Hien Pham

We invited Hien Pham to share his experience as a comic and games artist with us.

QRM: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do in the games industry?

Hien: I’m a digital artist specializing in happy and gentle queer comics. I’ve worked with and volunteered for many Perth-based games companies and events for the last several years. These days I'm always trying to juggle both halves of my life – games and comics – to tell heartwarming stories with terrible pun titles.

QRM: How long have you been involved in the game industry, and what projects have you worked on? What are you working on currently?

Hien: I moved to Australia at the end of September 2011 and I have always been involved with the local games community since. I've volunteered and worked with Perth Games Festival since its inception in 2014. I've work for a local company Stirfire as a Junior Artist and QA Tester.

In 2016, I was given a 2016 GCAP Assist sponsorship which gave me the fire and support I needed to successfully launch my first Kickstarter! Me and John Kane (of Gritfish fame) are working together on a light choose-your-own gentle queer adventure called It Will Be Hard.

QRM: What inspired you to get started in the games industry?

Hien: Fun fact: I started learning English because I wanted to solve puzzles in games! I can still remember playing Megaman Battle Network while having the dictionary running on the computer.

Games have always been a huge part of my life. I've always had online communities to be a part of when I grew up. Games are fun and engaging and heartfelt and bittersweet and wonderfully warm yet terrifying at times. It's a way to bring worlds alive and to tell stories. I've always found courage and respite in games and comics, and I just really want more of them to exist, really!

QRM: In what ways do you feel your experiences as a queer person manifest in the games you work on, and influence the work you do?

Hien: I always always always strive to be visibly inclusive in my work. I understand how much it hurt to be told I don't exist and that I don't matter and I don't deserve to be a protagonist. All of my work feature queer folks with diverse bodies and ethnicity. Without visibility, I just don't have the same passion for whatever I'm working on.

Games and comics matter to me the most when they allow me to reflect myself in them. Sure, I can and have related to numerous straight white male protagonists, but to see a brown person who's allowed to love both his own body and whoever he chooses makes a world of difference!

It's good to know that people like you can be more than political pawns and have the same depth and complexity as anyone else. It's good to know that people like you can have thrilling adventures and deserve love and loss and hope and an ending that isn't always tragic.

QRM: Do you have a favourite queer character—in games or media more generally? If so, what is it about them that makes them your favourite?
Question asked by @kamienw.

Hien: This changes every so often! Right now I'm obsessed with TJ and Amal and how flawed yet lovely they both are. How their story wasn't so much about their queerness as it was about them and their romance. Also I LOVE that their intimate moments are slow and gentle and just... lovely.

Otherwise, my heart longs for Dorian and the Iron Bull [from Dragon Age: Inquisition]. Iron Bull is so caring to his found family. Dorian is sentimental and corny underneath all of the sass. My Inquisitor is very, very good friends with both.

Can I please say one more? Gilmore from Critical Role! His struggle to navigate his unrequited love and boundaries with Vax rings MANY familiar bells, ahaha! Dammit Matt Mercer, please, I just want to see him happy!

QRM: Have you ever encountered roadblocks in trying to include queer characters in games? What do you think is preventing greater diversity within games?
Question asked by @dustinalex91.

Hien: I've been very fortunate to have diverse friends and a network that I could always turn to for help with writing queer characters and stories, but like most everybody else, I'm afraid I would get things wrong! Like I'm not emphasizing certain aspects strong enough or glossing over small but important details that would help something become more meaningful or authentic.

My friend and mentor Alisha Jade once told me she cared more about diversity behind the scene than on-screen. I find a lot of truth in that! Without diversity in game devs or comic creators, queer and diverse stories tend not to be considered. Harmful or hostile language and stereotypes don't get pointed out until it's too late to make changes.

This has been hashed out again and again, but giving diverse folks more opportunities or allowing them to take chances and allowing them to fail and grow and learn and succeed would be the key to solving these issues.

Two masc figures cuddle by firelight.

QRM: Why do you think it is important that queer audiences are able to see themselves represented in the games they play, and in the developers who make the games they see? What can we do to improve the industry for queer audiences and devs?

Hien: Recently I played a critically-acclaimed game in which, at the very end, there were 6 heterosexual relationships overtly stated and presented on-screen. It was an amazing game, but the entire playthrough I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't supposed to play it, and that I wasn't welcomed. I played it with dread and bitterness and I just felt devastatingly alone.

The game was meant to be about kinship and chosen families, but I couldn't help but feel hopelessly ostracized.

Turns out there were a few queer characters in the narrative, but their queerness were merely hinted at instead of given proper development. Things like this happen all the time, and could have been avoided if queer folks were involved in the works' creation.

Improving these issues is just that: let us be a part of it. Employ us to be involved. Make sure that our work environment is safe and let us screw up and let us learn and grow as people.

QRM: Have you ever mentored somebody in your role in games, or been mentored? If so, what made these experiences worthwhile for you?
Question asked by @pepelanova.

Hien: I don't think I have ever been properly mentored in games. During my short work experiences, I did get guidance and feedback from professionals who I believed knew what they were doing. It made my work better, and made me a better artist.

I have been fortunate enough to be mentored in comics by Alisha Jade this past year. As an experienced indie comic-maker, she was able to give me encouragement and get me past the amateur mistakes that I would otherwise have to learn the hard way. These experiences are worthwhile not only because of the improvement that they bring, but also for the emotional support that you so desperately need in creative fields.

Sometimes you just need somebody to tell you that yes, they have felt the same way, and yes, it will get better, and you will get better, and you are better than you think you are.

QRM: In what ways can non-queer folk increase and support queer diversity present within games, as well as in the industry more broadly? How can we all work to support intersectional approaches to diversity, and why is this important?

Hien: Listen to queer folks! Make sure that they are heard and that they are safe. Support them by letting them fail without fatal judgement. Boost their voices. Retweet the Queerly Represent Me Patreon page!

Intersectional diversity is all about listening to others' experiences, and accepting them as valid, and taking them into account when creating your work. This is important because they are important and they are as important as you. Different life experiences only enrich the work we do, not the other way around.

Oh, and just... leave them a nice message if you dig their work. I can't even recount the number of times I have been neck-deep in self-doubt only to be rescued by someone telling me "Hey, I really loved your work. Keep going!" Trust me, every little bit counts!

QRM: Is there a message that you would like to share with the queer game players, game studies researchers, and other interested folks who comprise the Queerly Represent Me community?

Hien: You deserve to love and you are deserving of being loved! Make the work that speaks to you and I'm sure it'll speak to many others as well. Know that you are important, and that we always love to have you around <3

*

You can find Hien on Twitter, and check out his art at his portfolio.
You can support This Will Be Hard on Kickstarter.