Reading Queer Autobiographical Games Through the Lens of Memory and Identity Studies

This paper argues that memory and identity studies, particularly literary autobiography theory drawn from scholars such as Lejeune, Eakin, Candau, and Pollack, offer a productive alternative to the "empathy" framework that has dominated scholarly and journalistic discussion of queer autobiographical games. Its central claim is that these games show clear continuities with traditional life writing, and that concepts from autobiography studies can illuminate how queer creators document marginalized histories, challenge official memory, and resist hegemonic identity norms. The analysis organizes its readings around four categories central to autobiographical genres: the autobiographical pact, the proper name, the homeostatic function, and the display of "normalcy."

Applying these categories to dys4ia, Coming Out Simulator, and He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, the study finds that digital media adapt verbal autobiographical conventions in distinctive ways. dys4ia subverts identity closure by resisting narrative resolution in favor of an open-ended, diary-like structure, while Coming Out Simulator undermines its own factual claims, mirroring the protagonist's need to conceal identity. Both games are read as forms of "underground memory" that challenge dominant norms. Coming Out Simulator uses branching narrative and meta-commentary to question yet ultimately reaffirm a stable identity, whereas He Fucked the Girl Out of Me fragments identity through trauma, shows how criminalization silences trans storytelling, and frames the act of autobiographical narration itself as resistance.

The scope of the analysis is focused on three single-author works of independent queer game design, examined through close reading rather than broad survey data. Supporting endnotes offer a notable empirical observation: searches pairing dys4ia with "empathy" return 285 results, far more than pairings with autobiography terms, which return between 68 and 205 depending on the term. This suggests the game is more commonly discussed through empathy than through autobiography, lending weight to the paper's argument for reframing critical attention.