Paige’s Yurivania franchise runs deep with goth and trans femme motifs
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.
Paige’s Yurivania games to date are all in the Queer Games Bundle: that’s 0, 1, and 2. All are charming, artfully rendered narrative games dotted with adventure and platforming elements. They star polyamorous and trans monstergirl girlfriends — who could ask for anything more?
How long have you been making games?
So, I made games on-and-off as a tween & teen in the 90s and started working on games professionally in 2012. But, for the longest time I worked as a coder or producer on other people’s projects. It wasn’t until 2018 that I started creating my own games, working on my own from the ground up.
What tools do you like to use?
In general I love simple tools that help me create something quickly without a lot of hassle. Right now I’m a huge fan of GB Studio.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
There’s a lot of genres I want to explore. So far I’ve mostly done narrative platformers, which I think is a super underdeveloped niche. As far as themes go, I call my games queer comfortcore, because I am most interested in games that give queer folks a space to relax and experience happy endings.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
My favorite thing about game development is how multidisciplinary it is. There are so many different kinds of creativity that go into creating a video game, and so many different types of expertise that are applied. That’s also kind of the worst thing about it, too, though: it takes a huge amount of time to make even a very small, simple game and it’s very hard to acquire all the skills needed to do it all yourself.
“I’d like to make about six or so in all. Right now I’m knee-deep in preproduction work for Yurivania 3 which is more ambitious on a mechanical level.”
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
I recently played Alice’s Awakening and really loved it. It’s the first time a tower defense game has clicked for me on a mechanical level, and in general I’m just such a huge fan of ShibeyFace Games’ Basin Lake City series of magical girl adventures. I can’t recommend that series enough. Another one I really enjoyed was A Potion for Chamomile [Editor’s note: also in the bundle!]. In general I really love all of Kyanite Heart’s Rootsberg series.
The Yurivania games are GameBoy adventures set in delightful castles. What inspired you to make them?
So, the inspiration for Yurivania was kind of a collision of things.
First off, I’m a longterm fan of the Castlevania franchise and wanted to make something of an homage to that series.
Second, I’m always surprised by how few games focus on polyamory. It’s such a fundamental part of the trans femme experience, at least in the part of the world that I live; I wanted to create something that explored what being a queer woman actually feels like, instead of just fronting the flirty or sexy bits (which, don’t get me wrong, are also awesome). I want more games that show poly complexly instead of just using at as a cypher for “collect every dateable character”.
Finally, I’m a former goth and have steeped myself in lit & pop horror culture for decades; during that time I read and watched and played lots of media where I related much, much more with the monsters than the human characters. In particular, I came to feel that monstergirls have huge relevance to the experience of living as a woman in today’s world, so I wanted to help reclaim them and tell stories where things end well for them.
I love the art — we hang in a mutual server and I’ve seen you work on a lot of this stuff. What was your favorite part of that process?
Thank you!! And, oh gosh, I think my favorite part is just that I have learned to make pixel art in the first place! XD
One of the things that has been so freeing about working with the GameBoy Color is that I never have to think about more than 64 pixels or 4 colors at a time. As a beginner, that goes a long ways toward flattening the learning curve.
“I call my games queer comfortcore, because I am most interested in games that give queer folks a space to relax and experience happy endings.”
These games are so polished. What was most challenging about the constraints of the GameBoy?
Thanks, I really appreciate you saying that, as I feel like there’s a lot of polish they’re still lacking!
Honestly, mostly I find the constraints of the GameBoy freeing while the constraints of daily life are what get in my way, haha. Not having as much time or energy to work on these as I’d like is the biggest obstacle.
That said, it can be tricky only having four buttons to work with (A, B, Start, Select). I feel like a fifth button would make designing the UX much easier!
The girlfriends in these games are instant legends. How did you decide who the main characters were going to be?
Oh my gosh, thanks again!! So, each of the girlfriends comes from a mixture of real life and media experience. Stheno, Alraune, and Josette all grew out of game mechanical needs combined with aspects of my real life friends and lovers. Tibby kind of grew more directly just from the story-telling. But also, most of my characters begin with a joke or quirky idea and kind of crystalize around that.
Where is the Yurivania cinematic universe going next?
I have a little file with sketches of ideas for future games. I’d like to make about six or so in all. Right now I’m knee-deep in preproduction work for Yurivania 3 which is more ambitious on a mechanical level than the prior ones. Two main goals for me are:
One, make the castle more interactive. I’d like there to be more for the player to do that just jump, swim, and dodge to the next conversation point.
And two, make the characters more active. I’d like more of an RPG or VN feel, like the NPCs are actually doing things while they’re off screen, not just waiting for you to show up and set things in motion.
Those are both challenging on a design and implementation level, so I’ll be working toward them incrementally.
In general, you can expect the cast to keep growing, the environment to keep expanding, and the games to get more involved!
