Robert Yang
杨若波
OccupationVideo game developer
Known forVideo games/art
Notable workIntimate, Infinite and The Tearoom
Websitedebacle.us

Robert Yang (Chinese: 杨若波) is an academic, artist, and indie video game developer, whose work often explores gay subculture and the boundary between video games and art. His work focuses particularly on sociologically deviant and sometimes illegal sexual behavior. His projects include Borges adaptation Intimate, Infinite and The Tearoom, a game that involves soliciting sex in a public toilet. He is a former member of faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts's Game Center and curated their annual indie game exhibition in 2015.[1]

Yang was also featured in the 2018 documentary Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary, created by Noclip, due to his work on the popular Half-Life Source remake, Black Mesa.[2]

Selected works

Intimate, Infinite

Intimate, Infinite is an art game adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Garden of Forking Paths", which itself played with genre.[3] The game comprises three subgames which explore themes of repetition, infinity, and sudden endings, taken from the story.[4]

Cobra Club

Cobra Club is a photo studio game that involves the player taking pictures of their character's penis. The player can interact with different NPCs and trade "dick pics" with each other. The game was banned by the live-streaming platform Twitch for its sexual content.[5][6]

Hurt Me Plenty

Released in 2014, Hurt Me Plenty is a video game based on BDSM subculture that simulates a scene in which players negotiate and perform spanking on a virtual partner, with the player required to respect consent and the boundaries agreed with the partner to replay the game.

Rinse and Repeat

Rinse and Repeat was released in 2015. It takes place at a public shower room. The player has to rub down other men. The game was widely banned on Twitch for its extensive nudity.[7][8]

The Tearoom

The Tearoom (2017) alludes to the gay sexual practice of cottaging. Players must stand at a urinal and make eye contact with a neighbor until a power bar fills up and oral sex begins. Players must also avoid being spotted by police officers.[9] Instead of penises, it shows guns.[7] The game parodies or critiques aspects of other games: the presence of non-functioning toilets in other video games; the way games normally allow players to look at everything without being penalised; and the different attitudes of the video game industry to sex (largely prohibited) and violence (almost omni-present). The game was mostly based on Laud Humphreys' 1970s book, Tearoom Trade.[9]

Other games

Yang's shorter games include Succulent, a game that allows the player character to have oral sex with an unknown orange object, possibly a corndog or a popsicle;[9] Stick Shift (2015), a short driving game about pleasuring a gay car; and No Stars, Only Constellations, a stargazing game about relationship breakups and alien life. A few of Yang's games were released on Steam in a collection called Radiator 2. In 2021, Yang created "We Dwell in Possibility", a free online experience.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "A look at one of indie gaming's most fascinating nights of the year". Polygon. January 5, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary". YouTube. 2018-12-10. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
  3. ↑ "MAKING INTIMATE, INFINITE — A 'WILLFUL MISTRANSLATION' OF A BORGES SHORT STORY". Animal New York. December 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Video game review: Intimate, Infinite, by Robert Yang". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Cobra Club: Boner Photography For All [NSFW etc]". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  6. ↑ "Controversial Twitch-Banned Dick Pic Game Makes a Return in HD, is Completely Free". Fraghero. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Robert Yang's The Tearoom appeals to censors by swapping cocks for glocks". EuroGamer. 1 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "To Win This Video Game You Must Scrub Down Men In A Locker Room Shower". Huffington Post. 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Webber, Jordan Erica (11 July 2017). "The Tearoom: the gay cruising game challenging industry norms". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ "Take a closer look at Robert Yang's 'Queer Crowd' simulation video game about gardening". 6 July 2021.
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