Tell Me Why is about two twins, one of them a trans man, who use their magic powers to explore conflicting memories of their childhood in small-town Alaska. “We’ve received heartfelt messages from players all over the world about how Tyler’s homecoming as a trans man and Alyson’s struggle with trauma have impacted them, encouraged them, or made them feel a little less alone, especially amid the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and pervasive transphobic rhetoric in places like the United States and the United Kingdom,” Dontnod say. “Our intention in making Tell Me Why free for June 2021 is both to allow even more people to access the game and to encourage our players to spend their money in places that will directly affect trans and queer communities.” They have some suggestions for how you might want to do that, including buying games by trans and queer indie developers (they have some recommendations, and I’ll also point out the Queer Games Bundle 2021 on Itch), donating to a local mutal aid fund, and directly giving money to a person in need. Even if you can’t splash some cash, they say, you can offer support by “being an outspoken advocate for trans rights”, promoting people’s work, and educating yourself. Tell Me Why is available for free now from Steam and Microsoft’s Store, as well as on Xbone. Grab it by June 30th and it’s yours to keep. “It’s less dramatic than some of Dontnod’s other outings (and probably not for those with short attention spans given the pacing),” Alice Bee said in our Tell Me Why review last year, “but Tell Me Why remains a good entry in their the library of stories about families and sad magic - and it’s probably the most hopeful one yet.”
