Cultural convention and content creation
February is a short month, but it has felt rather long. This is indeed the last day of it, and it’s good that it included a bonus day so that we could make it in time! So what have we been up to since last time? Showcasing at Folk & Kultur We showed Truer than […]
Writing in Winter – December Update
We’ve decided to start making monthly updates about the development of Truer than You and other news about the studio, to let you in on what’s happening. Truer than You is progressing steadily. I (Bobbi) am currently writing the last scenes of the game, getting closer to drafting the full game.
Making sports into drama (and games?)
An anime analysis from a game design perspective I admit: I am a great sports anime nerd (and I’ve previously written about the volleyball anime Haikyuu and its fandom) – something that also affects my thinking around game design. What makes sports anime so good – better than watching
Is the goal to make players feel good?
In this series of posts about relation games I’ve been discussing game and narrative design from a relational perspective. I’ve been meaning to explore the role of player agency in games centered around relationships. I also posed some specific questions: Should players get a wide variety o
Relationships and gameplay
If fictional relationships feel real, as I proposed in a previous post, then we need to be mindful of how we utilize characters and relationships in games. Why are the potential relationships there, and what do we want players to feel? Most often, we are not entirely free when we design a game ̵
Impressions from Devcom & Gamescom
Last week was a really intense one for us, as we attended both Devcom and Gamescom. At Devcom, we did the first IRL showcase of Truer than You, during the two conference days, as well as at Developer Night | Courage Cologne. Then we moved over to Gamescom for meetings, where we were part of [&hellip
Fictional relationships feel real
I’ve been writing a few posts now about the relationships in Knife Sisters and what we learned from making that game, as well as from the comments we received (here and here). This post is about one of the most important findings we’ve done when it comes to relation games. Players invest themsel
I’ll make it up to her!
Games that are about relationships and making tough choices in regards to other characters can evoke quite a lot of emotions. We have already talked a bit about how some players objected to being forced into a relationship with Dagger in Knife Sisters. Another very emotional message we got from a pl
Would you like being forced into a relationship?
When working on relation games, there are many things to take into consideration. I’ve already elaborated a little upon the fact that the choice of characters in relation games is very important, and will affect the players a lot. When working on those kinds of games I have asked myself question
Systems for Emotions – Knife Sisters
In this blog post, I’ll go into Knife Sisters as an example on how a game’s system is created to convey a story, and how the characters are chosen to play a part in that story. (Be aware, there will be spoilers!) When we started working on Knife Sisters, I mainly only knew that the […]
Systems for Emotions – Exploring Relation Games
The games we’re making are relation games: games centered around existential questions and ways to relate to others. We also have a large focus on LGBTQ+ issues and characters. In 2019, we released a game called Knife Sisters, and this blog post, as well as a few upcoming ones, will be centered ar
Symbolic and Logical – The Tarot Cards
I’ve always had a great fascination for tarot cards and other similar meaningful/figurative cards, such as the Kille card deck. As an eleven year old, I created my first divination game, based on my own cards. I’ve since worked on many projects that incorporated divination and tarot cards in dif
Focus group for Truer than You
Our next game has the working title Truer than You. It’s a game about what it means to be true, especially in relationships. It’s also a game about shame as a driving force in social situations. Yesterday a small group of people who are interested in relationships gathered to ideate for the game
Playing with Power – BDSM in Games
How are BDSM and power dynamics represented in games, and what can that teach us about love, life and games? In this blog post I’m exploring what BDSM and games have in common, and how BDSM and power dynamics are represented in indie games. It’s based on the talk “Explicit Power Dynamics &