Sharang Biswas

We chatted with Sharang Biswas, a game designer, artist, and writer.

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

Sharang: I’m an indie game designer, writer and artist with a focus on analogue interactive experiences, including board and card games, tabletop roleplaying games, LARP, interactive theatre, weird experiential art and the like.

I also write essays and reviews on games, interactive media, and film in a couple of different places (most notably, I’ve written for ZAM and Kill Screen), and have recently started doing a bit of writing for games.

I have a Masters in Interactive Design, but I started out my undergrad career as a bioengineer, which I realised only near the end of my fourth year wasn’t the career for me.

I’m cis-male, gay and South Asian.

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

Sharang: Since I’m an indie designer, a true “start date in the industry” is a little vague! I’ve been making roleplaying-like or storytelling games since I was in middle school. The most formal “entering the industry” moment was probably around 2009, as an undergraduate, when I took classes with and interned at the game lab at my university.

I’m working on a few things right now! I’m making a 1-person, self-reflection/storytelling game about witchcraft that you play while preparing and eating a salad (titled Verdure), a 2-player RPG about a freshman at Wizard School trying desperately to finish a midterm (titled Hex-Ed), and another 2-player RPG about myth-building. I’m also in the nascent stages of a few LARP and interactive theatre pieces.

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

Sharang: I took an undergraduate game design class with game-design extraordinaire Mary Flanagan, and realised, “Woah, people can do this as an art and profession!” Then again in grad school, I was in New York and met a tonne of interesting indie designers and then I just sort of... fell in?

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?

Sharang: I was recently talking to someone about an interactive fiction piece I wrote featuring gay romance elements, and he wondered why I “put gay themes in everything”. My response was, “If we don’t, who will?”

I’m lucky in that I’ve been able to avoid the violence that many queer people face in their lives, but subtle prejudice is inescapable for a queer person. Part of the solution to this, I feel, is representation of queer themes, imagery, narratives and people in the art and cultural artefacts we consume as a society. As such, I try and fill my stories with gay stuff!

Other than that, it’s difficult to separate one’s identity into its “component parts”, and being gay has contributed to my unique experience of the world. I’m sure that as a result, it’s crept into my work in ways I may not even be fully conscious of!

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.

Sharang: I mean I like to think of everyone as bisexual until they say otherwise, so like a whole host of characters... and as a kid, I had a huge crush on Wheeler, the red-headed New Yorker in Captain Planet...

But more explicitly, I'm a big fan of Kevin Keller in the Archie comics. I grew up reading Archie, which was always held up as this epitome of wholesome entertainment, and I'm glad that queer identities have penetrated that sort of medium!

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.

Sharang: The perks of being an independent designer is that no-one tells you what you can or cannot do. Personally, I’ve never had anyone balk at queer stuff in my games, but that could also be because I tend to show my games to like-minded people?

I think there are two big issues. First, it’s fear that including even a little queer content will label creators as queer (something many cis-het people are deathly afraid of, for some reason). Second, is that people include their own life experiences. If someone has never encountered queer people or queer media, they’re unlikely to include that sort of content in their work. Of course, this means that there’s less queer content in general, and the whole thing becomes a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. That’s why it’s so important for queer people to REALLY feature queer stuff in their work, to make a lot of it, and to make it obvious.

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?

Sharang: Richard Lawson wrote for variety magazine (in an article about Adam Rippon): “It matters to a child—and to an adult—to, yes, see some reflection of themselves. But also to have the faraway heroes, the almost impossible ideals. Maybe those unreachable gods somehow help clarify things here on Earth.” I think this is quote is spot-on: we all want to feel less alone in the world, to feel that, yes, there are others like us, others who’ve had our experiences. And we all would like to have someone to look up to (and also to remind us that yes, queer people CAN exist in media, and it’s not hard).

As to how to make things better, those of us who do have the luxury of talking about queerness, should do so, A LOT. And to quote my game designer friend Eric Mersmann, “Deniable queer subtext is insufficient”: we have to be loud, proud and in your face!

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.

Sharang: I don’t think I’m wizened and experienced enough to call myself a “mentor”... though I've taught a bunch of game design classes and workshops for both adults and teens… and I have to say the teens tend to be better, often coming up with astonishingly brilliant and daring ideas!

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?

Sharang: Buy games featuring queer content, and more importantly buy games made by queer people. And not just PLAY games; if you have the means to do so, actually BUY such games. Many queer, indie developers and designers are struggling artists, and if you want to see them create more cool work, buy their stuff!

Also, talk to people who are different from you. And listen to what they have to say! When you’re at a convention or gaming event, talk to people you’re playing with, hear their perspectives! The best way to become more inclusive is to actively engage with diverse folks. Not only will you learn something, you’ll start internalising queerness (and for that matter, all other aspects of identity) as part of a greater, intersectional whole of who a person is.

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?

Sharang: You’re doing fine. You’re contributing in your own way, and your work is important, even if it’s just playing games (like I mentioned, you’re supporting queer creators)!

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You can find Sharang on his website and Twitter.
Photos by Jonaya Kemper, from the LARP Just a Little Lovin' by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne Grasmo.