Nina Freeman, a leading indie game designer, infuses her work with a poetic sensibility far from the tone of mainstream shoot-’em-ups. Growing up in

No Guns, No Dragons: Her Video Games Capture Private Moments

submited by

Style Pass

2022-07-05 01:00:08

Nina Freeman, a leading indie game designer, infuses her work with a poetic sensibility far from the tone of mainstream shoot-’em-ups.

Growing up in Ipswich, Mass., Nina Freeman spent a lot of time playing video games with a pair of close friends, twin sisters whose basement served as an arena for marathon sessions. “My friends and I were nerds,” she recalled. “We played a lot of games. ‘Final Fantasy 11’ was like a second life to me.”

Years later, when she was a student at Pace University in Lower Manhattan, Ms. Freeman was drawn to the work of Frank O’Hara and other poets of the New York School, admiring how they documented their lives through verses that were witty, conversational and confessional all at once. She hit upon a similar tone when she started her career as a video game designer, creating lyrical games that explore memory and small, private moments.

In “how do you Do It?,” a game from 2014, Ms. Freeman puts the player in the role of an awkward tween who is desperately trying to figure out how sex works while playing with dolls. There are no levels to complete, no dragons to slay, and the player scores points by smashing dolls together. The game is about as far as you can get from the gun battles and fantasy quests that have long been the stuff of the most popular releases.