Love on Love

Analogue: A Hate Story

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:39:00 -0500

So, it’s finally finished after a very long half-year of work; in collaboration with Raide and with an original soundtrack by Isaac Schankler.

Uncover the mystery of what happened to the final generation aboard the generation ship Mugunghwa by reading through its dead crew’s logs, with the help of a spunky AI sidekick!

Two pursuable characters. Five endings. A dark visual novel that further extends the non-linear style of Digital: A Love Story in a mystery featuring transhumanism, traditional marriage, loneliness, and cosplay.

You can buy it, or download the free trial, here.

Announcing Analogue: A Hate Story

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:31:29 -0500

Announcing Analogue: A Hate Story:

I’ve talked about it a fair bit, but as of yet haven’t made any sort of formal announcement. Well, here it is: I’m making a game called Analogue: A Hate Story, and it plays a lot like Digital, except instead of being about saving the pre-internet, it’s about exploring the mystery of a long-lost generation ship with the help of a spunky AI sidekick! You can find out more about it here.

Akira Yamazaki by ~Tediusman Somehow I missed this in all my...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Akira Yamazaki by ~Tediusman

Somehow I missed this in all my vanity searches until now. Cute!

This year was a good year

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:05:53 -0500

There’s a lot of ways you can look at it that make this year seem a lot more underwhelming than 2010. I was definitely a lot less productive, and there was no sudden huge leap in popularity like when I’d gone from “completely unknown” to where I am now at “not completely unknown.” That’s something that only happens once, obviously.

Mostly, this was a year where I learned a lot of things.

Last year I promised to release two major games in 2011, and I did, just barely; not the ones that I expected, either. The first was a dating sim called Love & Order in February, which I think, nearly a year later, I can admit is not really my best work. It’s not really my sort of thing, and I’ve learned a lesson about writing about things you don’t really care about: namely, don’t do it. Still, enough people seem to like it that it pays a lot of the rent most months, and I don’t feel too bad; it showed me that yes, with some more dedication and better ideas, I totally can actually do this as a living.

In April I released don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story, which despite suffering from some apparent problems with subtle, was sort of successful in starting some conversations on its subject matter. I got really awesomely parodied for it, and among other critical praise, a mention in the Telegraph as it being the best videogame script of 2011. So it’s hard not to be proud of that, at least.

And then… after that, I released absolutely nothing.

To use an understatement: this summer kind of sucked. I was living month-to-month for a while.

I’ve been working pretty much non-stop on Analogue for about five months now, making it by far the most work I’ve put into anything, and I hope it shows. I’m not going to say much about it now, because I’ll be doing a real announcement for it in a bit; it should be ready for release in January!

Anyway, here’s the reason why despite all that, having not much to show for work, why 2011 has unquestionably been my best year yet: Patricia.

…even if she can be a little bit mean.

Everyone on Twitter has probably heard me gush about her constantly—sorry. For a little perspective, I’ve never had a romantic relationship that’s turned out even slightly well. The last long-term relationship I was in was abusive, even. I’d never had a crush before, let alone fallen in love, and I was starting to worry that maybe I was just incapable of it entirely.

I’ll try not to babble, but suffice to say, I am totally in love with her. Meeting her was the best thing to happen all year, she’s the best thing in my life, and I can’t wait to be with her again.

Here’s to 2012. It can’t not be great.

Okay, I THINK I’m caught up on email now. If you were expecting a response from me, and...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:57:00 -0500

Okay, I THINK I’m caught up on email now. If you were expecting a response from me, and haven’t gotten one yet, please do resend!

Photo

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:27:47 -0400

Right, so, after something happened to the person I was working...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:25:00 -0400

Right, so, after something happened to the person I was working with, I’m now looking for a new musician who’s interested in helping with Analogue’s soundtrack.

I’ll give much more details to anyone interested, but essentially, it’s a game that plays a lot like Digital, except instead of chatting with girls on the pre-internet, it’s about reading through the logs of the long dead crew of a Korean generation ship in the far future, with the help of a spunky AI sidekick.

I’ll do a more official announcement of the game a little closer to release, but right now, aside from being totally silent, it’s only a couple weeks away from being totally content complete. It’s going to be a commercial game, but fair warning, being a starving artist myself, all I can offer is royalties as payment. It’s also a lot larger in scale than anything I’ve ever made before, having surpassed the word count of DTIPB a while ago, but without any of the linearity; this is really big to me, so I want to get it right, and I know that music is super important to that!

The awesome artist I’m working together with, Raide, was helpfully able to provide examples of the sort of sound we’re going for here. So if you’re an electronic musician who’s still interested after all that, please email me at scout@scoutshonour.com with some samples, and I’ll gladly go into more details/answer any questions! (And if you’ve offered in the past, please do feel free to email me again, I’m really bad at keeping track of those.) I’ve found a musician. Thank you, everyone who offered!

Photo

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:11:29 -0400

…and for everyone who’s worried by that last post...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:14:47 -0400

…and for everyone who’s worried by that last post that I might be getting too serious and self-important, here’s a preview of the tough dichotomies the player will be confronted with in Analogue.

Anna Anthropy on "A Closed World"

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:44:49 -0400

Anna Anthropy on "A Closed World":

the games press has been really excited about this game called a closed world, a game about the experience of being “LGBTQ” and dealing with oppression! of course, christine love, robert yang, stephen lavelle and i have been making games about being queer for YEARS. why does a closed world get the big press?

… a site like gamasutra can post about this game, then rest its little head and drift off to the sound sleep of one who has done their duty to ensure that videogame culture is a safer, more inclusive place to be lesbian gay bisexual transgendered queer, instead of having to think about the ways in which the corporate and player cultures of videogames are hostile to queers, to take any responsibility for trying to change that, or to acknowledge or give press time to the incredibly personal works that queer game designers are making every day.

Anna Anthropy is pretty much the smartest person in the room when it comes to queer game-making, and her criticism here are emphatically worth reading entirely on its own. I’m sure it’s pretty obvious what I’m responding to here, though.

She calls me out by name as someone who makes games about being queer but am tragically ignored by the mainstream press; I don’t want to speak for anyone else here, and it sucks to say it, but I have to call bullshit. I mean, I don’t make games about being queer. Sure, I’m a lesbian, and I certainly make games that aren’t hostile to women like me, and you know, that’s pretty important. But there’s a pretty big line between making a game like Digital which was written with an audience like me in mind, and making a game that’s actually about being queer. A lesbian can play it and feel like she’s not being ignored—and that’s a big thing—but it’s sure not going to teach any straight dude about that experience. (As I’ve unpleasantly found out.)

Meanwhile, A Closed World is certainly about queerness, and even if the point it’s trying to make is trite, it’s at least bloody well trying to make one. Not an interesting one, not a meaningful one, but it’s trying; I can’t claim the same thing. Anna calls out the gaming press for not paying attention to me, but frankly, she should be calling me out for not making anything worth giving that attention to. (I’m speaking for myself here; she also mentions, for instance, Stephen Lavelle, who definitely is worth paying attention to as a queer game-maker.) This isn’t me being hard on myself: she says it herself, even explaining systems of oppression is bloody complicated, let alone proposing solutions. Of course it’s easier to just bash together some JRPG mechanics and present homophobia as a monster to be killed. It offers easy answers, and frankly, answers are one thing that I don’t have.

What’s my point here? Clearly the mainstream press is interested in talking about queerness, but they have to turn to some trite nonsense designed by committee to find something they can approach. If she wants someone like me to get that attention instead, well, it’s my own damn fault for not having anything that fills that role to actually pay attention to! That sure sounds like a more worthy target of being called out to me.

Meet *Hyun-ae, the heroine of Analogue.

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:49:00 -0400

Meet *Hyun-ae, the heroine of Analogue.

Let's talk about heterosexuality: A Bride's Story

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:26:00 -0400

Let's talk about heterosexuality: A Bride's Story:

Andrew wanted me to write something for 80 Page Giant, so here’s a few paragraphs of me gushing over—of all things—a Kaoru Mori comic. No, seriously! It’s actually great!

I don’t want to do a full review right now, because only one volume out of three has been released thus far, but I will tell you this: buy this comic right god damned now. I can guarantee it’s the best romance you’ll read this year. Seriously.

You can read the “article” here.

Sorry, I’ve otherwise been really busy with Analogue, hence the sparseness of postings. I’ll be back to writing more once it’s done, probably!

yesssssssssss The best cosplay ever, courtesy of the...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:35:13 -0400

yesssssssssss

The best cosplay ever, courtesy of the ever-awesome Ally.

Still placeholder sprites.

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:32:00 -0400

Still placeholder sprites.

Yeah yeah yeah, vanity post, don’t care, ‘cause I am...

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:02:51 -0400

Yeah yeah yeah, vanity post, don’t care, ‘cause I am SUPER HAPPY about these new glasses. Badass.

Photo

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:20:00 -0400

So how am I going to be making my next game less confusing than...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:27:00 -0400

So how am I going to be making my next game less confusing than Digital, and less linear than DTIPB? Answer: FLOWCHARTS. THERE WILL BE MANY FLOWCHARTS.

Let's talk about yuri: COME EMBRACE ME, SENPAI!

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:09:04 -0400

Let's talk about yuri: COME EMBRACE ME, SENPAI!:

This week for 80 Page Giant, I talk about superhero origins.

The basic premise goes something like this: Vega, a superpowered alien, has tasked herself with protecting her city from giant monsters. But lately, she’s been struggling at it, having suddenly lost most of her powers one day.

Therefore, she decides to do the only logical thing to solve the problem: convince her upperclassman to make out with her.

You can read the article here. Or just go read the comic itself.

Next week will probably be something a little more classy, because I think I’m getting into the grove here!

WIP.

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:24:00 -0400

WIP.

Let's talk about yuri: Gokujou Drops

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:43:37 -0400

Let's talk about yuri: Gokujou Drops:

This week for 80 Page Giant, I wrote about the use of groping as a form of dramatic punctuation in Gokujou Drops.

Ostensibly, the premise goes like this: stock perky heroine Komari Maezono is transfering to a boarding school, and her father has agreed to let her live on her own… if she has a roommate. Unfortunately, due to a clerical mix-up, the only available room left is in the super-elite Haraiso Yakata dorm, which requires approval for any new residents. Rich and beautiful Yukio Himemiya agrees to take her in, but only if Komari will act as her servant. Slowly, the two fall for each other.

In actuality, it’s just a romantic comedy punctuated entirely by groping, with the heroine’s passivity exaggerated to the point of outright submission to the love interest.

You can read the article here. Or just go read the comic itself.