GLAAD Gaming Highlight: Outerloop Games’ Chandana Ekanayake on Crafting Queer, Brown, and Daring Tales

Thirsty Suitors is considered one of video gaming’s best explorations of South Asian tradition, queerness, and relationship turmoil, however its success in telling a real, heartfelt story didn’t occur accidentally. It was the achievement of the hardworking builders at Outerloop Games who’re devoted to creating smaller video games with huge themes, usually spotlighting communities which have been pushed apart or left behind. With Dosa Divas on the horizon, at present slated to launch in 2026, the crew is making ready to serve up a completely new world whereas preserving the identical fearless spirit that outlined their earlier hit.

We spoke with Chandana Ekanayake, one of many co-founders of Outerloop Games, concerning the magic behind Thirsty Suitors’ authenticity, the significance of specificity, and the ability of indies to inform contemporary new tales in video video games.

This interview transcript has been edited for size and readability. All pictures courtesy of Outerloop Games.

Annabelle Cook, GLAAD Gaming: One of the primary questions I wish to ask these I get to talk with is, in the event you may decide one recreation you maintain nearest and dearest to your coronary heart, what would that recreation be?

Chandana “Eka” Ekanayake: Oh man… Well truly, I do know this ’trigger it’s the sport that made me notice, “Oh, there’s people that actually make this,” and there is likely to be some profession in it. It’s a recreation referred to as Full Throttle that Tim Schafer directed when he was at LucasArts. It was cinematic for an journey recreation and it was one of many few video games I performed that had a lady character that wasn’t simply there for the male characters. She truly had depth, her personal motivations, and her personal wants and I used to be like, “Oh, this is cool. It feels like a movie, but also done in a way that makes sense for the gaming environments.” And it was animated very well. Amazing writing and pacing. Just humorous and dramatic and all of the issues I like within the video games I play and films I watch.

Cook: I wish to ask that query as a result of it offers me a way of the kind of video games that creators first fall in love with, particularly since you’ve such a historical past in video video games. At this level you’ve two and a half many years of expertise within the online game trade?

Eka: Yeah, I feel it’ll be thirty years subsequent 12 months.

Cook: Well, there you go. You’re a online game trade veteran, however your foray into Outerloop Games is definitely a little bit newer. Obviously the studio was based in 2017, the crew releases the primary recreation Falcon Age in 2019, after which Thirsty Suitors in 2023. I’ve to ask – how do you pivot from a VR title set on this lonely, desolate, sci-fi world to this bombastic title that takes mundane subjects and cranks all the pieces as much as eleven?

Eka: We began the studio in 2017 – me and my two cofounders had beforehand labored collectively at an indie firm. VR was a factor then and I noticed that as a possibility to do my very own video games. Falcon Age was designed round what can be attention-grabbing in VR. I’ve all the time been eager about character-driven tales, and whereas Falcon Age is sci-fi and set in a fictional place, it’s very a lot about British imperialism and immigration, and people sorts of themes nonetheless carry into Thirsty Suitors and Dosa Divas. I knew one of many issues I needed to give attention to beginning Outerloop was these themes and kinds of characters I didn’t see lots of. I’ve all the time loved doing comedy in video games and I feel it’s exhausting doing good comedy in video games, so once we had been determining what Thirsty Suitors was gonna be, there have been lots of alternatives to do attention-grabbing and dramatic issues. It goes everywhere, for certain.

Cook: I used to be going to say that satirically Thirsty Suitors is much more out of this world than Falcon Age, however Outerloop Games has established itself as a studio that’s making video games which might be bigger than life whereas additionally tackling lots of very actual and pertinent subjects. It looks like that’s an intentional focus of the studio.

Eka: Yeah, positively. It’s like…how can we deal with generational trauma, queer characters, and acceptance and non-acceptance – and all kinds of various views – but in addition do it in a enjoyable and attention-grabbing means? I really like making video games, and I all the time form of take into consideration, “How do we make this engaging and interesting while telling this story?” In Thirsty Suitors once you begin battling somebody, it’s actually about resolving an argument with somebody that you just’ve had a romantic relationship with, and the way we visualize that into an attention-grabbing visible, animated house. That’s why it turns into a battle in a bigger-than-life world as a result of every of the exes has their very own house.

Cook: That was one of many issues we cherished concerning the recreation right here at GLAAD as a result of the sport manages to have lots of vital conversations about weighty subjects regarding household, tradition, and queerness, however the tone isn’t darkish or somber. Considering the state of the world, Thirsty Suitors was particularly refreshing for the reason that media typically depicts trauma as a necessary side of those subjects.

Eka: It makes for good writing once you give attention to trauma, however we had been deliberately like, “Can we do that and set the tone, but also celebrate and be joyful?” And that took lots of iterations to determine. We need to earn the scenes, proper? We need to earn the moments. Anime does an ideal job at this. You can have actually bombastic and enjoyable moments and you may have actually darkish and quiet, poignant moments. In a recreation sense, we attempt to take the participant with us, set the tone, and set the house correctly for it, and hopefully that got here throughout, and it looks like folks acquired what we had been attempting to do with Thirsty. 

Cook: Well, Thirsty Suitors is clearly the studio’s most up-to-date launch, and a part of the enjoyable storytelling is that once you begin up the sport, you discover out that the principle character Jala – and I say this lovingly – is form of a sizzling mess.

Eka: She’s such a sizzling mess!

Cook: And there should be lots of thought that goes into making a personality by way of which the gamers will expertise your world. I’d love to listen to about how your crew selected a principal character like Jala who actually isn’t excellent and isn’t all the time in the correct.

Eka: I feel we as people and individuals are messy. We like tales about messy folks. We can relate to them. We can relate to what they do nicely, what they don’t do nicely, finest intentions however how we behave… Simply, I used to be like there aren’t sufficient messy, brown girls in video games. I feel Never Have I Ever was simply popping out whereas we had been in improvement and that was cool to see. So issues like that had been intentional. Jala’s not excellent, she doesn’t know what the hell is happening and he or she’s attempting to determine it out, and he or she hasn’t made nice selections in her life. Coming again to your childhood residence after a breakup is fairly robust.

Cook: Well, talking of her breakups, the crew designed exes of various genders for Jala. Was it established from the start with the crew that she was going to be bisexual or was that side of her character realized additional into improvement?

Eka: There are lots of various kinds of people on the crew. It wasn’t even like a “should we make her bisexual or not make her bisexual” alternative but it surely was only a factor that made sense for us to do for the story. And initially when the sport was conceived, I used to be like, “I think I want to do a game about arranged marriage, make it a card-based game, and call it Thirsty Suitors.” So the suitors concept was there. We didn’t realize it was going to be exes till a lot, a lot later, a couple of 12 months into pre-production. When we launch a recreation and gamers play it, the hope is that all the pieces matches collectively in a means the place they’re like, “The studio designed it perfectly. It’s the only way it could be.” But there are such a lot of iterations and that’s why video games take years.

Cook: They don’t see the closet of all of the concepts that by no means made it.

Eka: No! It began actually tough and never nice. Initially, Jala was coming again residence for her sister’s wedding ceremony – I feel it was her cousin at that time – and her mother and father had been going to set her up with a bunch of suitors from India and that was the setup. The suitors that your grandma sends after you on the town – that’s the remnant of that. And then we had been like, “How do we make this more interesting for her?” And then it was like, “Well, what if it was just her exes?” And as soon as we had that construction, it was similar to, “Okay, how many exes, how do we set them apart from each other, and then contrast them with Jala?” Each of the exes had been designed to signify totally different elements of Jala, and for her to forgive herself and herself on her street to redemption. And the participant is studying about Jala’s historical past on the similar time Jala is as a result of her reminiscence of every relationship could be very totally different to what her exes’ reminiscences are. I grew up in Sri Lanka and Meghna (the pinnacle author of Thirsty Suitors) grew up in India, and we’re each immigrants, however neither of us have ever gone by way of organized marriage and neither of us may converse on to it, so we determined to not do it. We had been being so particular that we must always know the way it feels to undergo organized marriage if we’re going to make a recreation about it and neither of us may so we determined to focus simply on Jala’s relationships.

Cook: I need to return again to the subject of suitors that Paati sends, however you mentioned one thing first that I need to contact on which is about making characters very particular to lived experiences. I feel we’ve discovered that some video games with queer and South Asian characters, particularly within the AAA house, can typically standardize or sanitize their content material to realize mass attraction, however in doing so, they create characters which might be surprisingly troublesome to narrate to as a result of they’re so broad and imprecise. Thirsty Suitors does the exact opposite. Characters have very particular cultural identities and really private and particular experiences with their household and, when relevant, with their queerness, which makes them really feel much more relatable.

Eka: Which is bizarre, proper? You assume that if I’m attempting to attraction to a much bigger viewers, I ought to make them extra normal, however actually I discover that the extra particular you’re with a spot, world, or character, they attraction as a result of it appears like there’s depth and I can perceive what they’re going by way of though I may not have the identical private experiences. That’s a factor we saved saying to ourselves: specificity is common and we have to do a very good job at being particular and intentional with every of our characters.

Cook: And one other factor that gamers are used to is the “one and done” methodology with illustration. Games usually have a singular character that represents a whole group of individuals as a complete and that’s what gamers are used to getting. But that’s not the case for Thirsty Suitors. It would’ve been straightforward to simply have one queer, South Asian lady, which might’ve already pushed illustration ahead, however as an alternative you’ve each Jala and Diya, they usually even have that dialog within the bar about how their experiences with their household and queerness are completely totally different.

Eka: Yeah, and there’s lots of overlap with the queerness of the characters and likewise the South Asian cultural elements. There’s expectations with shifting to this nation and getting good grades and that, however there’s additionally expectations with who you marry. And households react otherwise, so we needed to spotlight how Jala’s mother and father had been extra accepting of their queerness, after which we additionally get into that too later within the recreation with how Dad first reacted to discovering out his sister was homosexual. Even how we painting the dad character, who’s probably the most light brown dad ever… You know, he’s not excellent.

Cook: Well, I feel right here’s a very good place to herald my earlier ideas about Paati sending suitors Jala’s means as a result of once I was first confronted with a suitor, in my thoughts I used to be considering that she was going to be sending males that she had accepted of. And that wasn’t the case. She truly sends potential feminine suitors as nicely, which was shocking to me as a result of there’s a false impression that Asian households are inherently conventional and rigidly anti-LGBTQ. That’s a story Thirsty Suitors breaks not just by assuming that acceptance exists unequivocally in its world, however by confronting it head-on.

Eka: Paati could be very proud and really completely happy being single. Before we revealed her, we additionally needed to consider her perspective. She has very particular cultural needs for Jala, however when it comes to queer illustration, she doesn’t care if the individual Jala marries is a heterosexual man in any respect. It’s extra like, “Oh, they need to be from this place or this class.” Everyone has their biases and it’s not the Western media’s acceptable concept of what which means from South Asian households and queerness.

Cook: Speaking additional on illustration, I need to discuss Tyler as nicely as a result of she’s depicted as THE ex of Jala’s that you already know you’re going to confront by the top of the sport. And it’s clear by way of her dialogue and her bio within the suitors standing web page that she’s a trans lady. Was that one thing the crew deliberate on from the start?

Eka: That’s consultant of the crew. So Tyler as a trans character was one thing we mentioned. The huge factor for me once we had been casting these characters, I needed to seek out consultant trans girls actors to play Tyler. Finding Christine was an enormous deal and he or she despatched in a check and we actually appreciated her, and as soon as I talked to her, the very first thing she mentioned was, “Tyler is me ten years ago.” And she was simply so touched by the experiences. We had been like, “Oh shit, okay.”

Cook: That’s when you already know you nailed it.

Eka: Yeah, yeah! We had been being very particular about her upbringing. After speaking to Christine, we ended up rewriting Tyler extra in her voice. Sometimes we write a personality and we get an actor to match, however typically it’s the actor that influences the event of the character. Once you understand how somebody’s gonna converse and the way they’re gonna ship strains, it was like, “Okay now we can write in her voice.” Casting this recreation was in all probability the toughest factor.

Cook: It did shock me once I noticed Thirsty Suitors it was almost absolutely voice acted. Especially for an indie recreation, that appears like a really bold alternative.

Eka: It was necessary as a result of it’s such a character-driven recreation. There’s a lot tone that may come from an actor studying a line. I didn’t need to do any huge recognized names as a result of this was an indie venture. I needed to present people that often get one-dimensional characters in larger issues or they’ve a smaller half… And each single actor was like, “I’ve never read for a character with this much depth or this much representation.” It’s an all brown and black forged. So giving these people who often get the facet characters or the queer finest buddy principal roles was an enormous deal for us. And that simply actually helped carry the sport alive as nicely.

Cook: To zoom out a little bit bit whereas we’re on the subject of indies, clearly you’ve expertise in each the indie and AAA house, however what we’ve observed – and what the world has observed – is that indie video games are the video games which might be pushing the trade ahead relating to centering characters of shade, immigrants, and characters. Considering your expertise, I’m curious in the event you’ve discovered the explanation for that divide.

Eka: When you attempt to attraction to as many individuals as doable, you are inclined to shave off attention-grabbing characters or issues that is likely to be like, “Oh, this might upset this group.” So it’s like, this character arc may’ve been attention-grabbing however to serve the story and to ensure to not piss anyone off, we get a really vanilla or bland oatmeal model of the character to play it secure. In the indie house, we don’t must promote as many models. We’re going to be extra particular. And once we’re speaking about AAA groups, we’re speaking about a whole lot and 1000’s of individuals after which somebody has to fund it they usually need to get that accepted. What they take into account dangers, which I feel is mistaken, they find yourself submitting down the attention-grabbing elements. Indie video games are attention-grabbing as a result of they’re not fully polished in a means the place all the pieces is completely offered and pristine. It feels hand-built with function or there’s a way of authorship from somebody that has a imaginative and prescient for a recreation. We can take extra possibilities as a result of we don’t need to promote a gazillion copies to outlive.

Cook: Of course I performed by way of everything of Thirsty Suitors, however I additionally acquired my palms on Dosa Divas at Summer Game Fest and that appeared to hold over lots of comparable traits, not simply concerning the gameplay and colourful aesthetic, but in addition within the give attention to meals, household, and group. It struck me because the form of recreation we’d like these days contemplating how hostile some areas have turn into particularly in direction of immigrants and LGBTQ folks.

Eka: Yeah, that was an attention-grabbing time. I imply, Summer Game Fest once you performed by way of Dosa, we had been in Downtown LA demoing these video games to press and other people, whereas exterior there have been ICE raids and protests and it’s like…we’re making a recreation about immigrants. It’s actually bizarre as a result of this nation is manufactured from immigrants. Talking about Dosa and serious about why meals is necessary, particularly ethnic or immigrant meals, is as a result of the primary means somebody experiences a tradition is thru meals and folks are usually extra accepting of the meals than the folks that make it. There’s different issues within the recreation too which is that folks have forgotten easy methods to do issues as a result of they’re so reliant on automated, simplified, or corporatized strategies of meals or supply. Both sisters within the recreation are cooks they usually’re in a world the place folks have forgotten easy methods to cook dinner. Reminding folks of native meals, historical past, tradition, and why that’s necessary is the purpose of that recreation too.

Cook: I imply, does it fear you to launch a recreation that touches on so many pertinent subjects?

Eka: I imply, I’m afraid however I mentioned fuck it. I moved to the US once I was eight. I really like residing right here and there are elements of it which might be troubling now as I’m elevating two boys. The intersectionality for them as a result of they’re biracial… Before the pandemic, we might return to Sri Lanka simply to have the ability to join with their tradition, however particularly now when it’s such an enormous deal, I’m proud to be an immigrant. I’m proud to supply jobs. People are afraid of issues they don’t perceive so if we will make video games like Thirsty Suitors or Falcon Age or Dosa Divas the place we will attempt to join with individuals who may not be aware of the tradition in an entertaining means and nonetheless get some message throughout, I’m all for it. Yes, it does make me assume, “Do I want to travel outside the US? What’s gonna happen?” Those are actual worries. But additionally I really feel that is the perfect time to be making one thing like this.

Cook: Talking concerning the stuff you hope folks will take away out of your video games, what’s one thing you took away from creating your personal video games, particularly Thirsty Suitors, that you just is likely to be bringing into the event of Dosa Divas?

Eka: I feel it comes again to the specificity. We would discuss this each single day. Because there isn’t lots of illustration of what we’re attempting to do with South Asian tradition and overlap of queerness, if we’re being very particular with every character, are we going to piss folks off which might be like, “Well, that’s not how it is here. That’s not how it is to me.” So there was this push and pull of, “Do we pull back and make it more generalized? Do we be more specific?” We had been speaking forwards and backwards, Meghna and I, and we had been like, “Okay. We’re not going to be able to please everybody. That is just an impossible thing to do. So, let’s just talk about the things we care about and hopefully someone else will care about it too.”

Cook: One final query: lots of studios marvel how, and typically battle, to get illustration proper, but it surely looks like a course of that Outerloop has managed to seek out some solutions to. What’s your secret?

Eka: It comes again all the way down to the crew and our personal experiences – issues we will converse to in a assured means. We attempt to give attention to, “How do we deal with death? How do we deal with this relationship with your parent? How would we deal with it? How do we feel about it?” And then if we’re sincere about our emotions, the hope is that comes by way of within the character. So I don’t know if that’s the key, however that’s been our strategy. And a number of remedy. I feel a number of remedy to unpack a bunch of issues. Not that making video games is remedy as a result of it’s not, however with the ability to converse to issues I couldn’t converse to my mother and father or siblings instantly by way of artwork has been an ideal outlet and an attention-grabbing option to discuss issues.

Want to remain within the loop on what Outerloop Games is as much as? Visit Outerloopgames.com, try the studio on Bluesky, or comply with Chandana Ekanayake on LinkedIn for updates.