For better or worse there are sims for everything. You can see how it feels to wreck life in Goat Simulator or spend a day in the life of a rock with Rock Simulator. Despite the fact that the majority of these offer a novelty experience, Atari is turning the simulator genre on its head with Pridefest, a parade-building sim targeted toward the LGBTQ community.
While Pridefest is not the first simulator to appeal to this community (Nicky Case’s Coming Out Simulator falls in the same category) it is one of the first with support from a major game company. Responding to the game’s announcement at GaymerX, the event’s founder Matt Conn said in a statement:
“To have [Atari] support our conference and cause, as well as bring an LGBTQ-themed game to market is a huge step toward equality in gaming.
It’s extremely important that we see these large publishers like Atari stepping up to the plate, and I’m excited that they have the courage to take the first step in supporting the community.”
The game itself allows players to launch their own pride parade in a city of their choosing while the overall goal will be to keep your locale “happy and vibrant.” Players can do so with upgradeable decorations, parade flotillas, attractions, and entertainment. Additionally, attracting more virtual citizens will unlock upgrades and increase the locale’s “happy” meter.
While this is a huge step forward in making games that are friendly to the LGBT community, it’s still unclear whether this game will be in demand outside of that market. However, considering the Bear Simulator raised over $100,000 for people to play as a bear, it’s likely that Pridefest will attract a large audience – if only for the novelty and inevitable conservative outrage.
No news yet on when the game will be released, but you can follow the progress via Pridefest‘s Twitter here or Facebook here. We’ll also be following the development closely and will update when more happens.
