From gay love stories and fake dating to Sydney vampires and lesbian history, plus a furry Big Brother spoof, here are the LGBTIQ+ games from around the world taking part in the 2026 Queer Games Festival (QGF).
The Queer Games Festival was created to reflect the lives of LGBTQIA+ players through games.
It brings queer game culture from around the world to Melbourne and is a chance for queer Australian and international developers to connect.
There are 39 games taking part in this year’s Festival. LGBTIQ+ developers have shared their games with the festival, which now gets to share them with you.
This year’s entries include:
- Carrot, a queer horror-romance visual novel following the trials of a dysfunctional friend group thrust back into the wish-granting wonderland of their youth.
- Homo Fatale, a narrative game about gay actors navigating the film industry… and each other.
- Doc Fim, a queer psychological narrative game about mental health and love, both platonic and romantic – a story in the works for 10 years.
- DYKESOMMAR explores the importance of preserving the legacy of lesbian culture and of living your identity proudly.
- And more, including Furhouse, a furry visual novel spoof of Big Brother.
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- Checkpoint celebrate ten years of queer gaming
‘A great entry point into queer culture and community’
The Queer Games Festival began more than a decade ago.
Founder Luke Miller created the gay-themed science-fiction adventure My Boyfriend the Space Tyrant. He saw a gap in LGBTQ+ representation in gaming, so he created the Festival.
“Sometimes people can feel intimidated or frozen out of the queer community,” QGF said, announcing this year’s showcase.
“They may live in regional areas and not have access to LGBT sporting or social clubs, perhaps they don’t drink and feel uncomfortable at gay bars, or they simply don’t have the money to attend expensive events.”
“The Queer Games Festival excels as a great entry point into queer culture and community for everyone. The amazing variety of games on offer gives a pretty good slice of queer culture in 2026, covering sex, sexuality, gender, politics and art, and coming from all over the place.”
Games as part of the 2026 Queer Games Festival Showcase. Source: mqgf.com.auA great entry point into gaming for non-gamers
The festival is free and mostly online, making it accessible from anywhere in the world.
The games are also mostly free or low cost. A good percentage run in a web browser on low-spec machines. You can engage with the games at your own pace and comfort level and still get a real feel for queer community.
“As a medium, games are scary for a lot of people,” QGF said. “They can be complicated, ethereal and punishing. But queer games often have more in common with artefacts like novels or short films. For the non-gaming folk interested in serious art, queer games are where it’s at.”
“Unfortunately, the space for LGBTQ-themed games is slowly being strangled by conservative forces. It’s more important than ever to hold up these games in public as the creative, contemporary, biographical, hilarious, meditative acts of political speech they are.”
“Queer games deserve bouquets, not bricks. That’s the festival’s mission.”
You can view all the games as part of the 2026 Queer Games Festival here.
Games as part of the 2026 Queer Games Festival Showcase. Source: mqgf.com.auHow safe do LGBTQ+ developers feel to express themselves?
Games with LGBTIQA+ themes have become a political football for legislators, payment processors and online stores around the world.
As part of the festival, an annual queer game developers survey looks at the health of the queer game scene.
QGF released the first half of the 2026 results with the showcase announcement, asking ‘How safe have you felt expressing yourself as an LGBTQ+ developer this year?’.
“In 2024, 76% of respondents selected the ‘safe’ and ‘very safe’ options,” QGF shared. “This year, there is a noticeable deterioration, with only 47% of respondents selecting ‘safe’ or ‘very safe’ and a large increase in the neutral option, from 13% to 39%.”
“Despite dark clouds on the horizon, when asked about the quality of games put out by the scene this year, the majority of devs (79%) rated the quality as above average compared to previous years. And after playing a bunch of queer games this year, we can’t argue with that.”
Image: Melbourne Queer Games FestivalFor the first time, QGF will co-host a one-night-only physical event with Sabby on October 6.
Players can get hands-on with some of this year’s selected games and meet like-minded folk in an extremely lo-fi and relaxed atmosphere.
QGF will share more details about the event this week. You can also learn more about the Festival and check out this year’s showcase on their website.
For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
