Anna Anthropy

Anna Anthropy
Anna Anthropy speaking at the 2013 Game Developers Conference
Residence	Oakland, California
Nationality	American
Other names	Auntie Pixelante, Dessgeega, Ancil Anthropy
Education	SUNY Purchase (attended circa 2002) The Guildhall, Southern Methodist University (attended in 2008)[1]
Occupation	Game developer, writer
Known for	Developer of the freeware games Mighty Jill Off (2008) and Dys4ia (2012) Editor for The Gamer's Quarter
Home town	The Bronx, New York

Anna Anthropy is an American video game designer. She has developed a number of freeware games including Mighty Jill Off, Redder,^[2] Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars and Dys4ia, and is a co-founder and associate editor of The Gamer's Quarter.^[3][4] Her games explore the relationship between sadism and game design; Anthropy's games challenge players' expectations of what the developer should create and how the player should be reprimanded for errors.^[2][5][6] Anthropy is a trans woman.^[7][8]

Career

Game design

In 2010, working with Koduco, a game development company based in San Francisco, Anthropy helped develop the iPad game "Pong Vaders".^[9][10] In 2011, she released Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars, an homage to Midway's 1981 arcade game Wizard of Wor with a queer theme and "some fun commentary on master-slave dynamics."^[11] In 2012, she released dys4ia, an autobiographical game about her experiences with hormone replacement therapy that "[allows] the player to experience a simulation or approximation of what she went through."^[12]

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

In 2011, Anthropy announced the upcoming publication of her first book, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (ISBN 978-1609803728), through Seven Stories Press.^[13] The book takes the title of her 2008 article for The Escapist,^[14] and according to the author promotes the idea of "small, interesting, personal experiences by hobbyist authors ... Zinesters exists to be a kind of ambassador for that idea of what video games can be."^[15] The book also deals with a detailed analysis of the mechanics and potentialities of digital games, including the idea that games can be more usefully compared to theater than film ("There is always a scene called "World 1-2," although each performance of "World 1-2" will be different") and the role of chance in games.^[16] The book was published by Seven Stories Press on March 20, 2012.

Media appearances

Anthropy appeared on episode 174 of Pink and White Productions' Crash Pad Series, a queer pornography series.^[17][18]

Games

• Afternoon in the House of Secrets^[19]
• And the Robot Horse You Rode In On^[20]
• Calamity Annie^[3][8]
• Dys4ia^[21]
• Encyclopedia Fuckme and the Case of the Vanishing Entree
• Gay Cats Go to the Weird Weird Woods^[22]
• The Hunt for the Gay Planet^[23]
• Keep Me Occupied^[24][25]
• Mighty Jill Off^[2][3][26]
• Police Bear^[27]
• Pong Vaders (on iTunes)^[9][10]
• Redder^[2][3][28]
• When Pigs Fly^[29]

References

External links

• Official website
• The Gamer's Quarter
• Anna Anthropy at MobyGames