Offbeat, girly games that pay tribute to a pioneer

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In the mid-1990s, Theresa Duncan's works went beyond just 'games for girls' — charming games like Chop Suey, Smarty and Zero Zero were rueful and unusual, with a distinct Gen X flavor, portraying young womanhood in all its weirdness and touching complexity. The pioneering Duncan died in 2007, but now there's a new group of small games in tribute to her work.

Rachel Weil's FEMICOM Museum is hosting a series of jams on femininity and games (read my Guardian profile of Weil's awesome work in this arena). The first of these is a tribute to Theresa Duncan, and you can navigate all the submissions here. Many are playable right in your browser and have cute music.

Among others, there's Weil's own Honeysuckle, a sweet backyard exploration game set in a simulated old Windows environment for effect, Alienmelon's 'interactive bedtime story' and a printable divination foldable from Kara Stone, whom you might remember from our piece on the great fortunetellers of cyberspace.

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Like Duncan's games, all the jam titles have a tone that's both playful and intimate, treating the presumed audience of young women as intelligent and curious adults. Both Weil's work with the FEMICOM Museum and the portfolio of Theresa Duncan share an important thing in common: The idea that feminine aesthetics in games don't have to be valueless or cheap, that girlhood is an experience that should be respected in the canon of "retro" fandom.

Rhizome, a New Museum-affiliated art group, recently held a fundraiser dedicated to the preservation of Duncan's games (I covered it here and backed it).

Thanks to Rhizome's work, you can now play Chop Suey, Smarty and Zero Zero online, and join an important part of feminist game history that would be hailed as pioneering and inventive even if released for the first time today.