Dys4ia is a Game that Just Wants You to Be Yourself

**The following piece is a repost from my personal blog that I made in 2012. I felt that it was relevant in light of the recent DOMA ruling. I think that everyone should play this game. It certainly afforded me a deeper perspective.
I’ve recently had a very interesting and emotional experience. In my Twitter feed last week I came across a link to a flash game on Newgrounds called DyS4ia. The text that accompanied the tweet simply read “You need to play this”. What I found was less of a game and more of a way to impart an experience; the experience of knowing who and what you really are but not being accepted for it.

DyS4ia is the semi-autobiographical tale of the last six months of game developer Auntie Pixelante’s life and subsequently her decision to begin hormone replacement therapy. She is fairly well known in the indie games scene for her games Mighty Jill Off and Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars. DyS4ia does much more than simply tell you her story though. Through a series of simple mini-games she manages to communicate a very real sense of the anxiety and frustration that a transgendered person might feel when dealing with archaic gender roles. I can’t claim to know what it must be like to feel wrong in the body you were born with or knowing in your heart that you are a different sex. I do, however, feel like this game gave me some idea.

If you have 10 minutes to spare that’s all you need. This is important. It is not often that a game like this does so much with so little and does it so elegantly. I am grateful that this experience was shared with us. Maybe that sounds a bit saccharin or even trite but this was an emotional experience and I, as always, am a sappy guy.

Dys4ia, The Game

 

 

I’d love to hear what you guys think about the game! be sure to leave a comment below.

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