The Queer Games Avant-Garde

“In their new book, Bonnie Ruberg introduces and documents the provocative, playful, and occasionally weird world of queer game-making. The Queer Games Avant-Garde provides a compelling collection of interviews from many of the designers who dance at the edges of what games can be. This book is recommended reading for designers, artists, researchers, and anyone who takes play seriously.” - Carly A. Kocurek, author of Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls

“Bonnie Ruberg and twenty-two incredible game makers give voice to a game revolution. The queer games avant-garde isn't just pushing at the boundaries of the medium, it's exploding what games can be into millions of multi-colored worlds where we can all play! An exuberant and essential exploration of the personal, political, and playful.” - Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor of Media Design at Parsons School of Design

"The queer game makers who operate from marginalised subject positions, making their voices heard in and through games, form an important and timely topic for a book. For a European reader, The Queer Games Avant-Garde offers a fascinating glimpse of contemporary North American realities and the anxieties around doing creative work in the current political climate." - Tanja Sihvonen, Times Higher Education Supplement

"This is a special book. . . . The world of video games is so much bigger and more spectacular than the AAA marketing cycle would have you believe. Ruberg’s conversations are a reminder of the breath of the medium, and also the steps we must take collectively for a healthier, safer, and more vibrant future." - Sharon Ross, Report Door

"Ruberg says that games, like literature, can be read through a queer lens, and perhaps more essentially, played in ways that are queer." - Nina St. Pierre, Bitch

"The book’s 20 chapters run the gamut of queer desire and representation, intimacy (rather than empathy), community, intersectionality, influences, and queering games beyond representation. . . . [I]t’s accessible for those who aren’t scholars including game makers, gamers, games journalists, and anyone interested in the present and future of queer and indie games."

"Given both its fascinating subject and its approach to the subject, The Queer Games Avant-Garde is a fresh and fascinating peek into an underexplored area of video games, as well as a highly relevant exploration of the ways in which these games both draw from and give back to their creators and players.… All in all, The Queer Games Avant-Garde will provide an interesting and accessible read for a wide range of readers interested in the creation and theorization of video games." - Maria Alberto, Information, Communication & Society

"The Queer Games Avant-Garde is a generous and generative book; it is approachable, accessible, teachable, and complements Ruberg's other books and projects.… But most importantly, the book offers radical possibilities, both practical and playful." - Edmond Y. Chang, American Journal of Play

"Queer Games Avant-Garde is a superb teaching tool across game design, digital arts, queer studies, and digital humanities classrooms that will be sure to spark numerous meaningful debates, both critical and practical. . . . It will also be an excellent resource for scholars seeking to reimagine what academic knowledge production looks like and who counts as a contributor to knowledge." - Daniella Gati, Information and Culture

"The Queer Games Avant-Garde provides a thorough dive into the world of queer game makers and the identity politics it brings. Ruberg selected a wide range of voices to weave together a vibrant image that is queer game makers today that will provide a strong foundation for future troublemakers." - Mary Smith, CBQ

“An important consideration of At the Limits of Cure is rethinking what the end-goal of cure is. Is it the absolute removal of illness? Venkat suggests not, and that the possibilities available to us for cures exist within the realms of what we, individually and communally, desire of them.” - Linda Hamrick, Synapsis

“Venkat’s storytelling is absorbing. He appears a writer who finds joy in crafting prose, sometimes imbuing it with a playfulness that lands most aptly. . . . This is a meticulously crafted book, but it is nowhere stilted or overworked. It performs deep conceptual labor with a jargon-free lightness of touch that academic writing would do well to emulate.” - Zahra Hayat, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"The book’s most powerful and insightful moments are those that consider how these game makers’ experiences and philosophies about games and queerness intersect and digress. Through these tensions, Ruberg provides an intriguing look at the philosophies of those creating queer games." - David Peter Kocik, Press Start