Wikipedia

Sharang Biswas

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.

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 workFeast, Avatar Legends co-writer
AwardsENNIE Awards, IndieCade, Indie Game Developer Network

Games and interactive media design

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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]

Speculative fiction

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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]

Academia

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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]

Talks

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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]

Journalism

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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]

Personal life

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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]

Works

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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]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Five Cool Games From Indiecade 2017". Kotaku. 2017-10-09. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  2. ^ a b Chan, Khee Hoon (2018-02-20). "Feast and Our Personal Stories of Food". Unwinnable. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  3. ^ Phil (2017-11-29). "Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward - ICA Philadelphia". Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  4. ^ "Feast | IndieCade - International Festival of Independent Games". 2017-09-14. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  5. ^ a b c "Previous Award Winners". Indie Game Developer Network. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  6. ^ a b "2024 Winners & Nominees – ENNIE Awards". Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  7. ^ a b Meehan, Alex (2023-08-07). "Avatar RPG, Blade Runner RPG and Vaesen snatch multiple Ennie awards at Gen Con 2023". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  8. ^ a b Carter, Chase (2021-09-08). "Avatar Legends RPG's $10m on Kickstarter changed things". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  9. ^ a b "2023 Nominees and Winners – ENNIE Awards". Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  10. ^ a b "Codex – Void (Issue #38)". www.drivethrurpg.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  11. ^ a b "You & I: Roleplaying Games for Two". www.drivethrurpg.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  12. ^ a b "Museum of the Moving Image - Visit - Calendar - LARP: Creatures of The Dark Crystal's Age of Resistance". 2021-02-28. Archived from the original on 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  13. ^ "Game Play: Interview with Sharang Biswas". Museum of the Moving Image. Mar 24, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  14. ^ "Stories in Motion: An Interactive Pop-Up Art Exhibit". Museum of the Moving Image.
  15. ^ Biswas, Sharang. "An Excavation of Light". Sharang Biswas: Portfolio. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  16. ^ a b Chan, Banana (2020-12-21). "Games of the Year 2020: Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall co-creator Banana Chan". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  17. ^ Chan, Banana (2020-12-21). "Games of the Year 2020: Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall co-creator Banana Chan". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  18. ^ Carter, Chase (2021-08-11). "Indie Game Developer Network announces 2021 award nominees". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  19. ^ "Honey & Hot Wax". Pelgrane Press Ltd. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  20. ^ a b "Track Strange Lusts / Strange Loves's Kickstarter campaign on BackerTracker". BackerKit. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  21. ^ a b Elderkin, Beth (2020-11-05). "Join a Teenage Bird Gang in This Exclusive Game Reveal From The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  22. ^ a b "Shadow Operations: A Spire One-Shots Book". Rowan, Rook and Decard. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  23. ^ a b Chan, Banana. Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall. Haunted Tales. Wet Ink Games, 2021. pp. 124
  24. ^ Carter, Chase (2021-05-20). "Tabletop RPG Into the Mother Lands is now on Kickstarter". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  25. ^ a b Carter, Chase (2022-01-20). "Green Ronin's new RPG Cthulhu Awakens will attempt to transcend cosmic horror's baked-in bigotry". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  26. ^ Puncekar, Alex (2020-12-17). "Sharang Biswas". Fantasy Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  27. ^ Wagner, Wendy (2022-02-14). "Author Spotlight: Sharang Biswas". Lightspeed Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  28. ^ Wagner, Wendy (2023-05-18). "When Shiva Shattered the Time-Stream". Lightspeed Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  29. ^ Wagner, Wendy (2023-11-08). "Author Spotlight: Sharang Biswas". Nightmare Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  30. ^ "Sharang Biswas". Strange Horizons. 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  31. ^ "Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Cast of Wonders, Lightspeed, and Hexagon". Locus Online. 2024-06-08. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  32. ^ "Paula Guran Reviews Nightmare, Heartlines Spec, and The Deadlands". Locus Online. 2024-04-01. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  33. ^ "Sharang Biswas". NYU | Game Center. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  34. ^ "Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project considers next steps for the genre". Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project considers next steps for the genre - The Dartmouth. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  35. ^ "Coursicle – Chat with classmates". www.coursicle.com. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  36. ^ Noble, Barnes &. "Passion and Play: A Guide to Designing Sexual Content in Games|Paperback". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  37. ^ "Possibilities for Queer Community-Building Through LARP - First Person Scholar". www.firstpersonscholar.com. 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  38. ^ "Play to Find Out What Happens: Insight Through Reflection | Analog Game Studies". 2021-06-07. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  39. ^ Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen; Grossman, Eliana; Herrell, Jessye; Riccio, Ariana; Delos Santos, Jin; Biswas, Sharang; Kofner, Bella; Dwyer, Patrick; Rosenberg, Beth; Hwang-Geddes, Lillian; Hurst, Amy; Martin, Wendy B.; Pak, Eunju; O'Brien, Sinéad; Kilgallon, Elizabeth (2023-07-31). "A participatory approach to iteratively adapting game design workshops to empower autistic youth". Frontiers in Education. 8. doi:10.3389/feduc.2023.1179548. ISSN 2504-284X.
  40. ^ Biswas, Sharang. "About Me". Sharang Biswas Portfolio. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  41. ^ "ITP – The Center for the Recently Possible". Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  42. ^ Nye, Annmarie (2024-07-05). "Sharang Biswas - Special Guest". The World's Largest Queer Comic Con. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  43. ^ "Ropecon 2024 Guests of Honor Sharang Biswas and Alessandro Giovannucci". Ropenomicon (in Finnish). 2024-05-16. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  44. ^ "Played a Good Book Lately? (In Person)". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  45. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (March 23, 2022). "How developers are rethinking sex in video games". Axios. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  46. ^ Sendaula, Stephanie. "Highlights from Flame Con 2019". Library Journal. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  47. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2024-07-05). "From Mediterranea Inferno to Baldur's Gate 3: the queer ecstasy of monster-loving". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  48. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2021-06-29). "Hunky Dads & Voxel Flags - Video Games and Our Queer Future". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  49. ^ "Fanfiction, fan-mods, and the joy of gay fantasy". Eurogamer.net. 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  50. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2020-06-25). "Towards more speculative sex". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  51. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2016-03-01). "Videogames and the art of spatial storytelling". Kill Screen - Previously. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  52. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2016-05-20). "Why adults are drawn to teenage stories". Kill Screen - Previously. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  53. ^ Biswas, Sharang (2021-02-17). "Indie RPGs show roleplaying can - and should - be far more than Dungeons & Dragons". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  54. ^ Meehan, Alex (2022-11-24). "Meet the judges for the Tabletop Awards 2022". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  55. ^ January-February 2022, Lauren Vespoli ’13 |. "Ahead of the Game". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  56. ^ "Sharang Biswas". Represent Me. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  57. ^ Sass, Evan. "Cthulhu Awakens RPG". Cthulhu Awakens RPG. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  58. ^ "Moonlight on Roseville Beach by R. Rook Studio". itch.io. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  59. ^ "Codex – Bone (Feb. 2019)". www.drivethrurpg.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  60. ^ "GTM #198 - Mad Science Foundation". www.gametrademagazine.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
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