He F*cked The Girl Out of Me’ wins IDFA DocLab competition for Digital Storytelling
IDFA DocLab, also known as International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, has awarded Taylor McCue’s He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me for Digital Storytelling.
The IDFA DocLab is a programme that has explored the way we interact and tell stories since it first began in 2007. For years it has worked as a leading platform to highlight and document interactive art, which of course includes video games.
In highlighting these pieces of art, the programme also offers awards. “Each year an international jury is invited to give out the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling, the IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award, and Special Jury Awards for Creative Technology.” The IDFA website states in its About section. “The two competitions are open to all sorts of interactive and immersive projects ranging from XR projects, web docs, audio experiences, apps, and data art to virtual reality, installations, live performances, and fulldome.”
He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me took home the award for Digital Storytelling this year. The game focuses on Ann, a trans woman who, after seeing how much her transition will cost her, turns to sex work in order to get on by. In this short, interactive story that’s part graphic novel with a retro-style, players experience the events that Ann goes through by using arrow keys on their keyboard to influence Ann’s choices. They can make Ann walk through a virtual nightclub for example, or talk to people. During these choices, players get to know more about Ann’s job and her personal life. The game handles heavy subjects and topics such as sexual trauma, depression, and transphobia.
The jury described He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me as an experience they “would not soon forget”. They also praised the game’s writing, and the full experience “is a unique approach to conveying a complicated personal history in the artist’s own terms.” The full jury report for the game can be found here.
You can play He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me on itch.io.
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