Earth And Water: Another Talk with Studio Fawn

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My Fellow Gamers;

As time passes and raw imagination slowly becomes graphical reality, I am reminded of a promise I made myself to someone with whom I’ve enjoyed watching progress her dreams and ideas into pixelated art. But the recent past has cast a shadow on that art. And as I sit down again with Dani Landers, Studio Fawn’s Lead Writer, Artist and Designer, I find that she has quite a lot to say about the GamerGate discussion currently raging across the video game landscape.

Enjoy:

Marcus Lawshe’: I see you and your team have been busy lately. How’s the work on Bloom: Memories coming along?

Dani Landers: Things are going pretty well, lots of new things added to the engine lately [like] real time water reflections for characters. But other than that just pushing ahead with creating more content.

M: Will the water elements play into problem solving or as puzzle elements in the game?

Dani: The water elements have some puzzleness in them (for example, in the more watery area, figuring out which island to jump to). And they offer a bit of a danger (on the tinier islands, it will be tricky not to get knocked off by the water creatures or to make sure you let go to land on them and don’t miss). So they definitely add a bit more challenge to the game.

M: I’ve also noticed several environmental screen shots that seem to suggest you’re on your way to adding in a bit of scenic variety.

Dani: You saw right! The forest area that was shown a lot before was the starting area, then from there it goes through a white sand desert, a rockier area, a watery area, and a 4th secret area, Of course, that isn’t counting the additional dungeons either. Just being stuck in a forest the entire time wouldn’t have been enough to really give the sense of adventure we are shooting for.

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M: I hate to bring this up, but… have you been keeping track of the recent GamerGate movement? As an indie dev, what are your opinions of it?

Dani: My personal opinion? GamerGate is…. basically a misogynistic hate campaign against women and “social justice warriors” under the guise of random justifications – such as “journalism ethics”. It was easy to spot the break down in logic from the very beginning where they went after an indie dev – instead of the actual journalist. Then it spread to Anita Sarkesian again – because hey, why not?- and from there just keeps attacking people interested in exploring where gaming can grow to.

Like Leigh Alexander was attacked under the guise of “journalistic integrity” for writing an opinion piece critiquing the darker sides of gaming culture….and they went after the advertisers – along with all websites that publish socially progressive stuff.

M: Do you think her article was inflammatory in way? What about the other ten articles that popped up, reportedly within a span of 48 hours saying pretty much the same thing?

Dani: Nope, her article wasn’t inflammatory. The “gamer” she was speaking about was a different type of gamer than just “someone who plays games”. She was using more advanced English and using the term “gamer” to speak about a rather specific toxic consumerist identity. Basically, if people are getting offended, they simply weren’t understanding the higher concept of what she was talking about. That, or they really are a toxic consumerist and finds criticism of that to be predictably rage-worthy.

The other articles that popped up were likely other writers who liked the points she was making and repeated on them. That, or a secret conspiracy designed to insult gamers everywhere while Skeletor sits back in the shadows “Mua ha ha”ing. The worse part is, this movement has tricked a lot of people who don’t know much about what is happening. They hear the slogan “for the gamers! We demand journalistic integrity!” and they join on, because, of course it sounds good right? Kind of like when religious people claim attacking LGBT people is for “family values” – the definitions of these slogans always leaves much to be desired. People like Totalbiscuit have recently taken to championing this “movement” which is really sad. I know he truly believes in ethics, and he heard the mobs slogan and bought into it, and now is lending more credibility to their hate campaign.

Basically, these people don’t love the medium of games and want it to grow. They want to shut down the “social justice warriors” and other critiques and basically anything and everything they don’t agree with. They have actually hurt gaming as a whole. They aren’t real gamers, they aren’t the people I’m making games for at least. And I would imagine many others feel the same way. I’m not talking about the good people who got roped into following “it is about ethics”, I mean the core population of hateful toxic people pushing it forward.

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M: So you don’t see all Gamers, people who refer to themselves as a Gamer, or the whole “Gamer Identity” concept as inherently bad then?

Dani: Nope, I actually think of myself as a gamer. Again, the article was using more complicated English to speak about a very specific type of “gamer” – one that is toxic and identity revolving around their consumerism. I don’t think the term gamer will really die, but I do hope that specific toxic type of gamer goes away. What they do isn’t helping the games industry, it is only hurting it. They aren’t real gamers in my eyes. A true gamer isn’t measured by how many hours they obsessively throw into a title; a true gamer is someone who loves the medium and wants it to keep improving…..

M: Have you, personally, ever experienced anything that you would consider sexist or misogynistic since forming Studio Fawn?

Dani: Definitely. Of course a ton of it from pretty much anything critiquing sexist / misogynistic behavior (the rule is typically any article that talks about these issues is proven correct if you read the comments under the article :P). But, more surprising, is this type of attitude is something I’ve seen a lot from some other developers. I’ve actually left a few developer groups because of the rampant sexism no one was willing to try and keep in check.

M: What about when you were growing up and understanding more about yourself?

Dani: I’m not sure…. When I was growing up I was a lot less aware of it I guess.

M: Do you think the gaming community is a microcosm of the outside world, or do you think it’s different in certain ways (for better or worse)?

Dani: Hmm, I would say it is about the same I guess. Though, the gaming community gets a lot more angry over rather trivial things (in the greater sense). For example, the ending of Mass Effect 3.

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M: Do you think there ARE some bad seeds in the gaming journalist field as they’re claiming?

Dani: Bad seeds? I’m not sure what you mean. I think the world is real. I think as long as gaming sites are almost entirely funded by publishers with vested interests in the review scores they get, there will always be pressure for journalists to tone down criticism. We saw this recently actually. When Intel pulled advertising from Gamasutra…it should have been BIG news on every gaming site. But many of the sites were dead silent about it (because Intel has advertising on their sites too).

Basically, if gamers want to get rid of these journalists being heavily influenced by the realities of business and life….then they are welcome to step up and pay the bills themselves. Though, you do see some pretty passionate journalists who defy the “business as usual” mentality. But, just like indies (who will do what they want in the face of “traditional business’), these tend to be journalists with a lot of integrity and honestly behind what they are saying. Leigh Alexander was one of those people….and, well, sadly the Gamergaters went after her.

M: OK. One last question, and I’ll let you and your team get back to work. Best expectations, when can players expect to really get their hands on Bloom: Memories?

Dani: Probably still at least a year. So far work has primarily been about building content – creatures, abilities, environments [etc], and working out the engine. Building our own engine is a big task, so just getting in the basics of collision and adding in things (like real time reflections in the water for characters was a lot of work). The next step is just more engine work, and finally filling out the world with the story and creatures which should go a lot faster.

M: Alright, thanks for your time Dani.

Dani: Sure, np 😀

For those of you wishing to learn more about Studio Fawn and Bloom: Memories, you can find their site HERE.

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