After a monthlong assault of rainbows, everything post-Pride can look drab, bleak. Do we really have to wait another whole year for our eyes to bleed glitter again? If only there were some way we could keep the spirit of Pride alive. If only there was an online video game allowing us to reenact the Stonewall Riots that inspired Pride. If only--
What? What's that you say? There is an online Stonewall video game? Well, it's about fucking time.
Stonewall Brawl is a collaboration between Eric Orner, the artist between seminal gay comic The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green and Jay Laird of Metaversal. The game promises players the ability to "Stick it to the man using flaming kicks, head butts, martinis, and the anachronistic power of disco!" You can choose to play as a fat dyke, a swishy twink, two different flavors of drag queen or what I think is supposed to be a half-naked Sister of Perpetual Indulgence on rollerblades:
We asked Laird why the world needs a video game where mincing queens get to beat up cops -- and a bunch of other rhetorical questions. If you just want to play the game, click here. We'll wait.
Out.com: How did Stonewall Brawl come about?
Jay Laird: When Eric originally sent us his animation "A Little Stonewall Riot,"
we immediately saw the connection to videogames, thanks to his stylized
drawings and character movements. I asked my team (which is roughly
half gay, half straight) if they'd like to turn it into a game, and
everyone got excited about the project. In fact, the excitement around
developing Stonewall Brawl led us to reviving our Burning Village humor
site, which had been languishing because we had no free time outside of
client projects. I'm grateful to Eric for inspiring us to get off
our butts and be funny again.
Has anyone had a problem with a game about beating up cops?
After we announced Stonewall Brawl, there was an interesting article
posted on someone's blog about Stonewall, questioning why it is that
our community celebrates a violent incident in our history of all
things. In the time leading up to the game's release I had been
thinking a lot about the ways that we as human beings feel empowered,
and they aren't always pretty. What is cool about videogames is that
you get a chance to explore behavior and consequences in different
situations without actually having to engage in the behavior. My
company uses this principal a lot in our educational games, giving
people a chance to test the extremes of a situation without any serious
consequences, whether it's exploring nanophysics or automobile
manufacturing. Of course, Stonewall Brawl is a lot more about fun than
learning, just as Grand Theft Auto is more about the adventure than
about learning how to stiff hookers.
So, can we expect to see the game on a console some day?
We hope people will keep checking back in on the game. Part of
the fun of making an online game is that you can keep updating it.
Since Stonewall Brawl's release, we've added a new, more fabulous
ending,
and we're talking about adding a couple of unlockable characters and
new game features as time permits. We see endless possibilities here,
and who knows maybe next year we'll convince Eric to help us make
Stonewall Brawl 2!
-- JAPHY GRANT
Previously > The men of Grand Theft Auto > Bully
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