Organized by Christopher Patterson (Social Justice Institute, UBC-V)
Project Description:
By de-centering game studies’ discourse from Western perceptions of games to the intersections of Asia and Asian America, Made in Asia/America: Designer and Scholar Workshop aims to provide 1) a transpacific take on gaming that makes room for nuanced questions about the places and cultures where production and reception occur; 2) frameworks that can account for the imperial circulation of games while also attending to minority and queer experience, practice, and methods; and 3) a genre-expanding approach that incorporates conversations among scholars and Asian/Asian American game designers.
Event 1: Keynote by Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka of Analgesic Productions (open to the public)
January 28, 6:00pm, 2021
The first public talk of the series explored how institutional scale and centralization facilitate the relationship in which marginalized and small-scale creators expend energy towards the benefit of monied and powerful interests. In this talk, Marina Kittaka and Melos Han-Tani, the co-founders of the small independent game company "Analgesic Productions", discussed potential avenues of divestment and refusal, with an eye towards challenging conventional wisdom regarding size and money. They built off of these ideas to imagine how that reclaimed power might be put to good use, e.g. with proportionally impactful microgrants to artists and the preservation of non-English language games.
Event 2: Five Roundtable conversations with designers and the scholars Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle (not open to the public)
Workshop #1 on “Asian/American Games” with Emperatriz Ung, Matthew Seiji Burns, Minh Le, Patrick Miller
February 3, 1:30pm 2021
This first roundtable explored broad questions of Asian American identity and representation in games, from the perspective of players and designers of projects large and small. The roundtable featured the game designers Minh Le (co-creator of Counter Strike), Matthew Seiji Burns (writer of Eliza), Patrick Miller (esports trainer and winner) and Emperatriz Ung (indie game designer).
Workshop #2 on “Asian/American Games” with Joe Yizhou Xu, Luna Javier, Christian Kealoha Miller, Lien B. Tran
Tuesday, February 9, 6:00pm, 2021
This second roundtable focused on making games from particular spaces (Philippines, Hawai’i) and aimed at specific regional audiences (subsistence farmers, localization processes). The roundtable featured the localization expert Joe Yizhou Xu, the Philippines-located designer and studio director, Luna Javiar, the Hawai’ian Native and Hawai-i based designer Christian Kealoha Miller, and the social impact game designer Lien B. Tran.
Workshop #3 on “Asian/American Games” with Robert Yang, Dietrich Squinkifer (Squinky), Rachel Li, Marina Ayano Kittaka
Wednesday, February 17, 2:00pm-4:00pm, 2021
Our hope with roundtable #3 is to discuss how indie games can focus on the ways bodies are imagined as things to be represented, but also in the ways players interact with their keyboards/controllers, how games have sought to express the "embodiment" and daily life of particular (marginalized) peoples, and ideas of "proficient" gamer bodies. This roundtable will feature the queer game designer Robert Yang, the indie game designers Dietrich Squinkifer (Squinky) and Rachel Li, and the co-founder of Analgesic Productions, Marina Ayano Kittaka.
Workshop #4 on “Asian/American Games” with Naomi Clark, Sisi Jiang, Domini Gee, Toby Do
Tuesday, February 23, 6:00pm-7:30pm, 2021
We envision this roundtable will focus on the ways that designers re-use Asian aesthetic styles, myths, and game conventions to create unique and engaging games. It will feature the game designer and NYU Professor Naomi Clark, the indie game designers Sisi Jiang and Toby Do, and the scholar and visual novel designer, Domini Gee.
Workshop #5 on “Asian/American Games” with Mike Ren, Melos Han-Tani, Yuxin Gao, Pamela Punzalan
Thursday, March 4, 6:00pm-7:30pm, 2021
We envision this roundtable will focus on the ways that designers have sought to create games based on "real world" events and situations, and on games that have been mobilized to make social, cultural, and political impacts. This roundtable will feature the Shanghai-based game designer Mike Yi Ren, the Tokyo-based designer and founder of Analgesic Productions, Melos Han-Tani, and the indie game designers Yuxin Gao and Pamela Punzalan.
Research Assistance: Moses Caliboso (audio editing, transcription, and organizing)