which is similar to Beyond Eyes but takes a slightly different approach (I haven’t played Perception, but I have played Beyond Eyes and my initial thought is that I don’t think Perception is as thoughtful as Beyond Eyes, but I could be wrong). All of the games I listed above also apply. Other games include Hellblade, Celeste, Alice: Madness Returns, Fran Bow, Pry, That Dragon, Cancer, Night in The Woods, Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
5 - All of those, yes. I also listed more on my spreadsheet. There is also games from Initiative for Indigenous Futures Skins Video Game Workshop, with games made by different students attending the workshop. I am curious to try one of those.
6 - Games from my spreadsheet fit this category, as do games from that workshop. Also there are a few mainstream games with indigenous main characters such as Assassin’s Creed III and Infamous: Second Son. A key thing regarding indigenous games is that they can come from anywhere there is an indigenous population. So a game call One Eye Kutkh is a Russian game, and based on tales from the Northern Asian indigenous people’s of Russia. I think there are more things like that that a person can find on sites like Itch.io
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other thoughts.
“An Aspie Life” - was made by a dev with Asperger Syndrome
The Journey of Elisa - is about AS too.
(actually not every AS has the same symptoms, so there is a wide range of stories you can create about it).
“Wheelchair Simulator” - was written by a disabled person.
Naked Snake (later Big Boss) loses eye in “Metal Gear Solid 3” and it lowers his perception.
(And there are heroes like Garett, the One Eyed “Thief” or Jensen from “Deus Ex”, disabled but more powerful than before thanks to prosthetics. UNFAIR)
And I forgot about “Mulaka” about indigenous Tarahumara people from Mexico - that one is new
For VR owners “Thalu: Dreamtime is Now” will be available in March
Elizabeth LaPensée is a good recommendation. I’ve had the good fortune of seeing her media work at ImagiNative a few years running and even played a bit of OneNote of her games. In fact I was thinking of playing Where the Water Tastes Like Wine because she wrote it.
Sigh, forum, I didn’t want to withdraw my previous post, just edit it. Anyway, here goes again:
Maybe this is a little silly, but the Sly Cooper series of stealth platformers features a secondary main character in a wheelchair, starting with episode 3 Bentley | Sly Cooper Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia. I’m not sure if he would count for this challenge, but if I was a kid in a wheelchair, I’m sure I’d love him.
Another wheelchair character in the “awesome” category: Jimmy from Hempire, an erm, alternative farming simulator *cough* . Sadly, not strictly speaking a main character either.
And “To the Moon” is a point and click adventure that features another “Aspie” - or actually, two of them.
