This is an update written for CONVICT-ION #ZineQuest Kickstarter, which runs until 23rd of February 2024.

When I design a game, I make connections between a host of different ideas. CONVICT-ION started as a wordplay on conviction; that the word can mean either a strong belief or a crime. (And the fact it's common advice in TTRPG to roleplay one's character with conviction) At the same time, I had this idea of looking into the thematic similarities between Life is Strange and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure—two series about characters with superpowers. During that period, I was also thinking a lot about the flaws of the criminal justice system, and wanted to include a critique of it in my writing.

I knew that I wanted the characters to have superpowers relating to their convictions, but I didn't know what to name it. When I read Judith Butler's words, I realise how a large part of our identity and gender is a compromise between how we see ourselves and how we fit (or don't fit) in with the social and gender norms. (In a way, it is like Carl Jung's persona) The idea to name a character's superpower their GENDER clicked with me.

A main concept of Judith Butler's gender theory is gender is performed. Our gender is shaped by our performance of it, which is in part shaped by the gender norm of the society. Butler argues that, like how words and speech shape our reality in a ceremonial and legal sense, so does our performance of gender. Thus, by performing our gender, it is embodied and made real. In a philosophical and sociological sense, gender rewrites reality.

In CONVICT-ION, each character's GENDER is a superpower (a bit like Atlus's Persona). What is a superpower but an ability that rewrites the physical reality? Like Butler's gender theory, GENDER is what allows the characters to rewrite reality.

I guess this mini-essay is a showcase to the messy jumble of thoughts which is my design process.