I'm going to be focusing all my posting to my blog from now on, over at my new domain otome.sexy, rather than be split between two sites.
I plan to still keep this Tumblr up since it contains some #content I don't want to lose but if you are interested in keeping up with my writings and cute discoveries then please follow my otome.sexy Tumblr!
GWJ spoilercast appearance - Hatoful Boyfriend
I recently was invited by my friend Julian to appear on the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call Spoiler Section podcast to talk about Hatoful Boyfriend! He played the original patched translated release while I had opted to wait for the Devolver Digital re-release on Steam. Julian really wanted to talk to someone about Bad Boys Love (aka Hurtful Boyfriend), the final route and terrible secret of Hatoful Boyfriend.
And discuss we did! I also walked him through a bit of the quantum aspects of visual novel storytelling mechanics and other Hatoful spin-offs like Holiday Star, the manga, and the drama CDs. So if you aren't sure about diving into the grand world of pigeon dating and don't mind spoilers then give this a listen! We may convince you.
DRAMAtical Murder opinion piece on Polygon
For the past couple of months I've been picking away at writing my first ever piece published on a large media site. I've been wanting to write about my obsession with DRAMAtical Murder for a while now and Ben Kuchera at Polygon thought my pitch was interesting enough to give it a go. It took quite a few drafts to finally hit the approach we ended up with and I'm thankful to Ben for being instrumental in helping me distill down such a complex subject into something that so far appears to be resonating with people who have never considered such games in the past.
Since the article has been posted I've been getting a lot of nice comments from all genders saying the game looks really interesting, that they're now eager for the Vita version and thanking me for writing about it. And it's real cute seeing seeing big media names advocating to Sony employees on DMMD's behalf because of the article.
It makes me really sore seeing people be randomly dismissive of things popular on Tumblr, where I discovered the game and its very active fandom, and even folks underestimating the powerful influence that PewDiePie has on a new generation of gamers that the big websites just don't reach (he's mentioned in my article because he entertained the idea of streaming DMMD once).
Patricia Hernandez just wrote up an overview of PewDiePie, his effect and fanbase over at Kotaku recently. I find the whole phenomenon fascinating and I know first-hand just how thirsty marketers are for that kind of exposure that just can't be faked. It was one of the driving forces behind me writing this article rather than letting it go.
And the comments on the piece have actually been really good! I'm having a lot of fun discussing visual novels with people in there who come from many different exposure levels to the genre. Even folks who say a game like DRAMAtical Murder might not be their cup of tea are expressing gratitude for seeing games like this covered on sites such as Polygon.
I hope you like my article! Even if ultimately DMMD re:code can't make it over to the West it has been refreshing to see the response to the article, hopefully showing that there are definitely plenty of people out there interested in such games when they're presented to them in an approachable manner.
The recording of our PAX East 2014 "Foreplay: Romance in Games" panel has gone up on Nerd Appropriate! (the panel itself starts at the 15-minute mark of the podcast)
On the panel you'll find myself, Amanda Cosmos, and our moderator Sean Baptiste (Community Manager at Fire Hose Games), along with Miellyn Fitzwater Barrows (Co-founder of Tonic Industries & Creative Director at Gorgeous Robot), Hilary Heskett Shapiro (Co-founder of Tonic Industries & Product Marketing Manager at BioWare), Aenne Schumann (Co-Host, Reset Transmission Podcast, Press2Reset), and Mike Laidlaw (Creative Director of the Dragon Age franchise at BioWare).
It was such a pleasure being on the panel! And surprise guest Mike brought a funny element to the panel. Some games discussed: Gone Home, Mass Effect, Persona 3/4, Hate Plus, Amnesia, Catherine, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Hakuoki, and Sweet Fuse, to name a few.
And you'll get to listen to me admit to a crowd of 400 people that my favorite romantic scene in a game is from DRAMAtical Murder...
PAX East Panel
This coming Saturday I'll be on a panel at PAX East in Boston, MA! The panel is called Foreplay: Romance in Games and it's something they've had at the past couple of PAX events as well. I was brought on by my friend Sean to be sort of an "otome voice." It should be a lot of fun! If you're at the conference then head down to the Cuttlefish Theatre at 6:00 PM on Saturday to check it out (or you may want to show up earlier, there's usually a line).
If you're curious about the past panels then the Nerd Appropriate podcast has recordings of the ones from PAX East 2013 and PAX Prime 2013. I'll also post up the recording of this one whenever it goes live.
— @acosmos
My friend Cara Ellison reviewed the 3DS version of Hakuoki for Eurogamer recently with a bit of coaching from myself. Once she learned how to approach the game she found herself enjoying it! She also writes a pretty excellent column about sex and relationships in games over at Rock Paper Shotgun (cleverly titled S.EXE). — @acosmos
I recorded a podcast last month with my friend Anne Lee discussing all thing lady-oriented dating sim (and other such media)! It was a lot of fun and happened to be my first ever podcast appearance. Anne was a lovely host and if you like this you should give a listen to some of the past episodes, featuring a collection of guests contributing to topics ranging from Monster Hunter to Figurines. — @acosmos
Otome Games 101 - Origins
乙女ゲーム —oto-me gee-mu — “maiden game”
Lately, and with increasing frequency, I’ve found myself explaining what “otome games” are to fellow game developer and journalist friends of mine at meet-ups and conferences. I do this happily and willingly, since it’s a genre that personally fascinates me, and most of the devs I talk to seem unfamiliar with but curious about dating sims in general. The people who ask usually do have some sort of familiarity with romance sim elements from other series, like Persona, Harvest Moon, and BioWare games, but the fact that there is an existing industry in Japan built around video game dating sims targeted specifically at women is often news to them.
Magical Girl Jam results
The Magical Girl Jam concluded back on October 31st, and the results are FABULOUS!
We got some great games submitted: Twine hypertext works, Ren'Py visual novels, RPG Maker entries, a board game entry, concept art, and even an Oculus Rift game!
I'm really proud of everyone's hard work and the games that were brought forth. I wasn't able to finish my own game in time but the prompt and timeframe allowed me to spec out a game I'd like to create and release in the future.
Thanks everyone for participating! Hope you all enjoy the entries as much as I have.
Magical Girl Jam
I've organized a game + art + craft jam based around the Magical Girl genre.
You can find the website here: http://magicalgirljam.tumblr.com/
It's a long jam, in order to give people time to organize their teams, thoughts and submissions (and because I'm too damn busy in this Year of Luigi). I'm really excited to see all the entries and pumped up about my own entry!
Head on over if you're interested in participating!