Spirit Swap makes queer softness magical

Queer has multiple definitions, from "weird" to "not heterosexual." Softness also has multiple meanings, from being emotionally sensitive to being physically frail. Racial, cultural, and gender norms often cause cis and heterosexual people to conflate queerness with softness. This has negative connotations that originally made the word queer a slur, before it was reclaimed during the gay rights, civil rights, and sexual liberation movements in the 1960s and 70s. Similarly, the match-3 game Spirit Swap: Lo-fi Beats To Match 3 To celebrates and validates softness and its relation to queerness. 

Created by the game development team that’s fittingly called Soft Not Weak, Spirit Swap's premise is simple, but with hidden depths. In "Story Mode," you play as a nonbinary witch named Samar who goes around helping their community of LGBTQ+ friends by spirit swapping, i.e. playing match-three puzzles to clear spirit blocks that have overwhelmed a particular area. After a spirit swapping session, Samar then talks to each friend to console them about whatever problem they might be having. Once you finish the first part of the story mode of the game, there is the potential to grow closer to each friend and potentially date them.

Spirit Swap developer Alex Abou Karam on marketing a game in times of war

“It was really hard [...] to be so focused on making a game about queer, trans, POC joy in the midst of so much abject intentional suffering.”

MothershipZoë Hannah