GameMaker Pride Week: Are Indie Games Inclusive Enough?


GameMaker Pride Week: Are Indie Games Inclusive Enough?

The LGBT+ community has struggled for accurate representation - and even simple recognition - in mainstream media for years. But there are signs of a turning tide.

Within the games industry, more and more LGBT+ characters and stories are being written: Ellie from The Last Of Us, Parvati in The Outer Worlds, and Undyne in Undertale to name just a few. 

According to a 2020 games industry census compiled by Ukie, 21% of those working in the UK games industry identified as LGBT+. Xbox recently announced a partnership with GLAAD to increase LGBT+ representation in their future games. Itch.io now releases a yearly Queer Games Bundle during Pride Month.

Everywhere you look, progress is being made - but is it being made quickly enough? Can more be done to encourage the LGBT+ community to join the industry and share their stories through their games?


What to expect from GameMaker Pride Week

This week is GameMaker Pride Week (#GameMakerPride), where we’ll be highlighting the incredible work of not only LGBT+ game developers, but the games that star or tell the stories of LGBT+ characters.

Across the week, we’ll be exploring representation in indie gaming with a series of interviews:

  • A few words of advice on how to include LGBT+ themes and characters with the creators of Blood Nova, Aviv Salinas and Ross Gardner.

  • Talk on the inclusivity of the indie game development scene with Tobey from Samobee Games, the studio behind Princess Farmer.

  • Discussion about potential backlash LGBT+ games can face, with the Deconstructeam trio, Jordi de Paco, Marina González, and Paula Ruiz, developers of The Red Strings Club.

  • A delightful conversation with surprise guests!



LGBT+ developers and Games in the GameMaker community


Should your game be on this list? Send us a message on Twitter!


Happy GameMaking!




Written by Kinga Kwapisz

Kinga Kwapisz is a Marketing Specialist at GameMaker and an avid Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast from Poland. She's constantly on the move, looking for interesting game developers to interview and new indie games to play (especially if they feature cats!).