Interview: LongStory
Being a teenager is hard. Okay, so that isn’t exactly the news of the century. We’ve all been through it. We’ve all dealt with the social pressure, family tensions and of course the raging hormones that threaten to crush us at any given moment. And with our society’s recent leap into the world of social media, it’s become an even more terrifying experience and yet is also one that we still struggle to properly represent in the media.
LongStory, a witty and fun dating sim/adventure game from Bloom Digital Media recently released for both GooglePlay and iOS, hopes to change that. I recently had the opportunity to talk with producer Miriam Verburg and head writer Renee Vrantsidis to discuss the game.
Tell us a bit about the game. What inspired you to create it?
Renee: The game is about “surviving your teen years,” and I think the chief inspiration was a combination of the under-addressed issues we dealt with as teens and a rash of news stories that showed us that a lot of teens are still in a shitty situation. We wanted to make a game that was fun, engaging, and funny, but that also spoke topically to some of the things teens have to juggle in their interpersonal relationships.
Miriam: The original concept came to me because I was reading a lot of stuff in the media about teens and their ‘sexting’ and ‘risk-taking’ and ‘online-bullying’ and most people writing really had no idea what they were talking about. So the news stories, especially around girls and their online behaviors and bullying were just panic-inducing and didn’t seem to add anything constructive to the fundamental questions: How has dating and love changed significantly in the last 20 years? And: How can we prepare young people to negotiate their personal lives so that they can enjoy themselves, stay safe, and not be shamed for trying to be themselves and be loved for who they are.
How did you get involved in game development?
Renee: Through LongStory! I have been a gaming nerd for basically my whole life, and I like to engage with games through an analytical lens, so I think in addition to the writing I was able to bring some information on where LongStory might fit in the gaming landscape.
Miriam: I was already developing minigames made in Flash through my work as a digital project manager for clients like the Family Channel, so I knew fundamentals about production, game design and team building. I also joined a wicked amazing non-profit organization called Dames Making Games and made my first little indie game using Stencyl as part of their incubator called Jeuxly, so for me doing my own personal projects was a transition from my professional life. I hope the indie game building eventually becomes my professional stuff to be honest.
What has been the most rewarding part of this process so far?
Renee: The most rewarding part is definitely seeing people enjoy and engage with the game. People have done that in different ways. I love it when people tell me their theories about the story or ask for something in particular to be included – it shows a real, genuine engagement with LongStory and with, I think, what the game stands for.
Miriam: Definitely being told there is no market for progressive dating games. Jokes jokes jokes – that is not very rewarding at all.
For me, since the idea originated in my little head, it’s been really rewarding seeing a bunch of other immensely talented & intelligent people, like Renee, our artist Sara Gross, Doctor Debra Boyce of the Partners in Pregnancy Clinic, Michelle Hamilton-Page from CAMH, Dames Making Games and Henry Faber of Bento Miso become champions of the project. That’s been wonderful.
We’ve recently collaborated with Golden Gears on the first commercial build, and Russell Slater has agreed to be a technical lead going forward to help work with them to prioritize our goals. Prior to this year we worked with Centennial College through a research grant and developed our first playable prototype with great people including JP Stringham as our primary investigator, and Miguel Martinez,& Yi Pan as student hires. We’ve been privileged to do tests at two different community organizations, Planned Parenthood Toronto & Delisle Youth Services. This whole project wouldn’t have started without the support of Hacking Health and all the amazing people who participated in developing our concept pitch over a single weekend. It’s really been an amazing lesson in reaching out to people and asking them to support an idea because I thought and still think the topic of love and relationships is so important and finding other people who agreed was totally inspiring.
And of course that is followed up with, what has been the biggest challenge?
Renee: The actual development process! Wouldn’t you know it, making a game is hard! Lots of things to juggle and a lot of energy you have to maintain.
Miriam: I’ll go back to this question of is there a market for this game. I believe that there is a huge market for this game, but it’s a sign of structural inequality in how tech is funded, and how games are developed and for whom that leads us to often feel like we are David battling Goliath. The simple fact is, when we demo the game to potential funders or write grant applications or speak to government agencies whose sole reason for existing is to help entities develop their products for market – there is a general perception that LongStory is niche.
I would dispute that. Other non-game franchises with romance-adventure plots, like the Twilight Series and Hunger Games, have made millions upon millions of dollars, yet there is an idea that a game in that genre will not make money and has a very small audience. That speaks to a lack of imagination on the part of people who could make this a lot easier for us. It’s genuinely frustrating and disheartening and it means we work with a miniscule budget compared to other start-ups.
When I was told about the game, the first thing my friend mentioned was that it was queer positive. Did you find it challenging to craft a story that addressed the issues that LGBTQ teens encounter without making it too preachy?
Renee: Yes and no. I think we were faced with challenges in avoiding making the game preachy, but I don’t think that the inclusion of queer content is what created those challenges. I was in general more concerned that the various peace-making dialogue options you’re given over the course of the story would come off as preachy or twee.
I don’t think that “preachy” was ever something I was worried about in terms of LGBTQ issues. I have been more concerned with making sure that the story has some authenticity, but also provides a game space where queer or questioning teens can feel like they’re normal, supported, and valid.
I also think that any piece of media that’s open about its social agenda runs the risk of being dismissed as “preachy.” I hope that anyone tempted to do so gives LongStory a try anyway. Maybe we can change some minds.
Miriam: I found the gay part easy as well ; ) We had a great team working on the project and I trusted their judgment in terms of testing the story and developing believable characters. As well, since I have personal experience of being a young person questioning their sexual orientation I had a personal smell test for when things were hitting a false note. I found it more difficult to work in the idea of conflict in a way that didn’t make it seem totally judgmental. I am not sure if we’re there yet. One reviewer said they found our ‘bully’ a bit flat and one-dimensional so we need to give that character a bit more depth and backstory.
Deciding whether wanting to be snarky with the three-headed bully is just one of the many choices you’ll be faced with.
One of the things I noticed almost immediately and appreciated about the characters was that no one of the potential love interests was “good” or “bad”. Each has positive and negative qualities to them (For instance the character of Abby is friendly and chipper, but also has a temper that gets in the way of other relationships). Was this one of your goals from the beginning? Was it difficult to find balance?
Renee: Absolutely. People are neither good nor bad, and therefore our characters had to be the same way. I don’t think it was difficult to find balance, but in some cases it was difficult to find a more consistent direction. I think that in the case of Abby and Marcel, the good and the bad are a little more extreme, but for Colin and Nora who are generally more low-key people, it’s a little harder to showcase different facets of their personalities.
Miriam: What she said : ) I think in future this idea of balance will become even more important to the story. I think young people struggle with feeling like they get railroaded into being defined as good kids or bad kids and those definitions can stick with them for a long time. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t have good or bad characters since in general those kinds of distinctions are detrimental for people’s self esteem. Of course this is a bit different for the bully character but we’re hoping some surprises in the game help the player rethink their understanding of what a bully is and what to do about the bullies in their lives.
Another choice that I enjoyed was that even though this is labelled as a dating sim, you do have a choice not to pursue any romantic interest. Was this also something you wanted early on?
Renee: It’s certainly something I wanted. I think using the term “dating sim” for LongStory is a bit of a misnomer, because our intention is that it’s about not only who you want to date, but your relationships with all of the characters around you. If you don’t want those relationships to be romantic, I think that’s perfectly valid and I’d like to make sure the player always has that option.
Miriam: One major facet of the game design was the idea of consent. If a player doesn’t want romance they should not feel pressured to perform romantically. Again, this goes back to we want the game to give players examples of potential strategies for their real experience. If they have the freedom to pursue what they want as they play, as well as the freedom to not do things they don’t want to do, the hope is that they will begin to practice saying emphatic yes or emphatic no in the real world.
What do you hope people will take away after playing LongStory?
Renee: I hope they’ll have had fun, first and foremost – it is a game, after all. After that, I guess I hope that they feel a little less alone in the universe.
Miriam: I hope they begin to understand that relationships are not these mythic mysteries that are confusing & out of their control. Also I hope they really enjoy the characters in the game and feel an attachment to them.
LongStory is very much a story driven game. What do you think games as a medium can do for storytelling?
Renee: I think that games have the unique capacity to put you in somebody else’s shoes and participate in someone else’s experience. They can also give you the opportunity to make choices you might not make in reality. There’s a huge capacity for games to create empathy for other people, or just give you the space to reflect on your own thoughts and feelings.
Miriam: I think games as a medium for storytelling are great. Historically, stories have been an entertaining part of human culture because people enjoy giving up control to a narrative, but games are changing that. I think people are used to seeing stories as linear and take great delight in waiting to learn the end, putting their faith in the author or the director or whoever. With games a player can engage with the story and have a measure of control over the outcome. This is great as it means we begin to understand ourselves not just as people who hear stories, but as people who participate in them as well. It means the more people play games, the more people can trust themselves to be the author of their experience of the world.
Episode 1 has been out on Google Play for a couple of weeks now and has just been released for the iOS. The response has been very positive so far! How are you feeling about Episode 2?
Renee: Probably very over-ambitious. That’s all I’m gonna say!
Miriam: Excited! I can’t wait to keep the world of Weasel Heights growing.
Can’t wait! Thanks for joining me guys!
LongStory is available for free on both GooglePlay and iOS! Check it out for yourselves!
