Sharang Biswas | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Game designer/writer, interactive media artist, fiction writer, journalist, and academic |
Employer(s) | NYU Game Center, Fordham University, Museum of the Moving Image |
Notable work | Feast, Avatar Legends co-writer |
Awards | ENNIE Awards, IndieCade, Indie Game Developer Network |
Sharang Biswas is an Indian American designer/writer of tabletop role-playing games and interactive media, a writer of speculative fiction, an adjunct professor of game studies at NYU Game Center, and a freelance games journalist. His work focuses on LGBTQ and science fiction and fantasy themes. Biswas has won multiple awards for his game writing work as both a solo designer and a collaborator: one IndieCade award, four ENNIE Awards, and two Indie Game Developer Network awards. He was an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Biswas designed Feast, a game that takes place during a meal and uses eating as a game mechanic. [1] [2] Feast was featured in an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. [3] Feast won the 2017 IndieCade "Dark Horse" award [4] and the 2020 "Most Innovative" Indie Game Developer Network Award. [5]
Biswas has won four ENNIE Awards for game writing: the 2024 Silver for "Best RPG Related Product" for KOBOLD Guide to Roleplaying, [6] the 2023 Gold for "Best Family Game/Product" and "Best Rules" for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, [7] [8] and the 2023 Judges' Spotlight Award for Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco and Cosmic Horror. [9] In addition to Feast, Biswas won the 2019 Indie Game Developer Network "Most Innovative" award for Verdure. [5] An Elegy for the Hive Witches from The Gauntlet's Codex Zine was also nominated for the IGDN "Most Innovative Award," in 2020. [10] Biswas' game Hex Ed appeared in the anthology You and I: Roleplaying Games for Two, which was nominated for an IGDN "Most Innovative Award" in 2019. [11]
In 2020, Biswas co-designed a LARP adaptation of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for the Museum of the Moving Image, using puppets and other props from the museum's exhibit of the show's character design. [12] In 2021, Biswas became an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Moving Image. [13] He has continued to produce interactive installations for the museum. [14] [15]
Biswas was co-editor with Lucian Kahn for the Pelgrane Press LARP anthology Honey & Hot Wax in 2020, [16] which was nominated for an IndieCade award and an Indie Game Developer Network award for "Game of the Year." [17] [18] Biswas contributed a game to the anthology called "The Echo of the Unsaid" about sexual tension between heterosexual male college roommates. [19]
Biswas co-edited Strange Lusts, an online anthology of interactive fiction about sex and sexuality, which was published in 2021 by Strange Horizons. [20] He wrote Absolution in Brass: A Game of Guilty Steampunk Zombie-Cyborgs for Simon & Schuster's The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book. [21] He wrote an adventure in Shadow of Operations, the official one-shots book for Grant Howitt's game Spire. [22] He wrote the adventure "Who Says Witches Don't Like Chinese Food?" for the Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall scenarios book. [23] He was on the writing teams for Tanya DePass's game Into the Motherlands [24] and Green Ronin Publishing's Cthulhu Awakens. [25]
Biswas' speculative fiction has been featured in Fantasy Magazine, [26] Lightspeed (magazine), [27] [28] Nightmare Magazine, [29] and Strange Horizons. [30] Charles Payseur for Locus reviewed Biswas' short story "Season of Weddings", which was published in Lightspeed: "Biswas keeps the tone and feel of the story flirty and fun, and painting an interesting picture of a shared and expansive collection of pantheons all interacting, being messy, and, for all their immortality, very human. It’s delightful!" [31] Paula Guran for Locus reviewed Biswas' story "Waiting for Jonah", which was published in Nightmare Magazine: "it’s a good story that employs an unusual use of some equally unusual fairies." [32]
As of September 2024, Biswas is an adjunct faculty member of NYU Game Center. [33] Biswas was a visiting film and media studies professor at Dartmouth College, where he co-organized a collaborative speculative fiction project between authors and Dartmouth science faculty. [34] He has also taught games studies courses at Fordham University. [35]
Biswas wrote the chapter "Sex and Game Design (Part 2): Mechanics and Verbs" in the book Passion and Play: A Guide to Designing Sexual Content in Games by Michelle Clough. [36] He wrote a 2019 article for the University of Waterloo's Games Institute about the use of live action role-playing games for building queer community. [37] He was interviewed about LARP for the academic journal Analog Game Studies. [38]
While working with Tech Kids Unlimited, Biswas collaborated with researchers and autistic students to assess the potential of video game design workshops in empowering autistic youth. [39]
Biswas holds a Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.) from Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a B.A. and B.E. in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering from Dartmouth College. [40] [41]
Biswas was a special guest at Flame Con 2024. [42] He was a 2024 guest of honor at Ropecon. [43] He gave a talk at the 2024 Brooklyn Book Festival about games adapted from literature. [44] He gave a talk at the Game Developers Conference about portrayals of sex in video games. [45] He spoke on the game designer panel "Playing with Identity: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Queer Power Self-Definition" at Flame Con 2019, discussing the impacts of queer identity on game design and play. [46]
Biswas also works in games journalism. Biswas has been a frequent contributor to Eurogamer. [47] [48] [49] [50] He has also written articles for Kill Screen [51] [52] and Dicebreaker. [53] He was a judge for the 2022 Dicebreaker Tabletop Awards. [54]
Biswas grew up in Abu Dhabi and originally emigrated to the United States to study bioengineering at Dartmouth College. He discovered game design while taking a "fun class" with the designer and games researcher Mary Flanagan to offset his engineering prerequisites. [55] Biswas is gay. [56]
Game Writing/Design Credits
Title | Publisher | Credits | Date | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cthulhu Awakens | Green Ronin Publishing | Writer | 2024 | [57] [25] |
KOBOLD Guide to Roleplaying | Kobold Press | Author | 2023 | [6] |
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game | Magpie Games | Writer | 2022 | [7] [8] |
Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco and Cosmic Horror | R. Rook Studio | Writer | 2022 | [9] [58] |
Strange Lusts | Strange Horizons | Co-Editor, Writer | 2021 | [20] |
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall | Game and a Curry / Wet Ink Games | Scenario Writer | 2021 | [23] |
Honey & Hot Wax (game: The Echo of the Unsaid) | Pelgrane Press | Co-Editor, Writer/Designer | 2020 | [16] |
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance LARP at Museum of the Moving Image | Museum of the Moving Image | Co-Designer | 2020 | [12] |
The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book (game: Absolution in Brass: A Game of Guilty Steampunk Zombie-Cyborgs) | Simon & Schuster | Writer/Designer | 2020 | [21] |
Shadow of Operations | Rowan, Rook, and Decard | Adventure Writer | 2020 | [22] |
An Elegy for the Hive Witches | The Gauntlet (tabletop games producer) | Solo Writer/Designer | 2019 | [10] |
A Shroud for the Seneschal | The Gauntlet | Solo Writer/Designer | 2019 | [59] |
Verdure | self-published | Solo Writer/Designer | 2018 | [5] |
Hex Ed (in You & I: Roleplaying Games for Two) | Ginger Goat Publishing | Writer/Designer | 2018 | [11] |
Feast | self-published | Solo Writer/Designer | 2017 | [1] [2] |
Mad Science Foundation | Cryptozoic Entertainment | Co-Designer | 2015 | [60] |
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published by individuals or small press publishers, in contrast to games published by large corporations. Indie tabletop role-playing game designers participate in various game distribution networks, development communities, and gaming conventions, both in person and online. Indie game designer committees grant annual awards for excellence.
Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. They are best known for the free indie RPG system Fate, Blades in the Dark, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, all of which have won multiple awards.
A tabletop role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a classification for a role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines, usually involving randomization. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise, and their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.
Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role-playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other indie role-playing games.
Whitney "Strix" Beltrán is a narrative designer and Project Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment. Her writing and design career includes the indie game Bluebeard's Bride. She also founded the advocacy initiative Gaming as Other to promote inclusivity in the gaming community.
Banana Chan is a Chinese Canadian game designer and writer for tabletop role-playing games and board games. Chan and Sen-Foong Lim created Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (2021). Chan has written for over twenty tabletop games, including the official Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021), Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and the third edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill (2022).
Lucian Kahn is an American role-playing game writer/designer and musician based in Brooklyn. His work focuses on LGBT, Jewish, and subcultural themes, typically utilizing satire and farce. His games include Visigoths vs. Mall Goths and If I Were a Lich, Man, and his music includes Schmekel.
Avery Alder is a Canadian tabletop role-playing game designer. She designs games with themes of LGBTQ self-discovery, community building, and post-apocalyptic survival. In collaboration with Benjamin Rosenbaum, Alder invented the Belonging Outside Belonging system, which became a template for future designers' games. Her work is a topic of scholarship in the history of game design.
The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is a trade association for developers of indie role-playing games, board games, card games, and LARPs. They present the annual Indie Groundbreaker Awards at Gen Con. Their other programs include a scholarship to attend the game designer convention Metatopia, a mentorship program, and a peer coaching program.
Magpie Games is an American tabletop role-playing games publishing company. Their 2021 crowdfunding campaign to fund the publication of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game raised over five million dollars, breaking the record for Kickstarter's highest earning tabletop role-playing game. Other notable publications include Bluebeard's Bride and a role-playing game adaptation of the board game Root. The publisher has won IndieCade, ENNIE Awards, and Indie Game Developer Network awards.
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game with LGBTQ dating sim elements by Lucian Kahn, with art by Robin Eisenberg. The ancient Visigoths have time traveled to 1990s Los Angeles and are battling mall goths for control of the mall. The game's tone is silly and the setting has many puns. The game was inspired by 1990s movies The Craft, Empire Records, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Clueless.
Bluebeard's Bride is a gothic horror tabletop role-playing game based on the Bluebeard folktale. It was designed and written by Whitney "Strix" Beltrán, Marissa Kelly, and Sarah Richardson, and published by Magpie Games in 2017. Players represent five aspects of a woman's mind as she explores the mansion of her frightening new husband. The game focuses on themes of misogyny and feminism.
Honey & Hot Wax is an anthology of live action role-playing games on the theme of sex and sexuality, published by Pelgrane Press in 2020. It includes games by Sharang Biswas (co-editor), Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Julia Bond Ellingboe, Kat Jones, Lucian Kahn (co-editor), Jonaya Kemper, Will Morningstar, Alex Roberts, and Susanne. It also has a foreword by Naomi Clark, academic chair of NYU Game Center and designer of the board game Consentacle, as well as a chapter on consent by Maury Brown.
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a tabletop role-playing game about Chinese immigrants to North America managing a family restaurant while battling Jiangshi, legendary hopping vampires. The game was designed by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim, who are both Chinese immigrants. It was published independently in 2021 after a Kickstarter campaign raised over US$100,000. The instructions focus heavily on authentic portrayals of Chinese history and immigrant experiences. The default scenario takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1920s, but the game box comes with a book of scenarios by a variety of writers offering more adventures in different cities and historical periods. The game's tone can range from serious to comedy horror. Themes include fighting racism, exploring intergenerational knowledge and relationships, coping with economic hardship, and working together as a family.
The following are the winners of the 23rd annual ENNIE Awards, held in 2023.
Free League Publishing is a game studio and publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden, formed in 2011. The company designs and publishes tabletop role-playing games, board games, and books based on licensed properties and independent works. Their games include Alien: The Roleplaying Game, Vaesen, and Mörk Borg.
If I Were a Lich, Man is a boxed set of three comedic, Jewish tabletop role-playing games about creative resistance against authoritarianism. The games were written by Lucian Kahn and illustrated by Ezra Rose. The box contains three games: "If I Were a Lich, Man," "Same Bat Time, Same Bat Mitzvah," and "Grandma's Drinking Song." It was published by Hit Point Press in 2023 after the publisher's kickstarter campaign raised $84,590 in two weeks. It won an ENNIE Award and an Indie Game Developer Network award.
Dialect is a tabletop role-playing game by linguists Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalioglu about the language of an isolated community. Players create and use their own language during gameplay. Dialect was published by Thorny Games in 2019 after raising $189,742 on Kickstarter. The game won the 2019 Silver ENNIE Award for "Best Game," IndieCade Europe's award for "Best Game: Tabletop", and the Indie Game Developer Network award for "Game of the Year."
Harlem Unbound is a tabletop role-playing game supplement for Call of Cthulhu set during the Harlem Renaissance. Player characters are African American investigators who fight against both cosmic horrors and social inequality. Harlem Unbound was written by African American designer Chris Spivey. It received three 2018 Gold ENNIE Awards and an Indie Game Developer Network award.
Sleepaway is a horror indie role-playing game by Jay Dragon about teenage counselors at a summer camp trying to protect misfit campers from a monster called the Lindworm that takes on the form of its victims. It has themes of trauma, LGBTQ community support, and non-binary gender exploration. Sleepaway was inspired by slasher films and the Belonging Outside Belonging game system by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)