Porpentine Charity Heartscape (born 1987)
is a
video game designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
,
new media artist
New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of new media, electronic media technology, technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video g ...
, writer and curator based in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
.
She is primarily a developer of
hypertext
Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
games and
interactive fiction
''
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...
mainly built using
Twine
Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (cord), string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, whic ...
.
She has been awarded a
Creative Capital
Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...
grant, a
Rhizome.org commission, the
Prix Net Art, and a Sundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab Fellowship. Her work was included in the 2017
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...
.
She was an editor for freeindiegam.es, a curated collection of free, independently produced games.
She was a columnist for online
PC gaming
A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade cabinet, arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more divers ...
magazine ''
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...
''.
Game design
Porpentine's 2012 Twine game ''Howling Dogs'' incorporates themes of escapism, violence and religious experience, though she has stated that it should be open to interpretation.
She created ''Howling Dogs'' shortly after she started hormone-replacement therapy in 2012, in only seven days, while staying in a friend's remodeled barn.
It won the 2012
XYZZY awards The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year ...
in the "Best story" and "Best writing" categories.
The ''
Boston Phoenix
''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' and ...
'' listed it as one of their "Top 5 indie games of 2012".
During the 2013
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
, game designer
Richard Hofmeier used the booth he had been given to showcase his own award-winning game ''
Cart Life
''Cart Life'' is a simulation video game developed by Richard Hofmeier using Adventure Game Studio for Microsoft Windows released in 2010. The game was added to Steam in March 2013 but later removed when Hofmeier released the full source code for f ...
'', to showcase Porpentine's ''Howling Dogs'' instead. Hofmeier spray-painted the words "Howling Dogs" across the banner of his own booth, and showed Porpentine's game instead of his own. Hofmeier stated he wished to give greater exposure to Porpentine's game.
In 2015 she released Eczema Angel Orifice, a compilation of over 20 hypertext works from 2012 to 2015. The compilation includes critically acclaimed games such as With Those We Love Alive, a queer fable about isolation, abuse, and the relationship between art and power;
and Ultra Business Tycoon III, a sprawling textual world disguised as edutainment software.
In 2016,
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
commissioned Porpentine along with Neotenomie and Sloane through the series First Look: New Art Online resulting in Psycho Nymph Exile.
This work includes an online hypertext work, a booklet, and stickers. The project depicts the experience of PTSD as a visceral physical substance, not an invisible, abstract force.
Selected works
*
Howling Dogs
''Howling Dogs'' is a Twine game and piece of interactive fiction created by Porpentine in 2012. The game is text-based and includes occasional abstract pixel art. In 2017, the game was included in the Whitney Biennial.
Gameplay
''Howling Dogs' ...
(2012)
* Their Angelical Understanding (2013)
* Ultra Business Tycoon III (2013)
* With Those We Love Alive (2014)
* Everything You Swallow Will One Day Come Up Like A Stone (2014)
* Neon Haze (2015)
* Aria End (2015)
* Psycho Nymph Exile (2016)
* No World Dreamers: Sticky Zeitgeist (2017)
* "The Decision So Many People Were Forced To Make Throughout History", ''Whose Future is It?'' (2018) (short story)
Awards
2012
* XYZZY Best Writing for ''Howling Dogs''
* "Golden Banana of Discord" for ''Howling Dogs'' at the 2012
Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition (also known as IFComp) is one of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours pl ...
, a prize awarded for the highest standard deviation "both the most loved and the most hated."
2013
* XYZZY Best Writing for ''their angelical understanding''
* Indiecade Special Recognition for ''Porpentine's Twine Compilation''
* ''Porpentine's Twine Compilation'' listed by the
Museum of the Moving Image (New York City)
The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...
as one of "25 Must-Play Video Games".
2014
* XYZZY Best Writing and Best Individual NPC for ''With Those We Love Alive''
* Wordplay Festival Award for Most Unique World: ''With Those We Love Alive''
2016
*
Creative Capital
Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...
Emerging Fields for ''Aria End'' (in collaboration with
Peter Burr
Peter Burr is a digital and new media artist based in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, born August 3, 1980. Having received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, Peter specializes in animation and installation. He has been awarded a List of G ...
)
*
Otherwise Award
The Otherwise Award, formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science f ...
Fellowship
2017
* Prix Net Art, in collaboration with
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
and
Chronus Art Center
*''With Those We Love Alive'' and ''howling dogs'' included in the
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...
2018
* Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs Fellow
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
Howling Dogs'
*
Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism'
Blog''Psycho Nymph Exile'' Secret Book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porpentine
Living people
American video game designers
Transgender women
Interactive fiction writers
American LGBT writers
Transgender writers
1987 births
Women video game designers
Electronic literature writers