You may remember a few weeks ago when our news of the day mentioned a romance-themed computer game from PassionFruit Games.  Well I talked to Studio Director Melissa Heidrich, the studio director, and she agreed to be interviewed.  So sit back and get some insights on what it's like to fuse romance, puzzle games, and more!

1) How did you decide to create a romance/adventure game?  What led up to it – and the tie-in?

I’ve been in the casual games industry for more than five years, and I noticed in recent years games have tended to be more and more obviously directed to women (they started heavily focusing on weddings, chocolate, princesses, babies… almost to the point of being ridiculous sometimes!).  One day I thought “well, why hasn’t anyone taken the obvious next step of making a romance game?”  The idea never left the back of my brain, and when my entire team got laid off together from our last company, it was the perfect opportunity to realize that dream.  I contacted an old friend from high school– bestselling paranormal romance author Marjorie M. Liu–and we agreed to turn her first novel, Tiger Eye, into a game!


2) What challenges did you face in getting the game out?

Probably the biggest challenges were related to funding.  No one took salaries, and we started off with no equipment, software, or office space.  We’ve all had to tighten our belts to make it through these 7 months, and it’s caused a lot of stress for team members.  If it weren’t for some generous family members, none of this would have been possible.


3) You have two other games from your company – did these help you in creating Tiger Eye, or was Tiger Eye far different?

Technically, the two other games weren’t actually created at our own company, PassionFruit – we developed these games back at Her Interactive where we all worked together before the layoff.

Our experience creating the other two games together definitely helped in creating Tiger Eye – not just in terms of game content, but in terms of team dynamics/roles and design processes, so that we were working together more efficiently from the start.  And Tiger Eye shares much in common with our previous games – all contain a lot of puzzle activities, minigames and hidden objects.


4) What kind of reactions has Tiger Eye gotten?

Almost everyone who has played the game has received it very well!  We’ve gotten some great reviews on Gamezebo, really positive buzz on Big Fish Games, and we’ve been pleased to receive some very encouraging emails from customers.  Of course, those who have not played the game are not quite sure what to expect from a “romance game,” and we’ve seen some “interesting” comments out there, especially from some male-targeted sites.  All I have to say to them is they should play our demo; they just might like it.




5) You have openly stated that one of your goals is to have romance games with attractive male leads.  How have people responded to this straightforward approach?

 Hm… why don’t I just copy and paste a few emails and survey responses we’ve gotten?

Customer email:

“…the romantic storyline is fantastic.  I would not have believed that a pc game could make my heart skip a beat like this game did.”

GameBoomers forum:
“Hari [lead male character] brings back some nice warm memories!!!  That voice is a killer!!!” … Response: “Hari… <sigh> <heart>”

BigFishGames forum:
“Wouldn't mind discovering a Hari in my jewelry box!!!”

“I enjoyed the love that grew and falling in love with this guy wouldn't be difficult! I mean, really,… if a 7-foot dream of a man who was polite and kind and considerate and wanted only to do what I wished suddenly popped into my life, I'd treat him well too! LOL”
 
Submitted via our survey:
Q: “What 1 or 2 things would you have changed about the game to make it a better experience for you?”  A: “More kissing!”
 

Of course, the romantic scenes aren’t for everyone – but luckily, the faint of heart can skip the cut scenes if they think they’re too mushy :)


6) Do you feel there's a big future for romance-oriented computer games?  If so, what kind of future do you see?


From the positive response we’ve gotten, as well as the positive response from another paranormal romance game, “Bitten,” I’d say there’s huge potential.  One thing we believe, though – if you’re going to go romance, you have to at least venture into the PG-13 world.  There were a couple games released a few months ago based on romance novels that never went past a “G” rating, and seemed to have fizzled, leaving very little impression on players.  (Not that our game gets very explicit – but it does contain content that romance readers would expect.)

 

7) Japan has had its own romance games, ranging from sweet stories to blatant pornography.  Do you see any influence of Japanese datesims/romance games on Western developers?  Do you think that games like yours will increase interest in these games?


I’d say the fact that these games exist at all in Japan gave us some inspiration and hope that our game would succeed.  But I’ve never actually played one to know how much of an influence it could possibly be (I should probably give one a shot sometime, along with a Japanese translator!).  And yes, I think our game has already increased interest in romance games – we get at least one email a day asking when we’re going to put out another romance game!

 

8) So what are your future plans?


Assuming sales from our first game continue to go reasonably well, we’ll continue making more games based off the rest of the books in the Tiger Eye series.

 

9) Now for our audience, tell me how you got to your position – and made Tiger Eye possible!

If you’re asking how the team got where we are – I guess I already shared the story about getting laid off together, back when we made Nancy Drew games, and joining forces with Marjorie Liu to translate her books into games.

If you want to know how I personally ended up being a video games producer… it’s kind of a crazy story that involved a lot of luck, to be honest.  In 2005, I attended the Indie Games Festival in Eugene, OR, mainly to play the free games they had running on the computers all day.  Little did I know the CEO of a casual games company (Say Design Inc.) was watching me play “Diner Dash” and thinking my skills could come in handy in his business!  He offered me a job assignment right then and there… so I started with QA testing, and ended up being a Producer in a few months (it was a small but growing company with a lot of room for advancement).  I guess it goes to prove that gaining connections can be pretty important when it comes to your career path.

Thanks for your insights Melissa!

- Steven Savage