Twitter
    Shindig
    • Reviews
      • Game Reviews
      • Tech Reviews
      • Book Reviews
    • News
      • Game News
      • Tech News
    • Features
    • Games
      • Reviews
      • News
      • Indie Games
      • Guides
      • Games by Platform
        • Nintendo
          • Nintendo Switch
          • Nintendo 3DS
        • PlayStation
          • PlayStation 5
          • PlayStation 4
          • PlayStation VR
          • PlayStation Vita
        • Xbox
          • Xbox Series X|S
          • Xbox One
        • PC
        • Mobile
    • Tech
      • Reviews
      • News
    • Books
      • Reviews
      • Manga
      • Comics
    • Film & TV
      • Film
      • TV
    • Collectibles
    • More
      • Humour
      • Food
      • Music
      • Art
      • Competitions
    Twitter
    Shindig
    Games

    SteamWorld Heist’s hero is a lady because “why not?”

    Matt RyanBy Matt RyanJune 26, 2015

    Later this year, Image & Form will release SteamWorld Heist, the sequel to the very excellent SteamWorld Dig. The star of the game is one Captain Piper, a badass robot spaceship captain who leads a band of machines to explore the galaxy and salvage the remains of a destroyed world.

    In a Q&A video with some of the art team, developer Image & Form revealed that Captain Piper was originally a man (or at least, a male-gendered robot). Why did they decide to make her a lady in the end? According to character artist Agnes Mikucka, “we just decided, ‘why not a girl?'”

    Steamworld-Heist-Scrapped-Captain-2SteamWorld-heist-Final-Captain-Piper

    This is fantastic reasoning. Despite the fact that a character’s gender rarely has much (or any) impact on their development or the story in general, most games focus on male leads. But, as Mikucka says, “why not a girl?” In most games, you could gender-swap the main character with no impact on the narrative, so why is male the default?

    It’s great to see games crafted around the idea of a female lead, and I’d love to see more games exploring concepts like womanhood and femininity. But at the same, these shouldn’t be the only games to put women front and centre – I’d love to see more developers follow in Image & Form’s footsteps, and make their heroes women for no reason other than “why not?”

    Developer Diary Female Characters Gaming Image & Form SteamWorld Heist Video Games
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Matt Ryan
    • Website
    • Twitter

    Matt is a writer based in Wellington. He loves all things pop culture, and is fascinated by its place in history and the wider social context.

    Related Posts

    SteamWorld Dig (Nintendo Switch) review: Stainless steel

    February 17, 2018

    SteamWorld Dig 2 review: Mine-troidvania

    October 2, 2017

    Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMIX review

    April 24, 2017
    Write for us! We're looking for writers to join Shindig's team to cover game reviews, comics, and everything pop culture. Click here for full details!
    Latest from Twitter
    My Tweets
    Affiliates
    Contact Us

    Feel free to drop us a message!

    Email: [email protected]
    Twitter: @ShindigNZ

    Otherwise, you can reach us with the form on our contact page.

    Friends of Shindig
    DigitallyDownloaded.net
    The Spinoff
    Tech-Gaming
    • Contact
    • Reviews Policy
    • Write for Shindig
    © 2022 Shindig Media. Designed by ThemeSphere.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

     

    Loading Comments...