Small Town Emo Photo: Fnife Games
Held every year, The Pavs - otherwise known as the NZ Game Awards - "celebrate the exceptional games made by New Zealanders".
This year Fnife came away with two nods: one in the narrative category, the other for representation.
Miles away from the shooter or hack n' slash titles that clutter the mainstream market, Fnife describe their products as "fresh queer gaming experiences". They formed with the intention of creating "LGBTQI+ projects", and with one available to play now, and an additional two on the way, it's safe to say the company has succeeded.
Narrative designer and co-director Thomas Barrer works from his suburban Christchurch flat, a shared residence with a healthy collection of blu-rays and memorabilia.
He says the path to forming the collective (he's joined by co-director Nate Tamblyn, programmer Sam Baker and composer Lukas Mayo, AKA Pickle Darling), was somewhat circuitous.
"My journey into making stuff has come from the support of the New Zealand Film Commission. I was working as an in-house graphic designer, and enjoyed my role, but I really wanted to be in charge of my own creative process."
Thomas Barrer holding his two NZ Game Awards Photo: Tony Stamp
"I was like, 'The New Zealand Film Commission is funding games, that's pretty cool.' I put in an application back in 2018, and was lucky enough to get selected. We've been mentored and supported and upskilled. All the things that we didn't know, we've managed to learn.
"A lot of the funds and support that they do are for things like getting scripts up to scratch and ready to go into production. So because their focus is mostly on research and development, rather than getting games across the finish line, they're able to focus on that.
"Like, 'Okay, what's the story? What's the storyworld? Is there some New Zealand element or some diverse element that we're exploring here, something underrepresented?
"They have a focus on uplifting minority groups as well, which is quite cool. And because we make queer games, we're at the intersection of those two points."
While that was advantageous for Fnife funding-wise, Barrer says these were always the stories they were going to tell.
"We definitely wanted to make queer games. And if that was something nobody was interested in funding, or supporting, I think we would have just done it stubbornly anyway.
"My collaborators are mostly all LGBTQ+ people, too. There's a sense of catharsis or semi-autobiographical content in what we're making, and a lot of collaboration and self-discovery that comes out of those conversations, when you're having them with other people in the rainbow community."
Was Barrer looking to help a community that was being underserved?
"Yeah, I think so. There's definitely a gap that is being filled more in the Netflix and streaming zone: queer, coming of age, young adult-targeted shows. There are a few hits in the games world that are sort of the equivalent of that, but TV is pushing a little bit further into the specific niche that I'm looking at.
"I'd still be doing it, even if there was an absolute abundance of them. But I think the reality is that it's still a little bit niche."
At The Pavs in September, Fnife won in two categories: Narrative and Representation, for their game Small Town Emo.
It's what's known as a 'walking simulator', set in the mid 2000s, described by Thomas as "romantic" and "awkward". It involves guiding a character called Ken though a series of small-town New Zealand locations.
"I wasn't really expecting to get any kind of praise, or even be noticed," he says, "but I took my game there to exhibit it, having submitted it earlier, through their judging process. I suppose out of morbid curiosity to see whether anyone would care. And people responded to it really, really well. It was amazing.
"It was a twofold surprise, because the game is quite humble, in the sense that it's retro, it's very pixel-y, and made for Gameboy. So it has a lot of limitations."
Thomas Barrer's workstation Photo: Tony Stamp
Small Town Emo is available to purchase via Steam or Itch.io, and operates on a computer or phone. With the right tools, it can be played on a Gameboy.
The intro of the game sees the character Ken waking up, and engaging with era-specific narrative prompts in his bedroom. But why is it set in 2007?
"I had a lot of thoughts and feelings about what the emo subculture meant at that time, especially to LGBTQ+ people.
"I think for a lot of queer people coming of age at that time, there was a lot of safety in being part of a subculture like that. It was an easy way to make friends with more open-minded people, and it provided you with a shield to explore your queerness or gender identity through fashion and music, without having to commit to coming out."
Fnife have two more games in the pipeline: One is called ShelfLife: Art School Detective.
Shelf Life: Art School Detective Photo: Fnife Games
"It's a mystery-adventure game, with an LGBTQ+ focus. You're an art student who is investigating the murder of artworks. So you have psychic powers, and you're able to kind of enter into the liminal space of an artwork, and discover things about the artist that created it, and use that to hunt down whodunnit."
The third project is called Echo Peak. "It's about surveilling phone calls and listening in parasocially to other people's interactions, while you yourself are isolated, somewhere in a DOC hut in the Southern Alps."
Recently Barrer attended Melbourne International Games Week / PAX Australia, where he demoed ShelfLife: Art School Detective, alongside 19 games from other local developers. It was part of a push from NZ CODE, NZTE, and the NZ Film Commission, to showcase Kiwi talent.
He says he wants to encourage anyone who's curious about making their own game.
"If you're wondering how to get into this, I'd say do a little bit of research into funding options and game jams, and see if you can put something together with some friends. It's quite cool!"
