Artist and indie game developer Robert Yang has created a marvelously unique and delightfully explicit new online cruising universe. The Tearoom is “a (free) historical public bathroom simulator about anxiety, police surveillance and sucking off another dude’s gun.” His mission statement is something to behold.
In 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio police department setup a hidden surveillance camera behind a two-way mirror, and secretly filmed dudes having sex with dudes in a public bathroom. The police used the film footage to imprison them for a year or more under Ohio’s sodomy laws. Robert used this dark period in LGBT history as the basis of his new game.
“Today in 2017, police still target men who have sex with men,” said Yang. “And in video game land, I still have to deal with Twitch banning my gay games by secret trial as if they’re the fucking game police. So to appease this oppressive conservative gamer-surveillance complex, I have swapped out any pesky penises in my game for the only thing that the game industry will never moderate nor ban — guns. Now, there’s nothing wrong with guys appreciating other guys’ guns, right?”
Yang’s full mission statement is a detailed and fascinating read. It’s hard not to applaud all of the hard work that went into this edgy new project. We here at the TLA offices are the first to admit that we’re not particularly game savvy. We have an Atari. We’re not even kidding. We set it up to give one corner of the office a funky little retro vibe and I don’t believe a single one of us has ever turned it on. This game, however, is something we can really get behind.
You can check out Robert Yang’s full mission statement here (it’s well worth a read): http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2017/06/the-tearoom-as-record-of-risky-business.html
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Check out the full downloadable game at the link below. And, of course, always play safe!
