One Australian man wanted to see gay-themed video games that weren’t sexual in nature, so he created one himself.
In today’s video gaming world, LGBTQ stories are starting to pick up traction. That said, the most popular LGBTQ-themed video games are often lesbian romance based. This includes award winning games like The Last of Us and Life is Strange.
On top of that, games that do focus on gay male relationships are often focused more on sex than on romance. This includes titles like Coming Out On Top and Dream Daddy.
Australian video game designer Curtis Campion decided to create a game that was different. He created Newfound Courage.
Newfound Courage follows a teenager named Alex who gets into a fight with his sister after revealing that he has a crush on a male friend. Alex then runs away from home and ends up in the sleepy town of Silverpine.
In Silverpine, Alex gets a part-time job at The Vault, an institute that holds information from a long-dead civilization. In addition, he settles himself into town life by getting to know the citizens, working odd jobs and missions for them, and starting a courtship with a young man named Jake.
“Newfound Courage is part of a genre of narrative-driven games,” Campion told LGBTQNation. “In these games, it’s more like you’re living in a story [rather] than creating your own story like you might in a typical role-playing game.”
He then added, “In this story, much of what motivates the character — his actions and the places he ends up in — revolves around his romance with another male character, a romance that is distinctly gay, that has characteristics and emotions that wouldn’t apply to a heterosexual romance…. It’s a personal story and I couldn’t tell it any other way.”
The game uses pixel art, by Kurt Prieto and a small team of artists, which is an art form used by many celebrated indie games such as Undertale and Stardew Valley. In addition, the game uses a musical score by Jessica Kelly.
If you want to try out the game, you can! Campion released the first in a three-part chapter series on the Early Access section of Steam (a PC gaming platform).
Buy it on Early Access now for $10 to help the game in its development.
