For some time I’ve been keeping a keen eye on Kitfox Games future release of Boyfriend Dungeon since its announcement as well as successful funding on Kickstarter. At times I’ll admit to see how soon I can more hands-on time with the game. Why? In the past, I’ve had the chance to play a build of the game at PAX East. You can read my hands-on preview with Boyfriend Dungeon over here.
While the Kitfox Games team wasn’t at PAX South this year, Boyfriend Dungeon was part of the PAX Together booth. The booth on the floor was designed to celebrate the diversity of background, perspective and game experiences. This alone sounds great as a means to show off the game. Alas, we can’t wait for the next time the game will be shown off and playable. With that all said, we got to chat with Victoria Tran who is the Communications Director at Kitfox Games and Tanya Short one of the co-founders of Kitfox Games to learn more about game and other questions we asked.
Question 1: What started the idea of Boyfriend Dungeon? This seems like a great inclusive game for people in the LGBTQ community who may feel left out by other games.
Victoria: Boyfriend Dungeon was created with a lot of different wants and needs in mind. But for some of us, it felt like many dating sims targeted a very specific audience, and weren’t necessarily a place we were welcome in or could see ourselves in. The Kitfox team is a pretty diverse crew – we have different cultural backgrounds, sexualities, etc., so it made sense that we’d want a game we could enjoy. But most of all…. anyone can be thirsty for swords, right?
Question 2: With the successful Kickstarter campaign, what were the biggest hurdles you experienced?
Victoria: Specifically to Kickstarters, the struggle is always to keep your backers informed about the game development process (especially since we have quite a lot of them, and a lot of them have never used Kickstarter before.) Game development is hard and full of delays, bugs, etc. So I’m always worried about communicating as openly with them as possible, without making it sound like we’re making excuses about why something might be taking longer than normal and whatnot. Plus, you still want them hyped about the game, which is hard when you’ve been doing it for over two years!
Question 3: What has been the most requested weapon or item people would want to date in-game? Have any of the team had unique ideas on things they’d love to date in-game? For example: A keyblade, or even the most insane item you can think of from another game.
Victoria: There have been SO MANY things people want in the game. Lots of requests for key blades, ranged weapons, various guns from games, a spoon… you name it, someone has probably thirstly requested it. I think everyone on the team has their own wish for weapons they could date in the game, but if we allowed ALL of them in, this game would never be complete. It’s hard making a game that allows you to be as thirsty as you want, really.
Question 4 Part 2: Out of the time-line so far, what have you and the team enjoyed most while working on the game?
Tanya: I think each team-member has their own favorite part of the game to work on. For me, it’s the first or second draft of writing the first dates with a character… getting to know them, finding out how their personality plays out, and falling in love with them. Whether it’s a brooding Scythe or a mischievous cat, those first moments are really delightful to write… even though there’s always lots of rewrites that need to be done before it’s Good.
Question 5: You all have many games ranging from Moon Hunters, Shattered Planet, and even Six Ages: Ride like the Wind. What game mechanics, art styles, and other components have been adapted from those games versus ones that are unique to Boyfriend Dungeon?
Tanya: We built Boyfriend Dungeon up from scratch, but we’ve obviously learned a lot about making RPGs, with a lot of the traditional mechanics that implies — experience points, attacks, defense, enemy A.I., etc. So for us, figuring out the traditions and expectations for the dating side was more challenging, because they were less familiar. And then of course combining them, letting the player go between combat and dating, that took prototyping to flesh out fully.
Question 6: What advice do you have for someone interested designing games across a number of genres?
Tanya: Don’t! Haha! I’m kidding a little bit, but not really. I honestly think you shouldn’t try to design for a specific genre when you start, and instead focus on what kinds of emotions you want to cause in the player. You might still end up making something in a genre, but… you might not, and instead end up with something really fresh! And I’d warn you that when we started Boyfriend Dungeon, we figured we were making something 50% dungeoncrawlery and 50% dating simulationy… but really it ended up that we had to sort of make 2 games, or 2.5 even, because nobody wants a BAD dungeoncrawler duct-taped to a BAD dating sim… so we had to make both of them really good, and then develop even more to stitch them together intelligently. It hasn’t been the cheapest or quickest way to make a game…
Question 7: What dating advice would you give?
Victoria: Haha! For dating swords? Use protection (a sheath.)
Question 8: What is the most important information you want future players of Boyfriend Dungeon to know? (Besides the release date–HA HA!)
Victoria: NICE TRY. All we want you to know is that the bae blades love you very much, and only want the best for you, so take care of yourself. xoxo
I’d like to thank both of you for taking the time to answer our questions. Those of you reading, you can follow Victoria on Twitter by clicking here. You can follow Tanya on Twitter as well by clicking here! To keep yourself updated with information on Boyfriend Dungeon or other projects coming from Kitfox Games. You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook or check out the website.
