The following is a Q&A with Marina Kittaka, an artist, storyteller, facilitator, and growing game developer in the Twin Cities. She is a Yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese American trans woman, whose life is centered around art and storytelling. Marina also facilitates a monthly figure drawing group specifically for indigenous, people of color in the Twin Cities.
I’ve had the pleasure of drawing with Marina since I’ve known her through her group’s monthly figure drawing sessions and today, I’m super excited to be able to share her story.
With Women’s History Month this month, I want to be able to focus on Asian American women in the Twin Cities, and specifically bring more visibility and highlight the work of trans women everywhere.
We will close this Women’s History Month with Marina, who I met through another artist friend, Tori. Throughout these drawing sessions, I am continually in awe by Marina, her artwork, and am thankful for the conversations we have.
leyen: Your first game, Anodyne, recently came out on the Nintendo Switch. Can you talk a little bit about that? How has that process been like? How did the story evolve?
Marina: Anodyne began as a solo-project by programmer and musician Melos Han Tani, while he was attending UChicago in 2012. Melos decided to look for an artist and met me through a mutual friend. I still remember the sense of excitement I felt when I first saw Melos’ early prototype. It had a powerful, moody atmosphere, even with Melos’ simple placeholder art! Since then, Melos and I have made games together as a duo, with my focus being visual art and writing. In the case of Anodyne, Melos had vague themes and ideas for each of the areas, and I came in and added specificity and texture to those themes by writing dialogue for the characters you meet throughout the world. A lot of the characters in Anodyne are inspired by odd conversations that I remember from real life.
leyen: You mentioned that a lot of the odd characters from Anodyne were inspired by conversations you’ve had in real life. What conversations or situations in particular were you thinking of when writing these scenes — if you are able to share without spoilers?
Marina: It’s small things, peppered throughout. For example, I remembered a friend’s mom talking about having hairline cracks on her teeth from crunching ice. This reminded me of another person who worried that modern air conditioning could be bad for bones [due to] the frequent extreme temperature shifts. I made a character voice both of these thoughts. Different areas have different focuses… isolation, fear of pain, alienation… so I tried to match memories to enhance the themes of each area.
leyen: I know you stated that Anodyne has taken inspiration from old RPGs like Zelda and Pokemon. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Marina: Melos and I both played The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening during our formative years. The Zelda series has a general medieval European fantasy theme, but Link’s Awakening took things in a slightly stranger, more dreamlike direction. For example, characters from other Nintendo properties show up randomly, as if the files got mixed up. This, along with other influences, led us to create a story of twisted nostalgia, where the concept of “real life” and “fantasy” mix with uneasy tension.
leyen: Maybe this is just generalizing but from my understanding, the gaming industry hasn’t been too friendly to queer folks and women in particular. What are some ways that you navigate this industry or, what has your experience been?
Marina: Yes. Video games can be so many different things to so many different people, but there are many who try to confine and gatekeep the space. Historically, large swaths of game-related companies, writing, and culture have cultivated a “boys’ club” mentality that views diversity as a threat. Over the past several years, this has led to video game culture being leveraged as an entry point for far-right radicalization, particularly among young, straight, white men.
Personally, I don’t spend a huge amount of time interacting with the broader mechanisms of the industry–beyond Twitter, which I’m able to curate to some degree. Melos and I are in the fortunate position of doing well enough financially, but without being mega-famous or beholden to large corporate interests. So I think I avoid a lot of the worst of the issues. When I do go to game developer events, I seek out other women and LGBTQ+ people, and generally have a really nice, affirming time.
There are also a lot of people doing great work to make games a more inclusive space. When I moved to Minneapolis in 2017, I was happy to see an organization like GLITCH, which produces games and supports developer community and is made up of a very diverse group of people.
leyen: In regards to the question on queer and women in gaming spaces — I’m glad that you were able to find other women and LGBTQ+ folks in gaming. I know we’re out there! You mentioned GLITCH, which I’ve heard of but am not as familiar with. Can you speak a little bit more on that?
Marina: I’ve only been to a handful of GLITCH events so far, but they’ve been really nice. They’re based in the Twin Cities and publish games, run local playtesting and community building events, have a co-working space, etc.
leyen: You can find more information about GLITCH here.
leyen: I’m assuming you game as well. What are some of your favorites? What about those that include queer folks?
Marina: I do play games now and then, but these days I struggle to connect with the experience like I did as a child. I often feel that other art forms have a greater density of themes and experiences that speak to or entertain me now. That said, a game that has brought me true joy recently is Butterfly Soup, a visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball. It’s incredibly funny and sweet, and very accessible to people who don’t play a lot of games–it’s basically just a fun, illustrated story that you click through and read.
Some other games with queer characters off the top of my head: Dominique Pamplemousse–an interactive claymation musical about a nonbinary detective, and Even the Ocean–Melos and my second game, which is a fantasy adventure game about balancing two polarized energies as you run and jump around the world.
leyen: You mentioned that these days, it’s been a struggle to game as you did as a child because other art forms have a greater density of themes and experiences. Can you talk a little bit more about why you think that is or what in particular is calling to you?
Marina: I try to figure this out regularly, because I often feel sort of guilty about how disconnected I feel from the scene/zeitgeist. Part of it is that I spend so much time making games that there’s an element of fatigue or experiencing games as a designer rather than a player. Part of it is that I don’t find many stories or characters that really speak to me. I end up being moved or inspired or entertained a lot more by novels, music, art museums, etc. I get very antsy playing games, and the sense of wonder I used to have feels very distant. But it does provide a sense of motivation. If I don’t really feel like anyone is making games for me, then I have to make them for myself!
leyen: Backtracking a little — I’ve actually played Butterfly Soup and adore it! The game itself is a very different format, especially since it’s a visual novel versus an RPG. Do you think you’ll be working on a visual novel at some point?
Marina: Yay! That game rules. I don’t play a ton of visual novels. They can be very effective, but I’m not sure that they mesh well with my strengths as a visual artist or writer. I think I’d rather make a comic, or a different type of game. That said, I definitely take influence from visual novels and there are sections of Anodyne 2 that have a simplified narrative-focused structure like a visual novel.
leyen: What are you working on now?
Marina: Currently we’re working on Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. Anodyne 2 follows Nova, a “Nano-cleaner” who is tasked with shrinking inside other characters to clean a deadly substance known as “Nano Dust” (think Magic School Bus in a surreal fantasy world). I’m really excited about the story of Anodyne 2, which explores messy parent-child dynamics, and the growing pains that Nova experiences when faced with a world that is not as simple as it first appears.
In my spare time, I’ve also been playing around with comics, songwriting, and stand-up comedy.
leyen: thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Marina!
Huge thanks to Marina for sharing her thoughts, experiences, and stories through art, storytelling, and game development. It’s not often that the stories of women in gaming are told or even stories about trans women at all. I’m so thankful for Marina and her openness to share her story with us and with everyone in the broader community as well.
You can find Marina and Melos’s second game, Even the Ocean, here or on steam on PC or Mac.
You can follow Marina on her twitter: @even_kei
Or follow Melos for Anodyne 2 news: @han_tani
March 2021: The post has been updated to correct Melos’s name.