Merritt Kopas
| merritt k | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ontario, Canada [1] |
| Occupation | Game designer |
merritt k is a game designer and developer in the video game industry as well as an author and a zine creator. merritt is best known for her games LIM, HUGPUNX as well as Consensual Torture Simulator. She states the common theme of her games to be "the capacity of digital games to convey care relationships; either to provide a sense of care to the player or to invest her in the project of caring for another."[2]
merritt k is also the author of several internet fictions and zines such as Dear Pauline and These Were Free On My Blog.[3][4][4]
Career
k was raised on games and the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. In 2012, she was inspired by games made with the interactive fiction tool Twine, and has made several games with the software since.[5][6] LIM was released for free on the internet and is about trying to meet society's expectations.[7] Her book, "Videogames for Humans", documents her experiences with Twine games, and collates various critical reviews of the games together.[8][9]
merritt k greatly credits Anna Anthropy and her publication of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters in 2012 as having a great influence on the indie gaming scene.[5] merritt k is also influenced in game design through her experiences as a trans woman, which comes through in her game concepts. Her game Vin Diesel DMing a Game of D&D Just For You has been described as "an example of games as caregiving".[10]
On her personal website, merritt has published such games as Minkomora, Obeissance, and Take Care – the last one described as a game in which you reach through the ether to offer comfort to a distressed person.[3] Certain of her smaller pieces, such a simple Texture Piece style game called Super Consent deal with the complexities of issues like consent and why and how they should be dealt with within our culture.
Games
- TERF War – July 2012[11]
- LIM – August 2012[12][13]
- Princess Queen – September 2012[14]
- Brace – October 2012[15]
- A Synchronous Ritual – October 2012[16]
- Queer Pirate Plane – December 2012[17]
- Bubblegum Slaughter – January 2013[18]
- Positive Space – February 2013[19]
- Octopy – March 2013[20]
- Hugpunx – June 2013[21]
- Consensual Torture Simulator – October 2013[22][23]
- Take Care – October 2014[24]
Podcasts
merritt k also hosts her own podcast called Woodland Secrets, where she interviews primarily women, people of color, and queer people.[25] On June 19, 2016 she began hosting Dadfeelings, a podcast about fictional dads and the feelings associated with them.
References
- ↑ http://woodlandsecrets.co/episode/73
- ↑ "merritt kopas". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- 1 2 "merritt kopas". itch.io. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- 1 2 "These Were Free On My Blog". itch.io. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
- 1 2 "Lambda Literary". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "'If You Stop and Look, You Will Literally Die': An Interview with Merritt Kopas – Hazlitt". Hazlitt. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ Zagalo, Nelson; Branco, Pedro, eds. (2015). Creativity in the Digital Age Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-447-16681-8.
- ↑ Gwaltney, Javy (29 May 2015). "Videogames For Humans edited by Merritt Kopas". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ Oakley, Kate; O'Connor, Justin, eds. (2015). The Routledge Companion to the Cultural Industries. Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-317-53398-6.
- ↑ "Are any of your favorites in this awesome game curation?". boingboing.net. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- ↑ "TERF War". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ Leszkiewicz, Anna (2013-02-19). "The McDonalds sim and September 12: what does it mean for a videogame to be political?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
- ↑ "Lim". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Princess Queen". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Sugarcane". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Sugarcane". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Jonah". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Jonah". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Sugarcane". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "OCTOPY". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "HUGPUNX". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Consensual Torture Simulator: Is game violence meaningful enough?". Gamasutra.com. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
- ↑ "Consensual Torture Simulator". Gumroad. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "TAKE CARE". mkopas.net. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ↑ "Woodland Secrets". Woodlandsecrets.co. Retrieved 4 March 2016.