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Irish Independent
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Tempopo review: Conducting a delightfully dippy orchestra
Brisbane-based Witch Beam impressed us in 2021's Unpacking, a thoughtful synthesis of Tetris-esque puzzles with poignant storytelling about moving house. Tempopo dials back the sentiment, foregrounds the soundtrack and weds it to a set of 3D puzzles that echo the influential Lemmings or the more recent Humanity from 2023. Each level contains a handful of flowers to be collected, obstacles to be avoided and a mazy 3D structure with an exit as your final goal. You control a small party of sprites who wander aimlessly unless you plant movement instructions such as turn, fly or push block. The bouncy tunes underpin the little helpers' energetic and infectious dances. But your squishy friends effectively go nowhere except off the edge into the abyss until you start conducting their progress by drawing from a limited set of moves. You might need to squash a prickly bramble bush, plug a gap with a block or waft a helper upwards like a helicopter to a higher level. Mercifully, there's no punishment bar a rapid restart for screwing up and your principal step in every level is to watch the sprites fail over and over until you've grasped the choke points and begun to plan their ultimate route. Witch Beam has made Tempopo with all ages in mind, from the vividly coloured visuals to the forgiving difficulty options. A hint system goes as far as telling you what to plant and where but is graduated to the extent that you can seek just a single nudge in the right direction. The 60-plus levels offer a gentle on-ramp to the concepts within but by the 10th mission or so, you'll be juggling the simultaneous interactions of multiple sprites, orchestrating their criss-crossing paths like a superpowered traffic cop. The ultra-compact nature of the levels does mean it can be quite the challenge to mentally untangle the 3D space, no matter how much you rotate it before pressing start. Outside of the puzzles, Witch Beam lets you experiment with a lightweight music generator that remixes the in-game tunes based on sounds and notes placed on the playfield. It's hardly GarageBand but might just catch the attention of a younger player hankering for a breather from the main game's brainteasers. Tempopo won't have the same impact for adults as Unpacking but it's a fun diversion brimming with cheer and pitched at a very reasonable €20.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
13 video games with outstanding LGBTQ+ representation
Queer video games are a very popular genre, usually needing their own sections on platforms like Steam, which is also where you can download all of the games mentioned in this article. As major companies can still trail behind when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, indie developers have filled the space with gameplay and stories we can all enjoy playing. From cosy life simulators to action-packed stories, here are some of the best examples of LGBTQ+ games and where to find them. Created solely by Eric Barone (under the alias ConcernedApe), Stardew Valley is a highly successful game that has sold over 40 million copies since 2016. The player, having inherited a farm from their grandfather, leaves the city and comes to a small rural town to start their new life. Between growing plants, fishing, and fighting monsters, the player has endless options as to how they want to spend their day. They can also date most of the characters in the village, no matter what gender, as well as start a family. This game also contains countless mods by the player community, which can allow you to add gender-non-specific dialogue, additional unisex clothing options, and even more NPCs for the player to date or befriend. The possibilities are endless. You can play this game on PC, console, and mobile devices. A more recent game for the list! Unpacking, made by the independent studio Witch Beam, takes a task most people hate doing and makes it a fun experience you won't want to stop playing. While the gameplay itself is very straightforward as you drag items out of boxes and place them in the correct locations, players can find a story hidden amongst the framed photos in their room. You go through the life of the character you help to move in and see her transition from a toxic relationship to true love with a woman. It's a unique way to tell a story and is perfect for players not willing to read through mountains of dialogue. This game is featured on PC, mobile, and console. The creator of this game, Maddy Thorson, wrote on Medium, 'During Celeste's development, I did not know that Madeline (The main character) or myself were trans. During the Farewell DLC's development, I began to form a hunch.' Maddy and Madeline's gender identity journeys are intertwined and create a meaningful story (although a bit unintentional) about the experience and struggles of figuring out who you are. By not making Madeline's transgender identity explicitly clear, the creator highlights their choice and right to decide if they want to reveal it to the people around them, emphasising that no one is entitled to know whether or not someone is trans. You can play this LGBTQ+ game on PC and console. This is a high fantasy roleplaying game that has an endless amount of customisation at the player's fingertips. Players can find tons of gender-non-confirming customisation options alongside the ability to not only spark a romance with any of your teammates but be a part of polyamorous relationships, too. However, the relationship doesn't stop at the player. This game makes an active effort to have many queer relationships among the NPCs, for love or just for pleasure. Baldur's Gate 3 does a fantastic job of making the player feel like they are not the only gay in the village. This game is a great choice for players looking for a choose-your-own-adventure with violence and romance if they wish. This game can be played on PC as well as Xbox and PlayStation. This one has some history behind it. The game was first released by Nintendo back in July 2004 to help expand on the Paper Mario series. As the player goes through the game, they collect NPCs for their team. One such NPC is a character named Vivian, a purple, feminine-presenting ghost with pink hair. In English translations of the game, her story centres around her sisters insulting her for her appearance and calling her ugly. However, that wasn't her true backstory, as it was changed in the localisation of the game. In the original Japanese version, Vivian is written to be trans, with her struggles coming from her sisters' unwillingness to see her as a woman. Fans were very angry with this change in dialogue, but with the release of the remake just last year, a lot of that original text was restored, and Vivian was finally correctly represented as the trans character she is. While this doesn't have an impact on the overall narrative of the game, it is important to the story of this character and shouldn't be erased. The new version of the game is only available on Nintendo Switch; if you wish to play the older version, you will need to find a physical copy and a Nintendo Gamecube console. This single-player adventure game features a good amount of LGBTQ+ characters whose sexual identities are brought up very naturally within the story. It should be noted, though, that Night in the Woods is very heavy and represents the ugliness of life, dealing with topics such as isolation, hopelessness, lack of control, and depression. This game is available for PC, console, and Apple devices. This game centres a transgender teenage girl in 1999 who doesn't truly understand who they are, so they surf the internet as a coping mechanism. Though set 26 years ago, the main character Alex's experience growing up on the internet heavily reflects most kids' lives today and how they begin to understand that might be queer. This LGBTQ+ game is only available on PC. In this visual novel, the player finds themselves on an alien planet, where they get to explore, grow up, and fall in love with anyone they desire. With multiple romance options available, players get to experience a much more intensive dating sim with potential partners needing different things from the relationship to happily stay together. This is a game of compromise, and you can find it on PC and Console. This game does not centre around LGBTQ+ themes but instead includes them within the quests players can complete, which will pull at the player's heartstrings one way or another. It is a fantastic game overall, with one quest seeing the player deliver a flower to the grave of the quest-giver's dead lover, who also happens to be a woman. The other requires the player to decide whether or not to spare a character when given the option to kill him. If the player does, this character can be found with another male later on as he is painting a portrait of him. These are very small examples, but it is a nice form of representation as it shows queer characters simply existing within a video game world without attention being brought to it. It also gives small, heartfelt moments in a mostly tragic game. You can find this on PC and Console. In this one, the player controls a woman named Grace. Of the four romance options, two of them are also women. Other characters you meet in the game will also be or have been in queer relationships in the past. This game has great LGBTQ+ representation, not even touching on the fact that it is a roleplaying musical game with murder and Greek Gods – a love letter to queer theatre kids everywhere. You can get this game for PC and Console. This is a black and white time loop game where you attempt to save yourself and your friends from death. The character you play, Siffrin, is non-binary and asexual – a group of people that definitely need to be highlighted more in media. Your other team members are transgender, non-binary, and aroace. This must-try and tragic game is available on PC and Console. This game is specifically centred around women as they are the only ones to gain the status of immortal witches. Along with a lot of the witches being in queer relationships, it also features multiple trans women, one of which the player gets to welcome as she ascends to sisterhood. She is welcomed with open arms into the coven despite not being out or starting her physical transition. It's a true breath of fresh air. You can get this LGBTQ+ game on PC and the Nintendo Switch. In this game, you play as a transgender woman named Haru. The player must help her navigate the hot springs in Japan, which tend to be separated by gender. This game helps to discuss the issues trans women face in places like these. The player is looking at a single moment in Haru's life, helping her deal with a problem that she likely faces every day. You can get this game on PC and mobile. These are just some of the long list of games with outstanding LGBTQ+ representation. As we move forward, we will hopefully see these characters featured more and more within games made by singular people and big studios alike. By checking out the games on this list, not only will you be helping to support the further creation of games like this, but you will also be helping indie developers keep their doors open and go on to continue game creation. The post 13 video games with outstanding LGBTQ+ representation appeared first on GCN.
