Love:Conflict
A game in which we queer the beat’em up genre’s sense of identity by forcing the players to forge character relationships and pursue romance in order to strengthen themselves against any insecurities. In traditional fighting games, the genre is filled with hyper-macho muscular characters expressing their dominance over one another.
Love:Conflict poses the idea to the player that friendship and vulnerability can lead to inner strength that can stabilize and improve one’s life.
Co Designer: Joshua Beitle
Level Design
Mechanics: There are two main game play loops: a daytime sequence and a nighttime dream sequence
1.
To facilitate inclusivity so that all players can enjoy the relationship aspect of the dating-sim to its full potential, players will be able to customize their protagonist’s appearance, pronouns, and be able to change these options at will. All potential romantic partners will be available to pursue regardless of these choices.
2.
Depending on their choices and interactions, the story route will change accordingly to feature the selected NPC for the day. After the selection, the player continues the new storyline and plays a puzzle game to receive “Affection” points that reflect the positive growth resulting from the player-NPC bond. Affection points will be converted to HP for the nighttime game loop and eventually unlock new abilities. The NPC whose story is chosen that day will manifest as a support partner for that night’s dream fighting sequence.
3.
The player follows a linear visual novel storyline following their high school life until reaching a decision-making moment, selecting one of the branching story routes taking the form of manga panels that allude to the result of this choice.
4.
Some choices in the Affection puzzle game are locked unless there are enough “Confidence” points built during the dream sequence phase.
Daytime: visual novel-based dating sim.
Story Board
Night time: dream sequence beat 'em up game
1.
The player fights monsters that populate a side-scrolling level and attempt to defeat a boss at the end of the level. The monsters that appear represent the player’s insecurities and negative feelings that arose from events during the previous day. Accompanying them on their nightly journey is a manifestation of the featured NPC from the day before that will aid them in their fight.
2.
The number of monsters that the player defeats will turn into “Confidence” points that can be used to purchase items or to unlock choices for daytime’s puzzle. There are two parameter bars: Health Point (HP) and Combo gauge. When HP reaches zero, the player wakes up from the dream and moves to the daytime. Failing to defeat the boss and overcome their insecurities will have a negative impact on the player’s choices the next day.
3.
HP can be restored from recovery items bought from the store or through affection earned in the daytime. Combo gauge is filled by performing different combos in the level. Once the Combo gauge is full, the player can unleash a powerful special attack in cooperation with that night’s partner. The level is finished either by defeating the boss or the HP reaches zero.
4.
Upon reaching the boss at the end of the level, the player will be prompted with the choice to either fight or converse with the enemy. Conversing with the insecurity may reveal a sympathetic nature and allow for better character growth in peacefully coming to terms with the player’s emotions. Regardless of the player’s choice or success, they will be awoken following the fight to start the next day.
- The game can also be saved or loaded during the daytime. Players can access it with the “Save” or “Load” option in a pause menu bar.
- Saving is not allowed in the dream sequence as failure is an important factor in the core game loop and will carry consequences into the next day’s cycle. As such, the game will autosave regardless of the outcome during the dream sequence.
Save/Load System
Target audience
Love Conflict is meant to be playable by every group regardless of race or gender identity. The target audience for our game is everyone with an ESRB rating of Teen suitable for ages 13 and up as this game contains a beat’em game mode which has violence and suggestive themes featuring NPCs. The dating-sim portion of the game also features suggestive themes regarding dating and high school pressures that may not be suitable for younger audiences. Love: Conflict will be released for both the PC and Mobile game markets at the initial launch and will be single player at a standalone machine.
In Love: Conflict we are using an interesting approach to queer a beat’em up game with a subgenre of life simulation game. We break the players expectation of a player when they expect an intense battle upon reaching the boss representing their highest insecurity. In a genre that is marked by the notion of macho muscle power beats all, we are bringing a more sensitive side to the equation where the action and character development portions have a symbiotic relationship that sends the message.
We also bring a higher level of inclusivity and customization to the dating-sim portion of the game. Every character is romantically pursuable regardless of gender identity, diverging from the heteronormative methods that are most common in the genre. This is so that all players can get the most out of their time with the characters.
Unique Selling Points
Inspiration
Love: Conflict was inspired by many action games that had a heavy focus on romance mechanics being physically close to the player’s method of agency or damage dealing. Some of these games include Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, Catherine, Persona 4, and River City Girls. Scott Pilgrim in particular is noteworthy in its queerness. Scott’s quest is to defeat his girlfriend’s jealous evil ex-boyfriends while taking the form of a four-player co-op fighting game. Scott is an incredibly average guy that is put into this insane zany situation for love and the players need to grind out that discrepancy in strength to compete with these villains.
Scott always breaks expectations (in very comedic ways) where most of the time he’s a normal guy, but sometimes becomes superhuman through sheer willpower to fight the ex’s that somehow have godlike abilities. For Love: Conflict we wanted to emphasize a less extraordinary lifestyle but force a queer catharsis from their daily troubles where otherwise normal people physically beat down their insecurities during dream sequence fighting. A specific game mechanic that was noteworthy In Scott Pilgrim was health sharing and healing teammates. Reviving a downed teammate would have the player character kiss the other, transferring some of the healthier character’s hearts. Then the player could physically pick up their teammate and hit enemies with them. Teamwork became a literal weapon. Highschool romance anime and visual novel games were another inspiration point, specifically the “Fate” series. In Fate Stay/Night, the main characters become bonded to the spirits of powerful historic or mythological figures, like King Arthur, to do battle against other character’s spirits in a magical battle royale. These spirits can grant their patrons superb skills or weaponry and is strengthened through their developing bond. We thought this concept would transfer well into our game, where after developing relationships with NPCs the player can use their strengths or even summon them into the dream fighting sequence for aid. But be careful, not all friends are cut out for fighting and could even hinder the player if they are not careful.
Game Store System
There is a joint store with items that affects either the daytime (gifts for NPCs) or the nighttime (weapons, recovery items).
- Items can be bought with Confidence.
- The currency can be earned at the nighttime depending on their level of success in the dream sequence.
- Items for daytime are gifts that boost affection for the puzzle game (NPC offers help and extra Affection when receiving gifts).
- Items for nighttime are potions for HP boost or stat altering weapons.
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