It wasn’t long before Evelyn began leveraging their many interests to establish Tomgirl Studios, a video game development business launched with the support of Project LIYT. Tomgirl Studios is dedicated to designing digital worlds and characters that connect communities and create empathy through storytelling.
Evelyn uses their unique ability to create fun games that directly address issues of confidence, mental health, and culture. “One of the notions of my art is boldness,” they say. From their perspective, storytellers can’t “tap-dance” around social issues by using metaphors to represent ‘hot topics”—a person’s story should always be more than twodimensional. With Project L.I.Y.T as the inspiration, Evelyn created A TruDay, a game developed in collaboration with TruEvolution, an LGBTQ and HIV-focusesd nonprofit. The game puts players in the shoes of a young, queer person living with HIV who has to navigate the challenges of daily life and the pressure that comes with a positive diagnosis while ultimately staying true to themselves. Each of Tomgirl Studios’ games strives to help young LGBTQ people learn to be confident and bold in the face of stigma.
Working on these projects as a L.I.Y.T Scholar has helped Evelyn develop strategies for ideating and developing a business plan for building out Tomgirl Studios. “That’s what so great about L.I.Y.T—they’re teaching all the techniques for starting, finishing and marketing your project.” Now, Evelyn’s goal is to increase representation for minority communities and characters— “I want to see more people like myself in art,” they say. In the future, they want to expand Tomgirl Studios and continue working as an indie game developer. They hope that their work teaches young people that they should never let gatekeepers get in the way of how they want to live their lives.
Illustrations provided by Farah Jeune, artist and creator/producer/host of Farenheight TV.
