Creators of Tiny Epic Dungeons, Gamelyn Games, are coming under fire for the depiction of female characters on the box art for the game. After a user on Twitter bought it up, Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan, bought it to the attention of the wider BGG community, and in response, Gamelyn has altered the cover art.
Tiny Epic Dungeons In Big Messy Trouble
Tiny Epic Dungeons is an upcoming dungeon-crawling board game currently mid-Kickstarter campaign from Gamelyn Games. Recently, the game became a hot topic, both on Twitter and Board Game Geek, as people began to claim that the artwork was "problematic". Originally Eric Buscemi, co-founder of Punchboard Media, pointed out that two of the characters on the cover art featured accentuated sexual characteristics.
While the male Dwarf and barbarian were stood in power poses, the female rogue and mage had a spotlight on deep cleavage and the famous 'tits and ass' pose respectively. The designer of Wingspan, Elizabeth Hargrave, agreed that the depiction was a problem, and posted to BGG to ask what other people thought of the situation. It wasn't long before replies started coming in, and most of them were pretty negative.
In response, Gamelyn Games made some changes to the cover art. In the new version, the female rogue has her cleavage covered, while the female mage in the background no longer has her buttocks hanging out. Overall the changes have been minimal, but the backlash has been anything but, in both directions.
Backlash In Both Directions
The situation has spiraled since it broke on Monday. Since she brought the situation to the attention of the tabletop community, many people have taken to Tiny Epic Dungeons' Kickstarter campaign to accuse Hargrave of creating the issue to boost her own profile. The comment section of the crowdfunding campaign is filled with people that are claiming they were banned from Board Game Geek's forums for "disagreeing with her", while admins gloat on social media about banning people.
So far, Gamelyn Games hasn't made a statement on their official media channels outside of changing the box art on the Kickstarter campaign. We reached out to them, and will update this if they reply or issue a statement on the matter.
What do you think of Tiny Epic Dungeons? Do you think that the original art was a problem? Let us know in the comments below.
