For a growing number of years, the indie gaming world has grown into a phenomenon that cemented itself with a foundational piece of the pie that is now impossible to ignore given the grassroots stories empowered by developers with the drive and dream to create their own masterpiece without the rules and limitations of the AAA world. We’ve experienced countless games here at PixelDie that would have never seen the light of day if put under a financial profitability microscope and given the turbulence that seems to announce itself near daily of companies upending lives to maintain their established quota: the amount of indie games is sure to expand in the coming years.

For Eric Lorenz, the current drive of this world comes from an even smaller niche: queer-made indie titles. The world continues to celebrate or diminish the necessary rise in LGBTQIA+ representation in the media, providing countless opportunities not only to understand but to engage, indulge, and delight in these fantastic minds. I got the opportunity to sit down and speak with Eric during his most recent showcase in Atlanta, discussing his goals with his AvantBeetle brand, his artistic upbringing and drive during and after college, and the necessity of showcasing the vast range of emotion and vulnerability that video games now bring to the artistic medium.

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Pixel Die (Kyle Caldwell): So what is AvantBeetle and how did it come to be?

Eric Lorenz: I went to an experimental film exhibition, very similar to what I have set up here, over at the old Bakery in Atlanta.  I was talking to the professor who put it together and we were kind of chatting about our respective mediums because I work in the game industry as a sound designer.  I was telling her about all the fun and interesting things that are kind of going on in the experimental world of video games and at one point was just like, “Oh, you should do what I just did.” So in 2017 I did my first show, and after that started the AvantBeetle name and did two more shows around that time.

I’ve always had a foot in the micro-indie space of gaming because I’m a big lover of art and modern art, basically seeing different ways that you can take a medium like interactive media and kind of turn it on its head and try to ask new questions about it.  So I used that knowledge alongside developers that I knew and the circles that I’ve been introduced to as the push to do my own event and those things have helped create where I’m at right now.

PD: How did you end up with The Supermarket as your venue of choice?

EL: I’ve known them for a while, ever since I put on my first show and reached out to them. I think maybe in May of this year I contacted them. I told them I was interested in starting this back up again because after the pandemic I went on a little bit of a hiatus. 

PD: Yeeeeaah, that would pause a few things.

EL: Yeah, it sure would. *laughs* But yeah, I was ready to do another one.  Then we got to chatting about the budget for the space, how long I wanted it, what do I want to do, what are the needs, and kind of just went from there. The Supermarket’s nice since it’s like a multi-purpose venue. So there’s an art gallery here, a stage for live music, another area that they’re putting together and yeah, it’s very new. I think this July was kind of a soft opening and there’s still more work to be done for the space.

PD: What qualities and experiences from your time at the Savannah College of Art and Design can you say have helped in setting up and putting together your video game exhibitions?

EL: Oh yeah, that’s an easy one. The art community at SCAD was essential, period. I mean, any college that you go to, it’s kind of whatever you get out of it is based on the opportunities to make out of it. But there was such a thriving community of artists who were just doing cool things. Some people had like, little DIY spaces similar to this or even more DIY: literally just their living room. They would have shows, pop-up galleries, all of those things. So being integrated in that community really helped me post-college.

When I first moved to Atlanta, I would seek out all of the art galleries and kind of be like, “Alright, here’s the community.”  Which made me find places like The Bakery, The Supermarket and then also gave me a push to start one of those communities and to try and keep it thriving in Atlanta and try to inspire.  Because the younger generation of video game designers are looking for something like this, you know?

PD: What would you say is your vetting process for finding suitable games?  What goes into the brainstorming of directing exhibition gallery shows?

EL: So it’s fairly easy to acquire games because for the most part I either know the developer beforehand or it’s a cold email to kind of pitch the idea I’m putting on. All I really need is just a build of the game and the best place to send collected donations. So the developers are usually like, “Oh, wonderful! Yeah, here’s a build.”

Most of my shows are curated based on, like, the curation’s theme itself. So I try to get a wide range of games that are dealing with either heavier topics or more introspective, but I try to get some fun ones in there and just get a big mixed bag of something and do my best to kind of set up the direction. So you start off easy, then you get into something heavier or something more personal, then you get a refresher to kind of lead people through an experience in and of itself.  You basically try to have a nice balance so that way you’re not just getting one type of game, you’re getting different genres, different styles, different visual styles and different narrative styles to try and just be as diverse as possible. 

PD: On the topic of your current showcase, Queer Gaming: in a time where LGBTQIA+ subjects are either celebrated or put under a microscope for their expressionism and identity, how valuable do you believe highlighting queer-made games is within the video game world as well as for public audiences?

EL: Immensely important. One of the games that’s featured in the showcase, Radiator 2 by Robert Yang, if you haven’t played it, it’s..like super gay.  *laughs*  Very bombastic, like, one game you’re jerking off a car, another you’re sensually sucking on a popsicle, booty calling for sexual activities… They’re so, so loudly gay. It’s great! But in his artist statement, he says he makes these games really loud because they have to be in order to push through the fog of everything. That way people know that we’re here and we’re here to stay. And if it makes you uncomfortable, sorry, but there’s no other option for us.

PD: Sorry, but not sorry.  *laughs*

EL: And I found that really beautiful in terms of the representation of queer media and queer developers during these times. It’s important to uplift and highlight queer media and queer artists, it’s almost like exposure therapy for the other side, but just continuing to stay relevant.  It’s here to stay and it’s never going away and we kind of just have to boost up when we can, have anyone who’s not part of the queer community be a good ally and support queer artists and let them be able to make the work that they want to make.

PD: Thankfully, the video gaming medium is getting more inclusive now because everybody has access to it.  It’s not like it used to be where you had to have a $300-400 console and a TV and all that. You can get most of this stuff on your phone.  You can play it on an internet browser.  It’s so much more accessible to get these kinds of games and experiences.

EL: When you don’t have as much gatekeeping in any kind of art form, it allows more voices to come through and for more audience members to then connect with certain pieces of art. I know a lot of these games have their own following now because certain people are like oh, I see myself in that or like Taylor McCue’s game, He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, that are bringing awareness to a lot of queer topics. This creates its own kind of culture within the culture so a lot of people can now relate to those games and have a community within the games community, because it’s huge! The gaming community is giant. Yeah there’s the problematic aspects of the videogame industry, but there’s millions of people and the more understanding we see, the more empathetic it will get.

PD: What are some future exhibits or topics you would like to expand on and work with?

EL: So I don’t know exactly what the next event’s theme will be. That’s going to have to happen after I’m done resting after this show. But usually there is a catalyst game that I play and if there are similar games with overlapping themes, that’s how I come up with the next curation.  For this group it was Dissecting Love. I was at GDC and I played that game, and I’ve always wanted to do a queer-themed AvantBeetle exhibition but previously didn’t really have the push yet, and while I was slowly building up my catalog I played Dissecting Love and I was like, “I’m doing it. You’re in.  Game on.  I have to have you in.”  It’s such a beautiful game.

PD: I’ve actually never been to GDC (Game Developers Conference) before.  What is that conference like?  I’ve always figured it being more for a higher end of the development scale, but there’s more of an indie side too?

EL: Oh, it’s so good. I go to GDC every year and it’s wonderful, I get to meet so many wonderful developers. There’s sort of a big “indie presence”, big enough at least. A lot of the international indie devs can get things like grants to win spots to show off their game and potentially get published.  If they’re looking for publishers, that’s also a good space to try to get in, meet up with people and attend the various Expos. So you get a lot of games who are really serious about their message and what they’re trying to do.

There’s outside-the-conference get-togethers called SlugWorld and Lost Levels, where on one of the days a bunch of indie devs will come together and they’ll do micro talks and things that are kind of “not GDC” GDC things.  I’ve had friends who go to GDC and never buy a pass because they just hang out in those outside areas. There’s so many things happening and you can just go there and meet up with a lot of indie devs and some of the bigger AAA people who are just around the area.

PD: Yeah, I love to see and hear about that kind of creativity because that’s where everyone came from. You know, just because you’re in a big wig position working for a AAA company doesn’t mean you didn’t start from the ground somewhere.

EL: Yeah, I mean hopefully you have the hindsight to kind of be like, “Wait, hold on, let these kids cook.”  You know?  *laughs*

PD: Of what you’ve played recently, what’s a game recommendation you can endorse as a must play?

EL: Definitely check out Mediterranea Inferno, which is part of the exhibition. Fantastic game. There’s also one other game that’s super unknown. No one really knows about it. I had it in my first exhibition, and it’s the most abstract game I’ve ever played, in all senses. It’s called AENTITY, made by these two German developers, but they’re architects so they have their day job and they haven’t made anything else since then.  It’s so sad that no one knows about it.

PD: Now wrapping up your 5th show under the AvantBeetle name, for anyone looking to contribute to showcasing the artistic expression of video games or any other medium, what’s a piece of advice you can provide for eager but green promoters?

EL: I don’t really have any “best practices.” I mean, I’m just making Instagram posts and Twitter posts.  *laughs*  I mean, my advice would be just keep doing it no matter how shitty it gets.  It’s like how everyone’s first podcast absolutely sucks but you got to keep making it until it gets good because you’re grinding out all the pain points and all that.  I’m still in that phase where I’m still trying to figure out what actually works on social media, like how do I tag people?  *laughs*  My partner loves to make fun of me because I’ll be posting something and I’m like, “How do I get the thing where when I say something it pops up?” and they’re like, “That’s closed captions.”

It’s tough because I don’t have a team, I don’t have money to spend to get people to help, so just every time I’m doing something or learning something new I’m just trying the best I can to get the word out there.

PD: I feel that, it’s all we can do.

EL: But hey, we’re here!

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I want to again thank Eric for his time and hospitality!

Keep up with everything AvantBeetle at https://www.avantbeetle.com/