[PROTO] P#SSY RIOT

a crude, character-driven hybrid game about transmascs doing roller derby.

*this demo is being published specifically for trans rep jam 2025, trans MLM jam 2025, and yaoi game jam 2025. it will take around 5-10min to play through entirely. its reception will determine how feasible it will be for me to continue working on it with any speed. <3

WHAT IS P#SSY RIOT?

P#SSY RIOT is a passion project i have been working on for many years now. (: originally i intended for it to be a comic, but one day i thought to make it a game instead, and from that point i've worked basically every day to get something playable in time for the end of trans rep jam! if you're curious, you can find a little more info on the simple website i am keeping it on.

you play as KIT (DARKROOM DANNY) as he navigates the yearning to be a part of something, the perfectionism that gets in his way, and the anxiety & relief of going through with it anyway.

on its face, it's a heavily character and story-focused game about a group of transmascs* playing roller derby! beyond that, it's a story about social media, sexuality, queer loneliness, disability, bodies, and finding your place in the world. in its current form, PROTO-P#SSY RIOT, it shows only a prototype of the visual novel sections -- but the racing mechanics i've been developing for it influence that story, and i don't consider it a full game without them.

the full game is crude and contains partial nudity, and the story is about adults & intended for adults, but IT IS NOT NSFW. however, it's important to me to ally with NSFW creators being targeted on this and every platform. i am one myself, even if this particular work doesn't contain NSFW content.

that said, i made this game in exactly one month, with 0 prior programming experience. (: it was never meant to be a full game, more of a proof of concept. i hope you give it a chance and have fun with it!

this game is being made with VNGen! all writing, art, UI assets, and additional code comes from me. music by HeatleyBros, used with permission. background from Vecteezy. blips by dmochas, except for one that i believe came packaged with VNgen. ty to lexxxxx and RoughPuppies for programming help! (:

* transmascs, trans men, masc-leaning nonbinary & agender people. any afab person who identifies with masculinity, basically. and the definition of masculinity is quite loose.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• i made the game natively 1080p. by the time i knew better, it was far too late to feasibly resize everything. sorry! this is one of the first things i plan to fix for the larger release. some UI elements are positioned wrong due to this, but it shouldn’t be anything egregious. the game window is resizeable and does scale, if clumsily. please deal with it for now ;v;
• the volume can be a bit inconsistent, you may want to keep your volume mixer open. 
• vox/"blips" in scene 1 aren't working properly, so they all sound the same for that scene. attempted to fix this and broke it worse, so it's staying, LOL. they're fixed in scene 2!
• inaccurate names/labels in the log. related to the above problem; just don't use the log, trust me
• unable to loop back to the menu during/after play

WHY ROLLER DERBY?

okay, let's put this up front, because i'll be the first to admit it: i have never played roller derby. this is because by the time i was old enough and had the freedom to play, my progressive muscle disease had already made it more dangerous than i could responsibly commit to.

so, why roller derby? because i fucking love roller derby, dude. i love the cultivated vibe, i love the way it associates femininity with slapstick brutality, i love and admire the athleticism required to play well. it is a queer punk sport, and i am but a queer punk jock.

obviously, there's no replacement for personal experience -- which is why i'm working with as many skaters, coaches, refs, and NSOs as i can find to ensure the story is - if not 100% realistic - at least appropriately researched. (everyone i've spoken to so far has been fucking incredible, my notifs were briefly full of the coolest people i've ever met, lol.) i want to do right by them, and i also want this game to work with derby instead of against it. derby is often misrepresented in media, and COVID-19 had a major impact on the sport — frankly if i can catch one person's attention and capture their interest for derby, i'll consider the whole project a success.

WHO ARE YOU?

i'm loom! i am 32 years old, an ex-professional illustrator, and local "too feminine" trans guy. are the pieces starting to fall into place? ;) 

i started my transition over a decade ago at this point, and have noticed a huge number of younger transmascs struggling to feel comfortable, to find community, and to find an identity As A Man that doesn't take the easy way out through cisheteropatriarchal misogyny. there are many aspects of socially transitioning that i feel are not spoken about enough, but fill me with empathy for younger queer folks coming up behind me in this age of censorship, misinformation, and irony poisoning.

that camaraderie that is often lost as we transition is what this project is about. i want to pit this... societal separation of self enforced on transmascs against the visceral physicality of a contact sport and see what comes out. derby is already a haven for queer folks, and i want to use that as a jumping off point to go even deeper: how "feminine" is femininity, really? how can transmascs escape this trap that isolates all men in our society to some degree, especially when we are forced to experience a specific kind of misogyny that many others aren't? and how much of ourselves, our identity, our community, do we truly need to be palatable to cis people?

my hope is to continue this project long after this jam ends, and explore these subjects until i am satisfied. <3

want to talk about the game? i'm on tumblrand bsky!
want to post about the game on social media? feel free to use the tag #PXRgame !

devlog: https://pxssy.neocities.org/process