Porpentine (game designer) explained

Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Video game designer, artist
Years Active:	2012–present

Porpentine Charity Heartscape (born 1987)^[1] is a video game designer, new media artist, writer and curator based in Oakland, California. They are primarily a developer of hypertext games and interactive fiction mainly built using Twine.^[2] They have been awarded a Creative Capital grant, a Rhizome.org commission, the Prix Net Art, and a Sundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab Fellowship.^{[3] [4] [5] [6]} Their work was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial.^[7] They were an editor for freeindiegam.es, a curated collection of free, independently produced games.^[8] They were a columnist for online PC gaming magazine Rock, Paper, Shotgun.^[9]

Game design

Porpentine's 2012 Twine game Howling Dogs incorporates themes of escapism, violence and religious experience, though they have stated that it should be open to interpretation.^[10] They created Howling Dogs shortly after they started hormone-replacement therapy in 2012, in only seven days, while staying in a friend's remodeled barn.^[11] It won the 2012 XYZZY awards in the "Best story" and "Best writing" categories.^[12] The Boston Phoenix listed it as one of their "Top 5 indie games of 2012".^[13]

During the 2013 Game Developers Conference, game designer Richard Hofmeier used the booth he had been given to showcase his own award-winning game Cart Life to showcase Porpentine's Howling Dogs instead. Hofmeier spray-painted the words "Howling Dogs" across the banner of his own booth, and showed Porpentine's game instead of his own. Hofmeier stated he wished to give greater exposure to Porpentine's game.^{[14] [15]}

In 2015 they released Eczema Angel Orifice, a compilation of over 20 hypertext works from 2012 to 2015. The compilation includes critically acclaimed games such as With Those We Love Alive, a queer fable about isolation, abuse, and the relationship between art and power; and Ultra Business Tycoon III, a sprawling textual world disguised as edutainment software.^[16]

In 2016, Rhizome commissioned Porpentine along with Neotenomie and Sloane through the series First Look: New Art Online resulting in Psycho Nymph Exile. This work includes an online hypertext work, a booklet, and stickers. The project depicts the experience of PTSD as a visceral physical substance, not an invisible, abstract force.^[17]

In 2022, Porpentine published their first full-length book Serious Weakness, a 625-page novel exploring themes of trauma, neurodivergence, and manipulation. The title is a translation of an autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis, which causes weakness and fatigue within the skeletal and central nervous systems.

Selected works

• Howling Dogs (2012)
• Their Angelical Understanding (2013)
• Ultra Business Tycoon III (2013)
• With Those We Love Alive (2014)
• Everything You Swallow Will One Day Come Up Like A Stone (2014)^[18]
• Neon Haze (2015)^[19]
• Aria End (2015)
• Psycho Nymph Exile (2016)
• No World Dreamers: Sticky Zeitgeist (2017)^[20]
• "The Decision So Many People Were Forced To Make Throughout History", Whose Future is It? (2018)^[21] (short story)
• Serious Weakness (2022)

Awards

2012

• XYZZY Best Writing for Howling Dogs
• "Golden Banana of Discord" for Howling Dogs at the 2012 Interactive Fiction Competition, a prize awarded for the highest standard deviation "both the most loved and the most hated."

2013

• XYZZY Best Writing for their angelical understanding^[22]
• Indiecade Special Recognition for Porpentine's Twine Compilation^[23]
• Porpentine's Twine Compilation listed by the Museum of the Moving Image (New York City) as one of "25 Must-Play Video Games".^[24]

2014

• XYZZY Best Writing and Best Individual NPC for With Those We Love Alive^[25]
• Wordplay Festival Award for Most Unique World: With Those We Love Alive^[26]

2016

• Creative Capital Emerging Fields for Aria End (in collaboration with Peter Burr)^[27]
• Otherwise Award Fellowship^[28]

2017

• Prix Net Art, in collaboration with Rhizome and Chronus Art Center^[29]
• With Those We Love Alive and howling dogs included in the Whitney Biennial

2018

• Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs Fellow^[30]

Further reading

• • • News: Cotter . Holland . Spring Gallery Guide: Below and Above Canal Street . 30 May 2021 . The New York Times . 2019-04-26.
• Web site: Iadarola . Alexander . Interview With Game Designer Porpentine Charity Heartscape . https://web.archive.org/web/20190728075246/http://maskmagazine.com/the-greatest-hits-issue/work/porpentine-charity-heartscape-reprise . 28 July 2019 . Mask Magazine . 30 May 2021 . en.
• Web site: Pearson . Lauren . Porpentine Charity Heartscape on Experiment and Exploration. Arts Research Center . University of California, Berkeley . 30 May 2021.

External links

• • Howling Dogs
• Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism
• Blog
• Psycho Nymph Exile Secret Book

Notes and References

1. Web site: Artist Profile . . 21 April 2018 . ICAVCU.org . Institute for Contemporary Art . 8 January 2021.
2. Web site: Ellison. Cara. Hypersexed Hypertext: Porpentine and the Twine text game revolution. PCGamer. May 15, 2013. April 3, 2013.
3. Web site: Creative Capital – Investing in Artists who Shape the Future. creative-capital.org. en. 2017-03-14. March 15, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170315091328/https://creative-capital.org/grantees/view/804/project:845. dead.
4. News: Announcing Rhizome's Fall 2015 Program. Rhizome. 2017-03-14.
5. Web site: Rhizome Names Three Winners of Third Prix Net Art Award ARTnews. www.artnews.com. en-US. 2017-03-14. February 16, 2017.
6. Web site: Sundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab Explores the Future with Six Creative Teams and Projects. www.sundance.org. 2017-03-14.
7. Web site: Whitney Biennial 2017. Whitney Museum of American Art. March 28, 2017.
8. News: Ellison. Cara. Anna Anthropy and the Twine Revolution. The Guardian. May 15, 2013. London. April 10, 2013.
9. News: Live Free, Play Hard #1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. August 12, 2012. May 15, 2013.
10. Web site: Short. Emily. Emily Short. Interview with Porpentine, author of Howling Dogs. May 15, 2013. November 23, 2012. July 25, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130725100456/http://emshort.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/interview-with-porpentine-author-of-howling-dogs/. dead.
11. News: Laura. Hudson. November 19, 2014. Twine, the video-game technology for all. The New York Times Magazine. November 23, 2014.
12. Web site: XYZZY Award Winners. May 15, 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100324110839/http://xyzzyawards.org/winners.php. March 24, 2010. mdy-all.
13. Web site: Meyers. Maddy. Outside the box: PC indie games of 2012. Boston Phoenix. May 15, 2013.
14. Web site: Alexander. Leigh. IGF winner Hofmeier pays it forward for Porpentine's Howling Dogs. March 29, 2013 . Gamasutra. May 15, 2013.
15. Web site: Conditt. Jessica. IGF grand prize winner gives his booth away to 'Howling Dogs'. Joystiq. May 15, 2013.
16. Web site: The poignant vocabulary of Porpentine's Ultra Business Tycoon III. Alexander. Leigh. www.gamasutra.com. August 19, 2013. 2016-02-26.
17. Web site: FIRST LOOK: PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE.
18. News: Storycade: Twine "Everything you swallow will one day come up like a stone". April 18, 2014. 2017-03-14. en-US.
19. News: Play Neon Haze – sub-Q Magazine. August 11, 2015. sub-Q Magazine. 2017-03-14. en-US.
20. Wired. Porpentine's new Twine game isn't just a Twine game. Julie. Muncy. September 13, 2017.
21. "Porpentine Charity Heartscape" in Cellarius Stories, Volume 1. Cellarius, Ed., New York: 2018, .
22. Web site: The XYZZY Awards.
23. News: IndieCade Games Festival Celebrates Winners. Harold. Goldberg. ArtsBeat New York Times. October 7, 2013.
24. http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2013/12/14/detail/indie-essentials-25-must-play-video-games/ Indie Essentials: 25 Must-Play Video Games
25. Web site: 2014 Awards results The XYZZY Awards. xyzzyawards.org. 2016-01-05.
26. Web site: Hand Eye Society WordPlay 2014 Photos and Awards. handeyesociety.com. 2016-01-06. November 9, 2014.
27. Web site: Creative Capital – Investing in Artists who Shape the Future. creative-capital.org. 2016-02-26. January 15, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160115073521/http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/845. dead.
28. Web site: 2016 Otherwise Fellowships « Otherwise Award. Notkin. Debbie. Otherwise Award. en-US. 2020-02-16.
29. Web site: WINNERS OF THE THIRD ANNUAL PRIX NET ART: Eva and Franco Mattes, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Bogosi Sekhukhuni. Prix Net Art. https://web.archive.org/web/20170315085608/https://prix-netart.org/2017-winners-of-the-prix-net-art/. 2017-03-15. dead. March 14, 2017.
30. Web site: Sundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab Explores the Future with Six Creative Teams and Projects. May 12, 2016. www.sundance.org. en. 2020-02-16.