The Pirate Queen CEO Talks Gender Equality and Female-Led Narratives
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend is a female-led narrative by a female-led studio that tells the story of Cheng Shih, one of the most powerful pirates in history. Yet, despite her vast success, many people today do not know about Cheng Shih and her story, especially when compared to infamous household pirates like Blackbeard, who was less successful by comparison. As a result, creative studio and film production company Singer Studios hopes to change that narrative and challenge the status quo by telling Cheng Shih’s nearly forgotten tale through its first game, The Pirate Queen, a narrative-driven VR adventure that releases during International Women’s History Month.
Game Rant recently sat down with Singer Studios’ creative director and CEO, Eloise Singer, who shared her thoughts on the landscape of women in the video game industry. Singer also talked more about the reasons for telling Cheng Shih’s story in The Pirate Queen, how the studio is telling her story through VR and beyond, and much more. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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Female-Led Singer Studios and The Landscape of Women in the Game Industry
Q: As a female-led studio, how do you think the landscape regarding women in games development has perhaps changed over the years? Where do you think you’d like that landscape to be in the next 10-20 years?
A: Good question. I guess I’m still comparatively new to the game industry, so in some ways, it’s a bit hard to give a retrospect because I’m literally diving into it. I started my company seven years ago next month, which is bizarre and exciting at the same time, but we only started developing games during the pandemic at the top of 2020. Before that, I worked in the film industry, so it’s really hard for me to say, in some respects, because, unlike a lot of various themed game devs who have been in the industry much longer can see a lot more of the changes.
I feel very lucky that I came into the industry at a time when there were a lot of opportunities for women, and people were actively starting to seek female narratives and female studios, and champion female games, which was really exciting. The Pirate Queen is a prime example of that. It’s a female-led narrative created by a female-led studio. One of the reasons that it’s got so much traction is because of that and because we’re championing gender equality. I’m positive and optimistic about how things are because I’m really lucky that we’ve been funded to create this game. But at the same time, we face constant challenges and hurdles. We’re constantly having to prove ourselves and fight really, really hard to get funding, recognition, and attention. Yhe bar, in some respects, is set just that much higher, just because of the nature of living in a glass ceiling.
I hope that, for the future, we continue on the same trajectory as it has been since I entered the industry, which is to champion gender equality and to champion female-led narratives. I think we still have a huge amount of progress to be made. But I am optimistic. I just hope that it’s not going to become a fad, and it’s not a short-term thing where people jump onto it, because they think that it’s the cool and right thing to do. Then it’s sort of flavor of the month, and it changes. I guess as long as we keep talking about it and we keep championing games that are female-led, then I think that we can really make a lot of progress.
Ultimately, the industry has always been male-dominated and that means that a lot of the games are male-centered and male-focused. As a result, a lot of gamers are men. Traditionally, I think we’ve seen that the game industry is a very male-dominated space, whereas hopefully what is changing is that people are realizing that one: women game as well. But there’s a different dialogue around it. Where men will say that they’re gamers and they identify as gamers, whereas women will say that they game, and they play games. It’s a very subtle difference, but a very, very important difference when men see it as part of their identity, whereas women still see it as a hobby or a pastime. I think when we get over that hurdle of the stereotype of women having a fear of identifying as a gamer because it’s predominantly a male space, I think that’s going to be a massive shift. I think it’s coming. I think the next generation is really warming to the idea of it being okay to be a gamer and being female, which we haven’t had before, so I think that’s really exciting.
I also think that when we do have more consumers who are the ones taking and consuming this content, then that also creates waves as well, because the demand is there for female-led narratives. The creators will make female-led narratives and the developers are going to be funded to make female-led narratives, so there are going to be more women. So, sort of on both sides, I guess, there hopefully will be a shift.
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This is a really long answer, but I was also going to say we’re in the VR space. That’s just a completely different demographic to traditional console games and PC games. Like with mobile games, it’s a completely different demographic. But with VR, we’re very much in the stage of new adopters and early adopters, and what I really noticed is that there are so many more women in VR than there are in traditional console games because it’s a new space and there are new audiences. The amount of women who are adopting VR is significantly higher, which again, is just really exciting because it means that there is this completely different demographic. And it’s of all ages. I know women who are in their 50s and 60s who have VR headsets and use them because it’s a form of meditation. They download meditation apps, and that’s amazing. I think there’s a really interesting opportunity to use new platforms and new mediums to attract new audiences. As a result, that will help as well, in balancing out equality within the game industry as a whole.
Yeah, definitely. Thank you for that. And just a really exciting time for the industry and to be a female in the industry as well, to be part of that transition, I suppose.
A: Yeah, it feels in some respect, especially with VR, that we’re sort of breaking new ground. I don’t know that many other studios that are female-led and creating content that’s on the level that we are. I think the nice thing, as well, is that the studios that I do know it’s not like a competition. There’s a studio based in New Zealand that created a game called Wanderer VR, and they’re a female-led studio. The CEO is a woman called Sam, who is incredible. It’s really nice because it just feels like there’s a community of women who are creating these games and creating VR content, who all just really want to help each other.
It doesn’t feel like there’s a competition between us all who see each other as competitors, who are trying to be rivals and creating really similar games. It’s the opposite. It’s this idea of sharing knowledge, helping each other, and supporting one another. I think that’s a really nice and quite refreshing shift, as well, of everyone just wanting the best for each other because we know how hard it is. It’s so hard. I think to be creating a community where we support each other – that is really exciting.
The Importance of Cheng Shih’s Story and Female Pirate Stories
Q: Why was it important to you as a studio to tell the story of Cheng Shih, and why do you think it’s important for people to know her story today?
A: It was important for us to tell the story because so few people know it. When you ask anyone who is the most powerful pirate in history, everyone will say something different, but they’ll usually say Blackbeard. Or some people I’ve asked have been like, Captain Jack Sparrow. I’m like, “Not even a real person, but good try.”
When I first heard the story, I just fundamentally believed that everyone needed to know that the most powerful pirate in history was a woman. It’s one of those we joke about a lot where ‘his story,’ literally history is ‘his story.’ There are so many cases of narratives about women and stories about women that have just been wiped from history. Instead, we hear about the Henry the Eighths of the world, which is not to undermine the Henry the Eighths of the world, or the William Wallaces, or the Blackbeards of the world. But we need to make space – we have to make space.
If it was me and I was growing up now and I heard about the fact that the most powerful pirate in history was a woman, that would completely shift my mentality, gender roles, gender dynamics, the fact that she quite literally paved the way for equality by creating laws on her ship for her fleet, which meant that men and women had to be treated equally. That for the time, is extraordinary – truly extraordinary. She overcame so many odds that I just think that she was phenomenal. She’s terrifying and a badass, but truly phenomenal. I think that’s the reason that we decided to tell it basically, no one seems to know that the most powerful pirate was a woman.
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Q: Following on from that, how important is Cheng Shih’s story in giving a female voice to pirate success?
A: I mean, hugely. I guess as well, The Pirate Queen is just the beginning of a massive IP and a massive story world that we’re creating. We’re telling The Pirate Queen not just as a game, but also as a film, a TV series, and a podcast. With that is the notion that she wasn’t just the only female pirate leader in history. There are actually about 17 who are really incredible, very recognizable women who made a huge impact on history as pirates. The plan is that we’re telling those stories as well, which is really exciting.
Q: Why do you think Cheng Shih’s story is perhaps less known or nearly forgotten, compared to pirates like Blackbeard or Jack Sparrow? Why do you think that is?
A: Because she was a woman and, unfortunately, history focuses on men more than women, and that’s just the way it is. Yeah, it sucks. It’s ironic that her second-in-command, who was a guy called Cheung Po Tsai, is very famous in China – incredibly famous. Our writer actually grew up in Hong Kong, and she went on a school trip and visited these very famous caves, and they’re named after Cheung Po Tsai – they’re Cheung Po Tsai’s caves. In China, he’s a very recognizable figure and people love him. If you ask the majority of people in China, they’ve never heard of Cheng Shih. It’s why we’re telling her story. We want to rewrite the narratives.
The Pirate Queen And VR
Q: Why did you settle upon the medium of VR in particular to tell Cheng Shih’s story?
A: For us, there were two sorts of reasons. The first is because we come from film and VR is probably the closest sort of gaming format to filmmaking. It felt like quite a natural segue being that this is the first game that we’re making – to make it in VR. I think as well, the reason that I wanted to tell it in VR is because it is so tactile, and we’ve designed it purposely to be that tactile, to make it work really well in VR. All the mechanics are designed in VR. We have a rowing mechanic, we have a climbing mechanic. Those are very, very tactile interactions that feel great in VR and are so much fun. Climbing to the top of the crow’s nest, for example, is an amazing experience, because you can look around and take in this really expansive world. That’s something that you can’t do on any other platform.
Particularly for this story, when we were developing it, I think the thing that’s so special is that there’s no other situation where you can experience it. We’re allowing the player to step back in time, and go into a 19th-century pirate ship and explore that space. Everything we’ve created is as historically accurate as we can get it. When you put on a headset, you are literally transported to a 19th-century pirate ship, which is something that you can’t do in the real world. I think that’s really the magic, both of VR but also games, because it’s transporting you to another time and place. I think that’s so special and so magical. It’s why I love the industry and working in the industry. To have the opportunity to tell this story in such a massive way is really exciting and very humbling as well.
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The Pirate Queen’s Historical Locations
Q: Could you talk a bit more about how you created the games’ historical locations and the infamous Red Flag fleet, and how you captured the accuracy of those places?
A: Yeah, for sure. It’s an interesting one because there’s comparatively very little literature on the time and place. It took us a huge amount of time and effort to find all the research and find all the environments. We bought on researchers, sensitivity checkers, and fact-checkers as well, who were able to read literature in Mandarin, as well as in English. That really helped because it meant that we had access to all the Mandarin literature as well as English literature. Based off that, our art team worked really closely with our researchers and our writer, who’s half Chinese and specializes in telling factually accurate stories. We’re very lucky to be working with our writer, Maja Bodenstein. She’s incredible and very much spearheaded the accuracy element of making the game. That was kind of one of the core pillars effectively of our game design and game dev was making sure that what we were creating was historically accurate and true to the type of place. It was really fun, and we had a huge amount of lessons along the way.
One of them, for example, was that we created the ship, initially, and we had nails in the ship because we thought that that’s what ships would be made out of, wood and nails. We showed it to our researchers, and one of them came back, and they were like, “No, actually in China at the time, we used dovetail joints rather than a hammer and nail.” Our artists had to go and take out every single nail from the ship [laughs], which I love. Because it’s such a beautiful example of how we just assume that we know how ships were made, and the reality is that we don’t, which, yeah, it’s a beautiful thing, just this small amount of detail. We wanted to check whether the reeds on all the mats were woven left to right, or right or left because we wanted to make sure that we were doing it the right way around. All the books, for example, are bound the opposite way. Because in China, their books are bound literally the opposite to how we have them bound over here.
I think what was so fun is that we were learning all of this at the same time, because we are a Western studio, and we wanted to make sure that we were accurate. Our intention from the beginning was to make sure that we were being as accurate as possible. It was just so rewarding for us to be able to learn all of these nuances and just really informative. I think for me, it’s been the biggest challenge, but the biggest highlight of the project.
Q: That’s brilliant, really fascinating. And of course, what was it like working with Lucy Liu and Orion Lee?
A: Yeah, I mean, they’re both fabulous and incredibly talented human beings. It was an absolute privilege. It was definitely one of those sort of pinch-yourself moments where you’re like, “I can’t believe that I get to work with such incredible talent.” I think the best thing is that both of them have such an amazing sense of humor that every day was just an absolute joy and filled with a lot of laughter and smiles. Both of them are so collaborative that it was just really fun. It’s just elevated the project to a whole new level. I’m really excited that Lucy is an Executive Producer on The Pirate Queen as well, so we’re working together to develop the graphic novel and the film. So yeah, it’s really exciting.
The Pirate Queen’s Narrative, Gameplay, and Setting
Q: And of course, the game is set on the night that Cheng Shih came to power. Could you tell us a bit more about the narrative background of that night and why you chose it specifically?
A: Yeah, it came out of a lot of conversations with Maja. Maja is such a wizard when it comes to narrative. She suggested it and I just thought it was such a smart idea to focus on one night because then the stakes would be really high. The notion that you have such an achievable goal, which is by the end of the night, you need to become the leader, just felt like a really solid mission. It was also just a really fun idea because it allowed us to go into her backstory enough through cutscenes so you understand who she is and what her objective is.
You discover more and more about her circumstances as you go through the game. With all the objects that you pick up, you can discover something that tells you a little bit about her character or tells you a little bit about the context of the situation and more of a feel of who she is and what she’s up against. It sort of plays out, in that sense, a bit like a mystery where you are trying to uncover who she is, which I think is interesting.
It also allows us to then grow into a franchise because it allows us to be able to follow up. We can look into what she did next, which I think is really fun as well. It just sort of fit everything that we were setting out to do. And I think it’s just a really nuanced and interesting way of telling the story. It was all down to Maja. It was her idea, and I think it was brilliant.
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Q: In the game, players have to try and outsmart opponents as they’re presumably sneaking around the ship. Could you talk about whether there are any stealth gameplay moments?
A: Yeah, so it’s a narrative adventure. The game predominantly focuses on you having to basically go and poison your rival, Gou Podai, and then get back to your ship undetected, to then become the leader by the end of the night. In terms of gameplay, the majority is sort of rowing and climbing because you’re scaling up the side of ships, you’re rowing to your enemy’s ship without being detected, and leaving his ship without being detected.
Then there are puzzle elements as well. We’ve used a lot of escape room mechanics of trying to sort of crack codes and ensure that you’re sneaking through and into different rooms without being detected. You’re trying to stop people from noticing you, and we do that in a very tactile VR way. At the same time, we’re sort of weaving in Cheng Shih’s story as well. The more time you spend in a room, the more story you discover.
You can find different items, and we have collectibles as well, all through the game. We have these really beautiful, semi-precious treasures that have been designed. In each level, there are three collectibles and then, by the end, you can basically see how many collectibles you found. If anyone can find over 30, then seriously, kudos because I’m still trying to find all of them [laughs]. I can’t. I spoke to our programmer, actually, and I was like “Hankun, where is this collectible in this level? Because I literally cannot find it.” Yeah, if anyone can find all of them, then I will be so impressed. I’ve never found all of them, so please beat me.
Q: The Pirate Queen releases during International Women’s History Month, just before International Women’s Day. Is there anything that you kind of hope to inspire as a studio through the game regarding people’s knowledge and perception of pirates?
A: Yeah, the objective of the game is for as many people as possible to learn about Cheng Shih’s story. It’s really why we’re creating it. I hope that means that there’s going to be just a shift in mentality that more people are going to realize that women have become powerful leaders in history as well as men. That women are competent enough to be the most powerful pirates in history, I think is always useful to remind people. Yeah, there’s such an unconscious bias over women in positions of power and leadership, so I think anything to rewrite that narrative is always a good thing.
I also think the reason we have purposely created this game is not to be a violent game. You can’t go around and stab anyone with a sword. That was very much intended. It was a creative risk, but it’s one that we want to encourage as many people as 13 and up. Because 13 is the minimum age that you can play VR, but as many people 13 and up to play the game as possible. We don’t want parents to feel that they’re having to buy a game for their kids that is, sort of, swordplay. I’m hoping that we’re creating a game that’s really accessible to allow those age ranges to also engage with it to then fuel the next generation and remind them that there are really incredible women out there, and this is one of them. So that’s the goal, really.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to add or tell our readers?
A: No, I don’t think so. Just that I’m really excited for everyone to play it. I’m so proud of our team and what they’ve accomplished with this, especially since this is the first game that we’ve ever made, and we’re making a game with Lucy Liu. It really is extraordinary, and I think it’s just a testament to how important the narrative is, how important Cheng Shih’s story is, how talented our team is, and how much time, effort, and work they’ve put into making something that’s so beautiful, powerful, and informative. I just hope that people enjoy it. I really hope that they enjoy it.
We’ve had so much fun making it and all the challenges that you can imagine, along the way, have made it even more rewarding. Now that we’re there and we’re about to release it, I think it’s just really exciting to take a step back and to see everyone’s work and what they’ve put in. I’m just really proud of everyone who’s been involved.
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The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend releases on March 7, 2024, for Steam and Meta Quest.
