April 2022
Featured in the Queer Games Bundle 2023!
The Challenge
Near the end of first semester sophomore year at college, I fell into quite a deep depression. I was surrounded by relationships and, being alone for all of my life thus far, I thought the solution was to force myself to fall in love. I tried, and I did not succeed.
Over winter break, I did a lot of contemplating my identity. During this time, I was listening to a lot of folklore and evermore by Taylor Swift. Inspired by an identity shift and pop-folk music, as well as the cottage core movement, I began writing a new universe called "Pastoral."
Example dialogue with Ambriose
Example dialogue with Ansel
The Solution
As I wrote characters for my new universe, I continued to explore my identity, coming to terms with being aromantic and asexual. Using this discovery, I wrote the main plot line for "Pastoral," which eventually would become the Act 1 of the GB Studio game!
In many ways I am like the main character, Dror, and all of his friends. Dror embodies the experiences of discovering you are aromantic, all while dealing with past emotions towards people of the same sex. In other ways, many characters are people who I wish I could meet to help guide my journey through life, such as Dror's mentor, Ansel.
The Story
Dror wakes up to discover that his friends have been taken to oblivion by the wickerthorn monsters. Feeling lonelier than ever, he decides that he must find a way to get them back, no matter how daunting the task. With the help of a shady traveling business person, Dror explores his home botan of Oeste to uncover the secrets of where his friends have gone, all while coping with identity struggles.
The Tools
Adobe Photoshop: used to make all game assets, including sprites and backgrounds
Tiled: used to combine sprites made in Photoshop to make backgrounds
GB Studio: used to make the game
All in-game music was written by me.