A butt-dating sim, and other gay games

LGBT video-game jam explores different stories


When a game starts out by declaring that it is “dedicated to the everlasting creative soul of Tina Belcher,” you know something magical is about to happen.

Organized by the San Francisco LGBT video-game conference GaymerX (recently rebranded as GX), GXDev is a 24-hour video-game jam at which single developers or teams create small, finished games over a weekend in January. GXDev published 11 of the games developed at this year’s event; the games are free to download and can be played on Windows, Mac and Linux.

One of the games, inspired by the gluteus-maximus-obsessed teenager from Bob’s Burgers, is a butt-dating simulator.

In Cheek 2 Cheek you play as a recent transplant to the seaside paradise of Apple Bottom Bay, a gathering place for bathing-suit-clad beachgoers. Hence, a utopia for the butt-obsessed.

You start on your first day working at a surf-shop called Beach Bums, and you begin to meet your co-workers and customers. All conversations happen at waist level, directed at the backside. All interactions are with glorious man-butt.

“The theme of GXDev was ‘The Stories That Aren’t Told,’ to encourage games with themes we don’t usually get to see,” says the GX site. Other games include an “endless gardening game about space deer” and a game titled Cactus Seeking Hug.

Cheek 2 Cheek is described as “a game about managing and defining relationships, identities and self actualization in an age of shifting boundaries. Explore non-traditional relationships in a non-violent play space.” According to the GX site, it was developed by San Francisco game maker Adam Rickert.

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

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