wrapping up my first quarter

Fall of 2020 was rough. Like, really fucking rough. And not just in the sense of "there's a combination pandemic-fascist coup-economic crisis-class war". I mean, yes in that sense, but also every month of Fall Quarter brought new tragedy to my life. In October my long-term relationship ended. In November, my brother died. December didn't have death or destruction in my personal life, but I did have to make it through the holidays without him and it would be an understatement to say it fucking sucked.  

But I survived. 

I haven't started making anything for my thesis project (I'm still researching), but I did make some small games! Most of these are private games with personal information, but I explored home, ritual, and familiarity versus unfamiliarity. I don't think I want to make more games about those topics right now, but that's because I am Hyperfixating™ on gay vampires and that's kind of my whole brand at the moment. (I even made social media headers about this.)

I did finish a few close readings. I annotated The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Gaming at the Edge, and Interview with the Vampire. I also read The Vampire Lestat and have found a new (academic) book that I'll be reading in between my classwork this quarter called Queer Gothic Culture. 

Since I'm making more games that I think I can share, I'll write up separate posts about them and document my progress. For now though, I am content to do my readings and classwork. 

here is a link to my end of quarter presentation