Name of Game: Queers in Love at the End of the World
Game Creator: Anna Anthropy
Platform: Browser (Twine)
For this critical play, I played Queers in Love at the End of the World by Anna Anthropy, a browser-based, text-driven game made with Twine. It presents a short narrative of two queer lovers explored in a time-restrained, apocalyptic world. This game does a great job of affirming identity and familiar roles tied to queer identity. It also does a great job at challenging genre tropes in a way that aligns with queer values.
One way that the game immediately affirms identity is by explicitly mentioning it in the title. Many times, queerness is not centered even when it is explored in popular media. This game assumes a fresh perspective that is unapologetic and explicit about its queerness. It also keeps the main character gender-neutral throughout, which allows a more diverse set of gender expressions to enjoy and connect with the game.
You don’t have to say anything. She knows what you want, she knows how your body works; you taught her just as you taught yourself, unlearning so much, so many lies that made you feel fake. Now, in the end, she’s up your skirt, touching your body in ways that make you feel real. There’s no one left to lie to you, there’s just you and her and what’s between you.
Despite being set in an urgent, apocalyptic setting, the actions given to players are all rooted in emotional labor. A lot of the emotional labor that is performed by women to promote harmony and connection goes unnoticed in mainstream media. In this game, your only options are those overlooked options. This makes the game very feminist in nature. You’re given a short list of choices, and they’re all actions associated with femininity. It pushes this form of labor forward in a way that promotes its intrinsic value. This is further illustrated by the immediate effect it has on the story. Often, mainstream narratives subtly push the idea that these acts are worthless or meaningless. In this game, these actions are the story.
Even as a woman, I found it surprising that the only way to engage with the story was not to run or fight, but to hold and kiss your lover. That small aspect of the game design is incredibly queer in itself. When stakes are high, society pushes the idea that we should lean into actions that promote distrust, violence, and selfishness. In this game, survival is rooted in connection and tenderness. Small acts of love carry the narrative. The less hesitance you have toward choosing acts of love, the more you get out of the short amount of time allowed during gameplay.
“video games—as media objects, as cultural practices, and as structures of feeling—can tell us quite a bit about the collective desires, fears, and rhythms of everyday life in our precarious, networked, and procedurally generated world.
Chess, Shira. Play Like a Feminist, MIT Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stanford-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6270461. Created from stanford-ebooks on 2025-05-28 22:59:24.
This game teaches an important perspective that can have real impact in our own personal lives. It promotes resistance to mainstream narratives. Especially in a late-stage capitalistic world, a core component to cutthroat competition is fear. Since queerness often means being outcasted from the mainstream, queerness shapes a new narrative that centers love and care. This game touches on what Chess discusses about games and their potential for empathy building. Games like Queers in Love at the End of the World allow the player to think within different perspectives and experiences.
Games like Queers in Love at the End of the World are exciting because they create space for play that opposes the norms and (often toxic) values established in the gaming industry. One improvement could be offering a brief reflection screen after the timer ends, allowing players a moment to process what they chose and felt without disrupting the game’s core design of urgency and impermanence.
