Celeste creator self-reflects on game's fourth anniversary

eurogamer.net:

Maddy Thorson, creator of the tricky yet accessible platformer Celeste, has written a self-reflective blog on the game's fourth anniversary.

Released on 25th January 2018, the story of Celeste — that of overcoming impossible odds to climb the titular mountain — resonated with plenty of people, none more so than Thorson herself.

In a previous blog post from 2020, Thorson answered the question: «Is Madeline canonically trans?». «During Celeste's development, I did not know that Madeline or myself were trans,» she wrote. «During the Farewell DLC's development, I began to form a hunch. Post-development, I now know that we both are.»

In this new blog post, Thorson thanks fans for the game's reception and explains further how the game is intertwined with her trans identity.

«If the discourse around Celeste hadn't become so focused on its queer undertones, I don't think I would have come out publicly for a long time,» she says. «It felt like people needed to know whether Madeline was trans, and I felt a responsibility to engage with that conversation. Once I started trying to do just that, I found it impossible without talking about my own now-apparent transness.

»I think there's value in the confirmation that yes, Celeste is a trans story in addition to its broader relatability. I am thrilled that my work and my personal story have helped people, and I think that it's important for real live trans people to be visible."

With this, though, comes a sense of «heavy responsibility» for Thorson. It's for this reason she plans to step away from social media.

«Who I am is changing, or wants to change, and this public persona has become an obstacle to that change,» she says. «It doesn't feel like I have room to be the messy, growing