Releasing at the tail end of May, Slime Rancher 2’s Add to Cart Prontomart update gave players a special gadget: a pride flag. This was a well-timed addition, because June is celebrated as Pride Month and is used to highlight the LGBTQ+ community’s struggles and triumphs, making the inclusion of the flag a statement about Slime Rancher 2 supporting Pride.

Pride Month occurs each June in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, which began on June 28 and ran through July 3 in 1969, are widely seen as the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ Rights movement. Marsha P. Johnson, a trans woman of color, is widely credited with leading the riots, which led to no fatalities. In modern times, the month is celebrated through parades and festivals nationwide, and thanks to a coincidence of scheduling, also celebrates several landmark Supreme Court decisions that have enshrined LGBTQ+ civil rights in American law. In a recent interview with Game ZXC, developer Pearl Ko from Monomi Park explored how Slime Rancher 2 is celebrating Pride Month.

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A Rainbow of Slimes

Monomi Park, the developer of Slime Rancher 2, describs itself as an inclusive studio, and is proud to support everyone in its community. For senior UX designer Pearl Ko, the pride flag is one of her favorite new gadgets in the Add to Cart Prontomart update.

I really do appreciate that this game feels so welcoming. It is just very open to the kind of narrative and story that as a player, I can just go into without having to deal with you know, like a narrative that's been constructed so fully that I can't immerse myself into. I think there's a lot of this exploratory feeling that the world itself, although it’s not completely safe, feels very gentle and welcoming. And I think that goes hand in hand with thinking about inclusivity.

While there’s no shortage of games that focus on LGBTQ+ characters, there’s also a plethora of titles that provide gestures like the pride flag gadget despite not having a large narrative focus on the issue as a reminder that even in games like Slime Rancher, queer characters are simply a matter of life.

Whether it be pride flag decorations like Slime Rancher 2 or Fallout 76, or characters who happen to identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community like Dion in Final Fantasy 16, these inclusions do a lot to normalize a community that remains maligned in many situations.

As Ko explained, the feeling of cozy and comfortable games also lends itself to being inclusive. To communities who face discrimination, feeling seen and represented in games in ways that don’t mirror their strife can be deeply soothing, and as important as highlighting that strife to those unfamiliar with it.

Of course, the pride flag is only one of a wide range of new decorations, gadgets, and toys to customize a ranch with, though for some players–like Ko–it's bound to be a personal favorite.

Making One's Ranch Their Own

That isn’t to say Ko’s only favorite item is the pride flag. She also adored the clam throne: a chair for slimes to sit on and appreciate their kingdom (also known as your ranch). Slimes are slotted into the chair to reign on high.

One of my favorite gadgets on this update is the clam throne. So it's kind of like a chair where you can slot in the slime. But that came up as a result of brainstorming around like, oh, what else could be added for this sort of beachy set of gadgets? … I know a lot of [the new gadgets were] informed by the gadgets that we already have kind of theming around some different areas and kind of like biomes that we have. So some of the newer content is themed around beach stuff.

The update also includes variants of existing gadgets, as well as the titular Prontomart there to act as a vendor for toys and gadgets for a player’s ranch. Customization and player expression, exemplified by the pride flag among other things, was an important priority for Monomi Park with Slime Rancher 2, and the Prontomart update delivers on that promise.

New gadgets also feel more dynamic, partly thanks to their design and partly thanks to the way the previous update, Gadgets My Way, relaxed restrictions on where gadgets could be placed. That feeling, too, was important to developers, Ko explained.

Part of this was a desire to help the player engage more with discovery in this game. So you know, there are slimes out there to capture and take care of and you know, just collect, but also, we wanted players to just like, have fun, you know, taking time to customize their own experience. I think part of this was a desire to get players out there to gather more resources and engage more with the crafting loop, which is a major core part of the experience of Slime Rancher . That's my take on it.

The sense of exploration and discovery, important themes to the LGBTQ+ community overall, are also core to the Add to Cart Prontomart expansion, with the new ranch area, the Digsite, also having a focus on encouraging a sense of discovery. In this way, perhaps it can be said that the way the update spotlights the community during Pride Month is deeper than a flag, as its themes of discovery and expression are often cherished by LGBTQ+ players.

Slime Rancher 2

Monomi Park's Slime Rancher 2 follows Beatrix LeBeau as she sets up a ranch in a colorful world filled with the eponymous slimes. In order to make money, Beatrix must cultivate and sell the slimes' plorts.