Robert Yang (杨若波) is an artist, writer, and game developer.
Robert Yang makes surprisingly popular games about gay culture. He is most known for his historical bathroom sim The Tearoom, his homoerotic shower sim Rinse and Repeat, and his gay sex trilogy Radiator 2 has over 150,000 users on Steam. Previously he taught at NYU Game Center.
email: yang.robert.w {at} gmail {dot} com | blog | bluesky | twitter | mastodon | instagram | youtube | twitch
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GAMES
That Lonesome Valley
Retro pixel gay cowboy romance about walkin', sheepin', and kissin'. (December 2022)
We Dwell in Possibility
Queer gardening / crowd sim played in-browser, in collab with Eleanor Davis and aya for Manchester International Festival 2021. (July 2021)
Hard Lads
British masculinity simulator about smoking, drinking, kissing, and pain. Based on the viral video British Lads Hit Each Other With Chair. (June 2020)
Rinse and Repeat HD
Male shower simulator about punctuality and submission. Give him a helping hand... when he says so. (September 2015, remastered November 2018)
Ruck Me
Gay sports TV game / art installation inspired by Aussie rules football (AFL). Made with Louis Roots for Bar SK in Melbourne, AU. (August 2018)
Dream Hard
Two player queer brawler arcade game made for The Dreamhouse, a queer community space in Brooklyn. Made with Death By Audio Arcade. (June 2018)
The Tearoom
Historical public bathroom sex simulator about anxiety, police, and sucking off another dude's gun. (June 2017)
No Stars, Only Constellations
Short stargazing game about breaking-up and the possibility of advanced alien life in the universe. (September 2016)
Radiator 2
Revamped threesome of past games Hurt Me Plenty, Succulent, and Stick Shift, "remastered in HD" for a grand debut on Steam. (June 2016)
Cobra Club
Photo studio game about body image, privacy, and dick pics. Take pictures, pose your junk, chat with fellow members. (May 2015, remastered April 2016)
Radiator 1
Experimental single player Source Engine mod about stargazing, gay divorcing, and Emily Dickinsoning. (July 2009, remastered October 2015)
Stick Shift
Short driving game about pleasuring a gay car and bringing it to climax. Manual transmission as activist autoerotica. (April 2015)
Succulent
Small 2-4 minute game about watching a dude slowly / erotically stick a thing in his mouth. An homage to late homo-hop. (January 2015)
Hurt Me Plenty
Short motion-control game about consent, kink, and spanking the hell out of this dude. Get on your goddamn knees! (December 2014)
Intimate, Infinite
Short single player first person about gardening, chess, history, infinity, and a murder. Inspired by the short story "Garden of Forking Paths" (August 2014)
Souvenir
(unfinished) First person platformer about fragmented identity; collab with Ben Norskov, Mohini Dutta, Arca. (May 2012)
Apollo 2
First person poem about death in space. Made for the 0 hour jam in only "zero hours", due to daylight savings time rolling back. (November 2011)
Super Cult Tycoon 2
Silly single player tycoon / tower defense game about religion and money in Colorado; made in one month. A collaboration with Eddie Cameron. (October 2011)
Butte, Montana. 1973
Experimental board game on open-pit mining and organized labor. A box of dirt that uses chemical reactions to pollute and destroy itself. (March 2011)
LEVEL DESIGN
The Level Design Book
I'm founder / editor of a free online book project to gather level design knowledge. (2019 - ?)
There's a Certain Slant of Light
Colorful single player modernist complex for Quake Brutalist Jam. (September 2022)
Breakfast Under The Balloons
Colossal single player tree temple for Quake Coppertone Summer Jam 2. (August 2022)
The Close and Holy Darkness
Large single player Mesoamerican temple complex for Quake Retro Jam 7. (March 2022)
Heart Like a Bird's Nest
Compact single player sci-fi industrial map for Quake Speedmap Snack Pack 2. (January 2022)
When There Were Wolves
Cold castle single player Quake collab with MrTaufner for Xmas Jam 2021. (December 2021)
Daughter Drink This Water
Snowy ruins single player Quake map for Sinister 625 map jam pack. (June 2021)
It Will Be Summer Eventually
Grassy ruins single player Quake map for SpeedMap 210 "Overgrown" map jam pack. (September 2020)
Once More, With Feeling
Short modernist single player Quake map for Copper Tone Summer Jam (CTSJ). My first level since ~2010. (July 2020)
Anomalous Materials
Level design, art, scripting for Black Mesa Source, a fan-remake of Half-Life 1 in Source Engine. Most of my work / ideas remain intact in the final version. (2008-2009)
TOOLS
Yarn Spinner for Unity
I've contributed sample project code to Yarn Spinner for Unity, a free open source branching dialogue story plugin. (June 2020, ongoing)
Hedera
Art tool for painting 3D ivy in Unity, simulates growth and sunlight with 25+ different settings to configure. Free and open source. (July 2019)
Merino
Narrative design tool for writing and testing branching stories / dialogue in Unity. Free and open source. (debut August 2018, ongoing)
TALKS AND WRITING
Quake Renaissance
3-part feature for Rock Paper Shotgun on Quake, its dev history, and ever-enduring 25+ year old modding community. (August 2021)
The legacy of fy_iceworld
2-part feature for Rock Paper Shotgun on the popularity of fy_iceworld and a forensic investigation into its authorship. (April 2020)
GDC 2019: 5 Steps for Designing Sex Games
A (practical) talk about designing sex as a gameplay system and intimacy as simulation. Part of the Sexy Microtalks sessions. (March 2019)
GDC 2018: How To Light A Level
Introduction to lighting design for video games, three point lighting, general workflows. Part of "Invisible Intuition" for Level Design Workshop. (April 2018)
Coast Guide
2-page illustrated level design analysis of d2_coast03 in "Highway 17" (Half-Life 2), commissioned for PC Gamer UK #310 (November 2017)
Consider The Chair
Essay about chairs in video games, with a brief design history of chairs. For the video game architecture zine Heterotopias issue 002 (May 2017)
On FeministWhorePurna and the Ludo-material...
A technical design analysis of the racism and sexism embedded in the code of Dead Island (2011), for the Queer Game Studies book (March 2017)
GDC 2016: The Game Industry Needs To Get Laid...
Micro-rant against the game industry's anti-sex censorship. For more, read "Why I Am One Of The Most Banned Devs on Twitch." (March 2016)
GDC 2015: Level Design Histories and Futures
Hour-long talk on the history of level design, and where it could go. I've edited it down into a shorter essay called "Local Level Design." (March 2015)
"Forced Movement"
A page on corridors and hallways in games, and how they play with space and time, for the Rem Koolhaas bookset "Elements of Architecture" (June 2014)
Level With Me, vol. 2
Collaborative interview project for Rock Paper Shotgun, culminating in an adventure game about clawing through multiple worlds. (December 2013)
A People's History of the FPS
3-part essay series on the Doom WAD, the Half-Life mod, and the engine-agnostic postmod, at Rock Paper Shotgun. (September 2012)
Level With Me, vol. 1
Collaborative interview project for Rock Paper Shotgun, culminating in an avant-garde Portal 2 mod about authorship. (Dec 2011)
"Dragon Age, first game about gay marriage"
Essay at Kotaku about how player-side modding to add a gay male context can radically transform an authored game narrative. (2010)
PRIVACY POLICY: There are no ads in my games or on this webpage. Most of the games on this webpage use a game engine called Unity; I've tried disabling as much of Unity's tracking when possible, but you can read the Unity privacy policy for more info.
One game, called Cobra Club HD, connects to a server; this server does not retain your internet address nor any personal data, other than the fake images and fake chatlogs generated by the game.