Games as Explorations of Desire with Writer and Adult Developer Ana Valens

Pixel Therapy Pod

Note: This episode includes discussions of sexuality, with some references to BDSM and kink.

Howdy, y'all! Spencer and Jamie kick things off this week with a little HOT, SPICY, and SPIRITED debate (for us) on Armature Games' new surreal narrative adventure: Where the Heart Leads! Tumble into the time sinkhole with us as we delve into this 600,000-word everyday epic about a family man who finds himself reliving the formative moments of his life, including his present and even his future- and gains the ability to change them.

Then we're joined by the wonderful Ana Valens, a writer and adult game developer who, in her words, "specializes in the intersection of sexuality and video games and what the two have to say about the other." UMM, how cool is that?! We unpack the capacity for games to engage with sexuality beyond providing titillation, from education, to self-expression, to helping us gain deeper understandings of our own desires and providing safe places to explore them. We interviewed Ana during Pride Month, so we also touch a bit on the last few decades of U.S. LGBTQ+ history and the importance of honoring and understanding kink's place in queer culture! It's truly an action-packed episode so thanks for reading this far but please stop and press play!

Check out Ana's queer adult games: https://acvalens.itch.io/

Follow Ana on Twitter (private, but listeners can request access): https://twitter.com/acvalens

Check out Ana's book, Tumblr Porn: http://www.instarbooks.com/books/tumblr-porn.html

Side Quest

Red Canary Song

Originally founded in 2017 to provide legal and healthcare support to the family of massage worker Yang Song who was killed during a police raid, Red Canary Song is today a grassroots massage worker coalition in the U.S. and organizes transnationally with Asian sex workers across the diaspora in Toronto, Paris, and Hong Kong. To learn more and support their work, please check out:

https://www.redcanarysong.net/

About Pixel Therapy

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