Back in 2016, I talked to game developers and reviewers Mattie Brice on how to make do-it-yourself video games for young audiences at Rookie Mag. Brice said, “I just wanted to make it clear to a lot of people that you don’t need this harsh process to make a video game.” While tools like Unity and Game Maker 2 have become more user-friendly over the years, the lowest possible barrier to entry game maker still remains. Winding – HTML-based text-centric developer tool often likened to a way to create electronic stories of your choosing – your own adventure. The freedom shown with Twine has given many creators, especially quirky game developers, the opportunity to create amazing, often shocking creations – among them Benji Bright .
Game developer and erotic novel author Benji Bright (right) is using Twine to create an ongoing 18+ interactive engaging story about a magical academy called Doors. You can find the demo, including the first paragraph of the story, for free or with a donation through Itching page. Next Bright’s Twitter pull to JK Rowling, I’m happy to make this comparison: the wizarding school at Doors may be the Master’s program at Hogwarts, but with a gothic edge and steeped in twists.
Doors uses a stat system where your player character, as you name it, can upgrade your fitness, charm, or technique. The implementation of such a design, which resembles traditional RPGs like Dragon Quest, helps the game stand out from other interactive works of fiction that might stray away from such elements. The maze visual design further brings the player into the charming world of this magic school. I spoke to Benji Bright via email.
Where does the motivation behind the Doors story come from?
Benji Bright: Right off the bat, it’s an exciting time to release a game about a place where magic users come to hone their skills. Harry Potter is clearly a giant in this narrative space, and I don’t think this game could exist without it. That said, Doors is about what Harry Potter left out of the cultural conversation as well as about what it added. Even with more than 7 books and even more movies, there is a glaring lack of representation of the weird in that world, a disturbing lack of people of color, and a myriad of other representative errors.
I don’t think my job as a writer, especially not as a writer of color, is to fix the world of Harry Potter or scribble about its author’s disgusting perspectives. , but I think Doors is trying to reinvent it. the space that the Harry Potter series have occupied in my imagination. There are also stories like The Magicians (more TV show) and Kieron Gillen’s DIE in the DNA of Doors comic. Both of these attributes are partly about the dangers of fulfilling wishes and I want to steal some of those lightning bolts.
Having said all that, I’ve had the idea of Vesilind’s Crux – a sort of wizarding field where the story of the Doors begins – in my head for a long time. It was the setting of a series I watched over the years called Easton Harp Learns Sorcery! In Easton Harp and in Doors, one of the main themes is that magic is both seductive and dangerous. If the people who use it are not careful, they can reproduce the very problems they are trying to fix and the systematic abuses they are trying to undermine.
“It’s pretty heavy for a sex game, I know, but I promise it’s not all doom and gloom.”
It’s a bit heavy for a sex game, I know, but I promise it’s not all doom and gloom. The Doors premise involved traveling between worlds that I purposefully made so I could play with the tunes of different regions. An idea I came up with from Sliders and Quantum Leap, but ran through an imaginary filter.
Erotic fiction often occupies a slim position. Many consider it simply “prostitution,” but work can often be stigmatized, especially when the author is eccentric and their work confronts the kinds of sex that some people may have. players can falter. Have you encountered objections about your pornography? And if so, how do you “keep the course,” so to speak – always confident in what you’re doing?
The first erotic fiction I ever wrote was an act of protest. I’m in Jamaica, where my family comes from, and the frequent homophobia that I witness really upsets me. After about two weeks of non-stop comments and violent language directed at gay people, I started writing an erotic story just to reassert myself.
So writing about sex has long been part of my core values as a writer. I’m so grateful and fortunate that I didn’t get a lot of direct reactions, but we’re definitely in a culture where pornography or really produce any kind of work that directly deals with sex. artistically educated, best treated as an intriguing curiosity. And trying to sound like the creator of porn often means you put your work behind a brick wall lest someone actually catch it. Think the Tumblr purge and the online crackdowns related to pornography. And then there’s the trouble of actually trying to get paid for sex writing, which is an entirely different opinion in itself.
I know I’m painting a grim picture, but it’s not bad! I think there will always be room to introduce weirdness into the game space. Until the market is flooded with sex games made by people of color, I will always have work worth doing and that motivates me, even if the money is running low. (Money is always thin.)
Choosing the player’s character name and working with the stat system brings out many of the kinds of elements one might find in a traditional RPG like Final Fantasy. In your opinion, what do these more traditional types of “game-like” elements bring to the player’s journey?
My games so far are mostly narrative first and are told from a fixed angle: “I tell you who you are and give you some options” and it really is. Game narration is good at that. But I was desperate to write something a little more expansive and, more importantly, create a space where players could tweak their experience a bit.
“I wholeheartedly recommend Twine. I’ve worked on it for years and still haven’t reached its full potential.”
It makes a lot of sense to include some RPG-lite system for Doors because one of the cornerstones of the story is about taking responsibility for your actions and their effect on the world, on yourself. and your relationships. I want to make sure that the character the player builds feels personal without creating a combinatorial explosion for himself. So there are a few stats and in the latest build there is an actual character build section. It’s all just a way for me to convey a basic message to the players: “Hey, I see the choices you’re making and the game intends to respond to them.”
Twine remains one of the most user-friendly game development tools out there. For those looking to get into game development, what resources can you recommend?
I wholeheartedly recommend Twine. I’ve been working in it for years and haven’t reached the full potential of the tool. However, what tools you use will depend on what you want out of the development process. If you want to focus on storytelling then Twine, Squid, or Notice 7 are great places to start. If you want a little more graphics and move into visual novel territory then yes Ren’Py, which I’ve only used a little, but have heard good things about. There are also some low-barrier Unity resources and tutorials available if you want to use a piece of software meant for modern gaming.
However, I will say that I don’t think these tools are necessarily as important as actually using them. If a beginner in game development has the time, I recommend you to join Game stuck on itch.io and just do something. Whatever! Then do something else. Keep your project scope small and learn as you go. My first Twine game was badly written, poorly edited, and never seen the light of day, but I couldn’t make my next one without it.
What do you hope players get out of this experience (besides the obvious, it’s fun)?
I want players to leave Doors feeling connected to the world, one of the characters, or even a particular scene or sequence. I’ve always wanted to write porn that has a real texture: moments of surprising attraction, effects of gravity, and the feeling that something is going on behind and outside of sex. I think my ideal response to the game is for a player to sit back in their chair after a session and say, “Huh. Ok. That’s something.” If they’re also on, then damn it, I’m done.
