Hal Brown
Hallways
https://hal-browns-portfolio.carrd.co/
A exploration of queerness, heteronormativity and time
My project, Hallways, aimed to answer the question:
How can I turn a queer narrative into a peice of interactive media that explores the dichotomy between expectations and divergence, so that I can represent the experience of a non-binary individual?
The result is a game that explores queerness versus hetoronormativity in relation to time and how it passes. I primarily wanted to build a game that was centered around my own non-binary expereinces. The final product has a lot of my stylisitc identity as it was a project of self-expression and catharsis. Enjoy.
In Hallways, I explored and examined Queer theory, the concept of Queer time vs. Straight time, narrative structures and writing from my own personal perspective as a queer person. Queer vs. Straight time is the concept that given the different milestones and paces that each group experiences, time passes differently for them. This project was primarily done to create a piece of media with queer representation that I personally resonate with, that did not rely on queer identity tragedy. I had to examine queer theory and really bring it into my narrative to ensure that it didn’t fall into tropes. I explored archetypes, storytelling and a style that matched my story throughout development.
My narrative was primarily inspired by Night In The Woods, Homestuck, DON JUAN MANLET KING and many personal experiences throughout my childhood as well as my day to day. I found myself gravitating towards early console low-poly modeling and fairytale aesthetics because the nostalgic feel felt intimate and personal to me.
After all the development of this game I truly do believe I have created a thoughtful and beautiful queer narrative with a non-binary central focus. I do think that while the story was a good start, I don’t think the non-bianary storyline had as much focus as I initially wanted. This does give me a path for future growth, making the game an ideal prototype. In the future I would like to write more dialogue for the characters behind the scenes, to really explore queerness and dig further into the non-binary parts of my story and make all my own assets to really make every part of it mine. It really feels like the story itself came out of the gender binary which I think was a sign of wonderful success and an interesting result. This project really taught me how to make games, and has a great amount of future potential development.
