Love is the real hero in Heiden’s funny, charming Heart Is Muscle
The Queer Games Bundle is a collection of nearly 600 items by LGBTQ+ creators and teams, nearly 400 of which are independent video games, all sold for just $60. I’m talking with creators from the bundle about their games and their making habits. Visit the bundle and consider buying it.
Heiden is an accomplished developer, and their short RPG Heart Is Muscle is an advanced move: a genuinely funny game. The hero, Borislav, wants to be mayor of Swoleville. He only has 24 hours. And to do it, he has to find some political leverage in the surrounding communities. I’m so charmed by this game — please check it out.
How long have you been making games?
My very first game, Elvine, came out in 2013. I’m quickly coming up on my 10 year anniversary of making games. Woah!
What tools do you like to use?
I like using Ren’py and Unity, depending on what type of project I’m working on.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
I find myself writing about belonging, connection and inheriting things from our ancestors. Sometimes it manifests as a somber tale, but other times (as in Heart is Muscle) it’s more of a comedy.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
My favorite part is definitely planning everything out! It’s fun trying to figure out what to work on or what ideas to put into a game. For a comedy like Heart is Muscle, it’s even more fun thinking of all the jokes. If it makes me laugh while I’m writing it down in my game design document, I keep it in.
My least favorite part is releasing the game and marketing! XD I mostly make games I personally want to play so sometimes it’s a bit of a shock to get to the marketing stage and realize — Oops! Statistically, I’m probably the only one who wants to play this!!
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
It’s been a bit since I first played Knickknack PJ’s Pillars on Poppy Hills but it’s stayed with me. [Editor’s note: this game is in the bundle!] The imagery, the story and the use of a limited color palette all come together to create an experience that I haven’t stopped thinking about since.
Heart Is Muscle is a very cute, cool fetch RPG and visual novel. What inspired you to make it?
Heart is Muscle started out as me following a Unity RPG tutorial. I knew I wanted to try making a very basic barebones RPG (there are only 5 different enemies in this game) with a big narrative on top of it. I’d seen my roommate play through Romancing SaGa — Minstrel Song years before and it had this neat idea of incentivizing players to not fight and I wanted to try using that in my own game.
I would give my life for Borislav. How is he so amazing? You created him!
Borislav is just trying his best! I’m so glad players are enjoying him, I had a lot of fun writing him (and his two brain cells).
“If it makes me laugh while I’m writing it down in my game design document, I keep it in.”
You said the game is inspired by SaGa — can you explain what that means for you?
I watched my roommate play through Romancing SaGa — Minstrel Song and I was fascinated that she kept running away from the random encounters. In all my time of playing RPGs I’ve barely ever used the run ability, but this was a game that made it a core mechanic. The game itself has a secret clock that advances whenever you fight and if you’re not in certain areas of the game you can possibly miss out on big plot events. So you’re incentivized to not fight (or run away a lot) and I wanted to try making something similar.
Ratimir is such a good villain, he has the most punchable face. What was it like designing the characters in this world?
It was so much fun designing all the characters, especially people living in Swoleville! They’re all super strong and are constantly trying to outmuscle each other so not a lot of them wear sleeves so they can show off their GUNS (Borislav has ripped one of his sleeves off). Kondorskiva (the country the game takes place in) is actually quite cold! So the citizens of the other two towns tend to wear sleeves.
I saved the world with the power of trading (love you, gift economy theory!), but there are a bunch of endings, right? Do you have a favorite?
Yes! There are 7 different endings total. My favorite is the one you got (saving the world through helping your friends) because it leads into the epilogue which I loved writing. Another favorite ending is the very basic bad ending you get when you lose a fight against a random encounter. It’s just a funny thought, Borislav losing a fight to a fish.
