The story I created follows a non-binary first-year student as they are forced to learn how to navigate Davidson College as the gendered institution it is. Our readings in this course which lie at the intersection of gender and violence have weighed heavily on my mind this semester; I continually return to the words of queer gamemaker Kaitlin Tremblay, who so concisely explained my purpose in developing dichotomous (password: cyborgs): āā[Horror] is the only place where I can feel true and unabashed fear and not be told Iām being oversensitive. Horror is a rare place where fear is taken seriouslyāā (Velocci 42). I open my game with a content warning about āgendered violenceā; to be clear, āviolenceā is not purely physical, and the way in which I discuss violence here includes the institutional, verbal, generational, emotional, etc. violence which queer and non-binary bodies are subjected to at Davidson in addition to physical violence.
If the story contains scenes which do not seem quite glamorously surprising or violent āenough,ā then something very important has been revealed: Iād ask the player to consider why and how any of those situations should be relegated in (y)our mind as a mediocre or normal occurrence. How are you participating in or corroborating gendered violence on our campus?
There are many pathways and game endings, so if you are interested in finding all of the combinations, you will need to play through a few different times.