Last year, Dontnod set history by bravely creating the first transgender protagonist in a video game[1], but the cisgender community has been sorely left behind in this historic step forward. As the all-powerful Trans Cabal, it is our moral duty to ensure the world knows about cisgender people, and the most powerful tool at our disposal[2] for this purpose is Representation.
The Search for the First Cisgender Protagonist is a celebration of Representation, where we will come together and create games featuring cisgender protagonists. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept submissions from cisgender developers for complicated technical and economic reasons[3], but we encourage our trans developers to reach out to the cis community for consulting, to ensure the Representation is as inoffensive as possible.
Details
The jam lasts for one month; Three weeks for development, and one week for judging. This was a scheduling necessity, but conveniently means that judging begins on Cisgender Day of Visibility! We love a bit of serendipity.
You are not expected to spend an entire month on this important representation - you should aim for something under 10 minutes long, since cisgender protagonists don't usually poll well with Traditional audiences, and they are unlikely to pay attention for longer.
Any format of game will be accepted - Bitsy, Twine, Flatgames, etc. are all easy and quick to develop, and will let you really focus on making the Representation accurate and emotional. We recommend making sure your game can be run on Windows, though.
Rules
- One of your protagonists must be cisgender! This one is obvious, but make sure your character states their cisgender status explicitly, or fans might claim that they just pass really well.
- Don't go wild! It might make sense to have another cisgender person in the story for contrast, or to demonstrate what a bad cis looks like, but too many cis characters will be unrealistic and will drown out the importance of The Cis Protagonist.
- No racism, ableism, or other kinds of bigotry will be tolerated. We will use our subjective discretion. You will get one warning to remove the offending content; Refusal to comply will result in an immediate ban from the event. In extreme cases, no warning may be given, and/or the ban may extend to future events. No jokes in this one, just respect people.
Voting Criteria
Judging will be done by public vote, so here are your guidelines to follow both for submissions, and judging.
Authenticity
How "cis" does your character feel? Does their character design signal that they're cisgender (business suit and tie, monochromatic dress, sandals, etc), do they patiently explain how being cisgender sucks for them, do they lash out at well-meaning people who were just trying to ask them about something they didn't understand when they were trying to be a good ally for cisgender people even though it's not your fault, you didn't know they get asked the same questions every day and that you'd already asked them about it before but just forgot the answer because we're not ALL perfect okay I was just asking questions!
Basically, how well does your character represent what being "cisgender" looks like to us?
Emotions
Does the cisgender face fantastically terrible situations, taking on a lot of pain and trauma, but coming out the other side stronger because of their trans allies rescuing them? Does the cisgender finally find true love when a trans character acknowledges them for who they are? Try to fill your story with strong emotional narratives, preferably tragic.
Inoffensiveness
How well does your game avoid every detail of cisgender life that could be taken wrong, coming from trans creators? As a tip, try writing the cisgender character you really want to depict, then pass them to your consultants and remove everything they make notes about! As we only have limited resources, don't worry about replacing or adding any suggestions - that would make your cisgender consultants collaborators.
Gameplay and Visuals and stuff
You'll get some points if the game is pretty and fun too.
In Conclusion,
Thank you for joining this celebration of Historic Progress, now have fun and Represent!
Footnotes:
[1] We found thousands of previous games claiming to have transgender protagonists, but those were made by trans individuals or trans-led studios, and don't count.
[2] Unfortunately, as you know, we are unable to hire any cisgender developers.
[3] Please see the following link for more information: [link]
[4] While this is a real jam, it is also a work of satire, born of frustration at "representation" initiatives that regularly center cisgender creators instead of making material improvements to aid transgender individuals. Please understand this is not a personal attack on you, nor is it unfounded.