Alexx Aplin June 22, 2020
Alexx Aplin June 22, 2020

As a gay man, the gaming industry is a place where for a very long time, I didn’t really see anyone like me. I didn’t see developers who were in the LGBT community. I didn’t see content creators in the LGBT community and I definitely didn’t see many games with LGBT characters in them. This article isn’t quite about the games though, it’s about people. Today I’ll be focusing primarily on people in the industry, shining a spotlight on them, and what they do. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a collection of people involved in game development, streamers, and content creators who are in the LGBT community.

Dari Bazile – Developer of Slimes

I could have started with anyone on this list, but I’m starting with Dari because they are a former member of the Phenixx Gaming team. They are also the developer of Slimes, a game that is now available on both itch.io and Steam. You might know them more, if you haven’t seen their work here at Phenixx Gaming, by scitydreamer and while they are no longer with us, you can read their articles here.

If you are curious about Slimes, it is a dungeon crawler focused on two characters trying to cleanse an entire dungeon of slime creatures. According to the steam page, most of the story is told through side stories that you can get access to after completing each floor. You can purchase Slimes for $6.99 on Steam or it can be found on itch.io as well.

Brandon Stennis – Streamer (iamBrandon) and Influencer Relations Manager for Reverb Games

Brandon Stennis, known as iamBrandon on Twitch, is a streamer who plays a variety of games on his channel. Recent things he has played are Pokemon Stadium, Dead by Daylight, and Fatal Frame. He has a YouTube Channel that contains all sorts of past content, including tips for content creators, and even (most recently) a Let’s Play of Resident Evil 3’s remake.

In addition to his streaming and content creation, he serves as the Influencer Relations Manager for Reverb Games and is a participant/player of Rivals of Waterdeep. In case you are unaware, Rivals of Waterdeep is a Dungeons and Dragons “actual play” stream (similar to Critical Role) that has an entire cast consisting of people of color. Rivals of Waterdeep is played on the official Dungeons and Dragons Twitch channel on Sundays. In fact, Season 6 of Rivals of Waterdeep began on June 21st! So if you haven’t checked them out already, what are you waiting for?

Stream Queens – Streaming Team

Now this entry on my list is technically cheating because it isn’t a single creator. However, what makes the Stream Queens streaming team unique is that it is a collective of content creators that all participate in Drag and Drag culture. There are 45 creators in the Stream Queens team, one of which is Deere, whom I found shortly before Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched. Deere was creating entire drag looks themed after Animal Crossing characters while playing horror games.

Notable Stream Queens include Kitty Powers (who created Kitty Powers Matchmaker, a fun game you can find on Steam), and Jaymes Mansfield, who is a RuPaul’s Drag Race alum. There are plenty of creators in the Stream Queens team that are talented drag queens and creators in their own right, so why not show them some love?

Anne Gibeault – Game Producer, Director, and Animator

While Anne Gibeault isn’t a household name, she should be. She is currently Senior Producer at Eidos-Montreal and worked for Ubisoft for 10 years, on projects such as Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Just Dance, and the Far Cry series as Producer, Director, or Animator depending on the project. Anne has a long history in the gaming industry, and it would be unacceptable to leave her off this list.

David Gaider – Writer, Game Developer, and Co-Founder/Creative Director of Summerfall Studios

There is so much that I can say about David Gaider and none of it is enough. He worked for Bioware from 1999 to 2016, contributing to plenty of great games including the Dragon Age franchise, which I hold dear to my heart for a variety of reasons. I have actually interacted with David a few times through social media and in all of my interactions over the years, he has been kind and very fun to talk to.

Currently, he is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Summerfall Studios, which announced their first title, Chorus: An Adventure Musical, in October of 2019. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to see where his career takes him next and to get my hands on Chorus, of course.

Taliesin Jaffe – Actor, Voice Actor, Scriptwriter, Voice Director, Part of the cast of Critical Role

Now, Taliesin Jaffe is by no means a new player in the entertainment industry, but it feels strange to omit him from it regardless, due to the cultural impact that Critical Role has had on Twitch and the Tabletop Entertainment scene. Jaffe came out in 2017 as bisexual but before that, he had acting credits as far back as 1983’s Mr. Mom, where he played Kenny Butler. He began voice acting work for anime in 1991 and did work on things like One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Hellsing.

On the video game side of things, he’s done uncredited voice work for Suikoden IV and Suikoden V, as well as credited work for things such as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as Thancred and World of Warcraft: Legion as Highlord Darion Mograine.

Notably, he is also a main cast member on Critical Role and will presumably reprise his role in The Legend of Vox Machina, the animated adaptation that will be released on Amazon Prime Video, and will consist of two seasons (so far anyway) of 14 and 12 episodes respectively.

8BitDylan – YouTube Creator, Twitch Streamer, and Community Marketing Manager for Twitch

Last but not least, we have Dylan. Now, I’ll admit something to you that I’m sure you’re probably already aware of. This article is not entirely unbiased. I happen to be very proud of Dylan because I started interacting and engaging with him when he was simply a small YouTube creator. I started watching his Minecraft content and at the time there weren’t many gay YouTube creators that did gaming content. So, I was pleasantly surprised.

Now he does mostly Twitch content, but he plays a variety of games on his channel and his community is very welcoming. Seeing him go from a small YouTube creator to being the Community Marketing Manager has been a treat.

There are plenty of other LGBT creators in the gaming industry. They aren’t as visible as any of us would like, but they’re there. Ten years ago I probably couldn’t have written this article, but we’ve come a long way since then. All the same, we have a bit farther to go until we see the gaming industry reflecting all kinds of people.

I hope this article encourages you to seek out LGBT creators, whether they are creating indie games, doing Livestream content, YouTube, or even if you just happen to know that they’re working on a game you’re interested in. Pride Month is about shining a light on people, lifting them up for their achievements. Spread the word for the good people that are out there.

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Alexx Aplin

Alexx has been writing about video games for almost 10 years, and has seen most of the good, bad and ugly of the industry. After spending most of the past decade writing for other people, he decided to band together with a few others, to create a diverse place that will create content for gaming enthusiasts, by gaming enthusiasts.

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