Gendered engines

Episode and Dorian’s gamemaking toolkits

Bibliographic Data

ID7154382
AuthorsStephanie Harkin (0000-0002-4781-4891, RMIT University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue5
Pages1262-1276
Publication date2025-07-04
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2024.2361039
OpenAlexW4399437513
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited28

In a landscape where videogame development has long been dominated by a patriarchal tech culture, gendered engines create spaces for girls’ participation. In this paper I explore two gamemaking toolkits that are attached to existing—and highly gendered—interactive fiction applications, Episode and Dorian. The engines belong to a broader history of initiatives hailing girls to pursue STEM fields, yet they more-so draw on girls’ hobbyist coding practices, namely those rooted in fandom activities. The engines’ monetisation infrastructures, however, engage in an ethos of post-feminist entrepreneurism that entangles leisure and work. I analyse Episode and Dorian’s gendered branding and emphasis on romance storytelling as a limiting design convention, though I also consider the subversive potential at play when the hyperfeminine comes into contact with the masculinised realms of videogames and gamemaking

Cinema and Media Studies · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Digital Games and Media · Psychology

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