SJ Longthorne

Honestly, reading your insights here and elsewhere, and hearing about the work you're doing with TRU LUV has been so validating. I've not spoken much about my feelings about stress in games before because I thought it was just me being a "noob", that I needed to "git gud".

I'm excited to see the industry embrace different approaches to design that appeal to more than one demographic. Please keep innovating. I can't wait to start creating and playing more different kinds of games that follow something other than the trampled path.

Thank you. As a designer, I've spent a lot of my career thinking solely within the confines of what I've been told others want. Reading this feels like I finally have the mental permission to open my mind and think, "What would I want to play? What would I ACTUALLY want to play?"

I think I've even seen some of this in my mobile visual novel work, where the audience was primarily female. At first we focussed on drama and conflict, but people actually responded so much better to the moments of closeness and friendship.