christine-love
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The floating, fragile indie bubble
Days after Braid hit Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, we posted a story titled "Why should we care about Braid?" We liked the game and felt the need to explain: It was a simple platformer made by a handful of people, it was pretty and it had solid controls. This wasn't a review of Braid. It was a defense of the emerging indie industry, and an analysis of why a truly good, independent game deserved adulation, because some of our readers were uneasy accepting them as legitimate products. Now, we're writing about Sony dedicating a large chunk of its E3 2013 press conference – the one just prior to the launch of the PS4 – to indie developers. We're writing about Indie Megabooth being the largest display at PAX. We're writing about Vlambeer, Klei, Hello Games, Dennaton, Fullbright, Polytron, Chris Hecker and Team Meat without having to remind readers who they are or why they matter. We're writing about Flappy Bird. We're not just writing about the existence of Flappy Bird – a free, tap-to-fly, pixelated mobile game from a young developer in Vietnam – we're writing about Flappy Bird spawning game jams and knock-offs from Fall Out Boy. "The biggest change now is that it is so much easier to make games and it is so much easier to find an audience for games," Braid creator Jonathan Blow tells me. "This means a lot more people can build games and make a living off it, which is nice. However, it also means there is not so much of a crucible against which people refine their skills, so if one really wants to become a top game developer, a lot of motivation is required above and beyond that which gets one to 'baseline success.'"
Manipulate friends, tie girls up in Christine Love's Ladykiller in a Bind
Christine Love, the creator of visual novels Analogue: A Hate Story and its sequel Hate Plus, is currently working on a new game called Ladykiller in a Bind. This new erotic visual novel focuses on "social manipulation and girls tying up other girls," Love wrote on her blog, though an interview with Polygon thankfully sheds more light on the game's manipulation hook. "Really, dating sims are inherently about manipulating other people – pick the right dialogue choices based off what you think they expect, learn about their interests so you can give them perfectly tuned gifts, make decisions based off whether you'll impress them or not – but like to pass it off as being about romance. Well, fuck that. You can still do that in Ladykiller in a Bind; we're just not going to pretend that it's anything other than manipulation. It'll have consequences." Sex is another big aspect of not only the game, but relationships overall, Love argues, and she's striving to "get that right" in Ladykiller in a Bind. "Sex is a pretty crucial aspect of how people in relationships interact, not just some arbitrary achievement at the end of a romantic arc. So I feel like I really want to get that right ... and what's a better way to explore power dynamics than through kinky sex? Framing it in a BDSM context just makes it more explicit." Ladykiller in a Bind is due some time in 2015 and could possibly be Love's last visual novel, she told Gameranx. The author admits she's becoming worried that she "focused too much on making the same sorts of games" and that she needs to take steps toward increasing her range as a developer.
Hate Plus dev's erotic visual novel, Ladykiller in a Bind, due in 2015
Analogue: A Hate Story creator Christine Love is embarking on a new project with Analogue's character artist, Fiohnel Fiver – it's another visual novel but this time with a distinctly erotic storyline. It's called My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A Domme Beauty Who Want Me In A Bind!!, but we'll call it by its shortened title, Ladykiller in a Bind. It's due out in 2015. "An erotic visual novel about social manipulation and girls tying up other girls, by the team that made Analogue," Love writes. Love is known for visual novels that play with romance, sci-fi, mystery and taboo, including Digital: A Love Story, Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus. Analogue and Hate Plus are available in a bundle on Steam for $20 (including each game's original soundtrack), or individually for $10.
Analogue: A Hate Story coming to iOS, Japan this year
Indie developer Christine Love announced that her sci-fi visual novel Analogue: A Hate Story is coming to iOS devices later this year ahead of a Japanese release for PC platforms. Named as an Indiecade finalist in 2012, Analogue is a text-based adventure game in which players investigate a derelict space vessel with help from a lonely AI companion. The iOS version, developed in collaboration with Golden Gear Games, will require "a little bit of reworking," by Love's estimation, before it hits the App Store. The Japanese version of Analogue will feature a translation by Playism, who previously produced a remake of the indie PC platformer La-Mulana. A release date has not been announced.
PSA: Hate Plus now on Steam, 10 percent off until August 26
Hate Plus is now available on Steam for $8.99 until August 26. The game is a non-linear visual novel set directly after the events of Analogue: A Hate Story, and has players taking a three-day trip back to Earth, reading a spaceship's log to discover what happened to its crew. While those new to the series can start their adventure fresh with Hate Plus, the game can pull save data from Analogue: A Hate Story and incorporate the game's ending into the sequel.
Analogue: A Hate Story's sequel Hate Plus due this month
Non-linear visual novel Analogue: A Hate Story explores a distant future's collision with a dehumanizing past, when society on board a 25th century spaceship bizarrely transitioned to the laws, culture, and mindsets of Korea's Joseon dynasty. It's a game that delves with class and care into difficult issues, and one that left a strong impression on me - and that's coming from someone who doesn't really play visual novels. Hate Plus, designer Christine Love's direct sequel to A Hate Story, once again asks players to access the spaceship's log, using it to unearth the crew's mysterious past. This time the story looks to explain the events that led the ship's society to cultural regression. Hate Plus is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux on August 19, priced $10. For those who played A Hate Story, make sure you've got your save file handy, because Hate Plus can incorporate your ending into the new story.
You light up my life: What Steam Greenlight is for indies, from indies
Steam Greenlight isn't for everybody. Literally – five days after pushing Greenlight live, Valve implemented a $100 barrier to entry in the hopes of eliminating the barrage of prank game ideas by people who don't "fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight."Before the fee, it was difficult to know what Greenlight was going to mean for the indie community, since its "new toy" sheen hadn't yet dissipated. It's even more difficult to gauge what Steam itself wanted Greenlight to accomplish, with or without the fee.In its launch announcement, Valve says Greenlight will serve "as a clearing house for game submissions" and "provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans." If that sounds a lot like Kickstarter, it's because it sounds a lot like Kickstarter. This isn't a bad thing; it equates Greenlight to something that has run the online course and has experienced public showdowns and successes, something known.While a few developers benefit from the high-speed, viral-hinged community vetting of crowd-sourced creative sites, even more have failed. Still, sites such as Kickstarter truly can help raise awareness for a legitimate project, even if that interest doesn't transform into cash. In this sense, Greenlight has an advantage, in that it's not trying to raise money. It only wants attention.Developers want their games to reach astronomical levels of awareness as well, and recently this translates into a fixation on one particular service for the success or failure of their projects – Kickstarter, and now, Greenlight. Hundreds of pitch emails switch from titles such as "Snappy the Turtle, a new indie adventure game" to "Kickstart Snappy the Turtle" or "Vote for Snappy the Turtle on Greenlight." This shifts the focus away from the game itself, in both the mind of the developer and the person receiving the emails.Since most people receiving the emails are video games journalists and potential publishers or fans, it's safe to say they don't particularly care about Kickstarter or Greenlight – they care about the game. So should the developer, more than anything.Those who have succeeded on the development side offer a unique perspective on Steam Greenlight. We asked a few what they think about the service, the $100 and its impact on indies: Adam Saltsman, Markus Persson, Edmund McMillen, Christine Love and a group discussion among Rami Ismail, Zach Gage, Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter. Their thoughts are below.
