The Gayming Award 2021 is all set to be held on February 24. This is the first awards show that highlights LGBTQ in video gaming and it is going to be exclusively broadcasted worldwide through Twitch. There’s a lot of awards at stake and one of these is the Gayming Icon Award.
The Gayming Icon Award honors an individual who has made a significant contribution to not only promoting the status of the LGBTQ+ community in video games but also increasing its visibility. Gayming Magazine has announced that this honor is going to Robert Yang.
As an indie game developer, Yang is known for games like Intimate, Infinite, Cobra Club, Hurt Me Plenty, Rinse and Repeat, and The Tearoom. If you know any of these games, then you probably won’t be surprised that he's been considered as one of the world’s controversial game developers.
Yang, however, is facing the challenge head-on and in fact, had long called for the gaming industry to be more open on controversial topics like sexuality. In particular is the queer sexual content, which is usually minimized in games or even altogether banned.
Before being a game developer, Yang worked at the NYU Game Center as an Assistant Arts Professor. He currently has a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley along with an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School for Design. If you’re curious, you can learn more about him here. By the way, if you do visit his website be prepared for graphic content.
Gayming Magazine founder and editor Robin Gray said that Yang’s work is something that everyone should celebrate, especially on the topics that they explore. Gray added that Yang managed to define the entire gay games genre single-handedly.
Yang already shared a message on being named for the award that you can read here.
In addition to the Gayming Icon Awards, other honors include Game of the Year, Best LGBTQ Indie Game, Authentic Representation Award, and Best LGBTQ Character. Leading the pack is Tell Me Why with four nominations followed by Hades, If Found, and The Last of Us Part 2, with three nominations each. You can view the complete list here.
