I was recently asked to prepare information on two games that I think should be displayed in a museum exhibition on the contemporary design history of video games. I made my choices as provocative explorations of the relationship between game design and other design disciplines. This is the presentation I gave arguing for the historical and cultural relevance of two very different games: Robert Yang's Stick Shift, and From Software's Dark Souls. I also include some information on how I would display them if allowed to contribute to the exhibition.

1. Gallery display proposals
Stick Shift
Dark Souls

2. Stick Shift
Robert Yang

3. Critical design
● “What if sex in games was
something we did, rather
than something we
obtained?”
● Use of tools of high-budget
game design for
countercultural works.

4. Identity politics
● In 48% of cases, the act is
interrupted by a police
officer, in a reference to the
origins of the Stonewall
riots in police oppression.
● Provocative work, often
using images designed to be
grokkable e.g. homoerotic
nudes in other games.
Critical design
● “What if sex in games was
something we did, rather
than something we
obtained?”
● Use of tools of high-budget
game design for
countercultural works.

5. Intermediality
● Response to a challenge by
Paolo Pedercini to make a
game from Andy Warhol’s
‘Blow Job’.
● Addition of technicity,
object of agency.
● “You are pleasuring a gay
car” - symbol of
masculinity.
Identity politics
● In 48% of cases, the act is
interrupted by a police
officer, in a reference to the
origins of the Stonewall
riots in police oppression.
● Provocative work, often
using images designed to be
grokkable e.g. homoerotic
nudes in other games.
Critical design
● “What if sex in games was
something we did, rather
than something we
obtained?”
● Use of tools of high-budget
game design for
countercultural works.

6. Research
● Collection of responses to Yang’s work in media around the world.
● Connections to histories of images of the car and the homoerotic
male body in activist art (e.g. Susan Bordo, The Male Body).
● Existing work on avant-garde game design: Mia Consalvo, Mary
Flanagan, Brian Schrank.
● Offers a view on how identity politics in game design is
contextualised by a larger history of activism.

7. Display
strategies
● Could display with other
Robert Yang work, e.g.
○ Succulent, different
use of male body.
○ Hurt Me Plenty,
different activism.
● Technical materials on 3D
models and software.
● Very accessible to play:
instructions shown on
screen, mouse only.
● Automatically loops.

8. Dark Souls
From Software
Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki

9. Literacy politics
● Visitors unfamiliar with
games find many of them
inaccessible: prevents
reading in a gallery.
● Dark Souls is inaccessible to
many people within games
culture: lean into literacy
barrier to explore it.

10. Tastemaking
● Dark Souls is considered
terrible design by some:
flow theory implies
frustration is bad.
● For others it is exemplary,
especially altgames crowd
interested in architecture
and spirituality.
Literacy politics
● Visitors unfamiliar with
games find many of them
inaccessible: prevents
reading in a gallery.
● Dark Souls is inaccessible to
many people within games
culture: lean into literacy
barrier to explore it.

11. Spectatorship
● Performance of skill
through streaming and
video sharing is a large part
of fandom.
● Spectacular costuming and
choreography make Dark
Souls a particularly
theatrical game.
Tastemaking
● Dark Souls is considered
terrible design by some:
flow theory implies
frustration is bad.
● For others it is exemplary,
especially altgames crowd
interested in architecture
and spirituality.
Literacy politics
● Visitors unfamiliar with
games find many of them
inaccessible: prevents
reading in a gallery.
● Dark Souls is inaccessible to
many people within games
culture: lean into literacy
barrier to explore it.

12. Research
● Survey of critical writing on Dark Souls to sketch out controversies.
● Interviews with developers at From Software, and of altgames
inspired by Dark Souls.
● Request materials from early stage of design, including concept art
and design docs if possible.
● Offers a rich picture of discourses around difficulty and reward, as
well as architecture and choreography in game design.

13. Display
strategies
● Large screen, or a mirrored
second screen raised above
head height for spectators.
● Other video installations are
very important:
performances of skill and
failure, interviews with
designers and critics.
● If space permits, also install
altgames inspired by Dark
Souls architecture and
spirituality.