Love You Tender; a video game by Julia
Love You Tender
The art of game developing (and a game!) with Julia
All images property of Julia. Used with permission.
Scroll to the bottom to play the game, or click the button below to open a new window.
CHARGE MAGAZINE: One of the things we love most about your work is your use of hand painted illustration. Your artwork is gorgeous and lends a sense of craftsmanship and care to your games that we do not often come across. I imagine it must be time consuming to create and develop games in this way. Can you talk a bit about your process and why you prefer this method?
JULIA: I had been dabbling in watercolours for about a year before I started with game development, so the simple answer is that it was the art form I was most familiar with in the beginning. I had tried my hand at digital art a number of times and was never satisfied with the results, so hand drawn was my best bet at making something look half-decent. I did experiment a bit with using some magazine cutouts and photos I had taken while traveling but it looked pretty bad so I just stuck with the paints.
Working with watercolours
I really like the process because it gives me a break from the screen. My full time job at the time was in web development so I was basically spending all day at my computer. The paper art gave my eyes a bit of a rest and let me do something more tactile. I also felt comfortable knowing that any mistakes I made could be tweaked in photoshop after my work was digitized. This simultaneously freed from the "undo" option which always leads me down the hole of perfectionism when creating digital artwork. After I paint something I just wait until the lighting is good and take a couple of photos with my iPhone. Then I air drop it to my Macbook and use photoshop to colour correct and erase the white background.
CM: How fascinating! I’m intrigued by the multiple ways your subject is transmuted by this process. Beginning with a conceptual idea of a living thing — a person, say, or a plant — you create a visual, artistic representation in paint; then turn that piece of art into a digital file where the paint and water and paper become encoded information; upload it to a computer; and finally re-animate the image on the screen, turning biological life into a sort of virtual life, strained through the filter of your artistic skill and imagination! These layers of experience and interpretation are complex and intriguing. Can you talk a bit about the experience you create for the player? Is it meant to mimic a “real” experience of the subjects (plants/trees/people), or is your intent to have players feel charmed and bemused? What sort of feeling do you want to create for players, and how does this process contribute to that intent?
J: It’s definitely drawn from reality but there is certainly an air of whimsy tied in with it. Personally, I find my own reality looks a little bit more magical after I’ve spent some time in a video game with a heavy nature theme. I think the intent would be to invite the player to look at their own real life with that same whimsical eye, to see the real magic that is all around them. To recognize the beauty in even the plants and creatures that may look slightly abnormal or imperfect – because that is how nature intended them to look. Because there’s definitely a bit of abnormality to my own interpretations of certain things, haha!
CM: Whimsy and curiosity are certainly evident in your work. Can you tell us a bit about the game you're you’ve designed for us?
J: This project is my first venture into the world of game development, so all of it was built while simultaneously learning how to build it. I'll be the first to admit that the game mechanics aren't particularly original at this point- I'm still working on some ideas on how to introduce some unique aspects to the game’s playability.
Julia on Twitch
Love You Tender is a 2D platformer in which you play as various aliens defending their planet from an invasion of robots. This demo is just the first level, in which the first alien (named Bronto) is on his way home and encounters all these robots walking and flying around. Bronto has to make it home without falling off the platforms, or getting too hurt by the robots. He has a pink energy ball that he can shoot (using the mouse click) to defeat the robots. It's a short demo so far, but I have a lot of the groundwork in place for creating new levels. The game is always randomly generated, so no two playthroughs will ever be the same.The next level that I've started to work on is a desert level. I'm excited to create more fantasy environments to house these strange aliens I've made.
I have a lot of ideas that I am looking forward to incorporating into the actual story of the game. I definitely want to introduce messaging that supports protecting our environment and learning to achieve balance between the digital and natural worlds. It's something that I've been personally dealing with my entire life that somehow unconsciously snuck it's way into my game.
CM: We’re definitely on board for work that supports environmental and social awareness. I’m reminded of this TED talk by Jane McGonigal of the Institute for the Future, discussing the potential of gaming in mobilizing and equipping gamers to move into a future that is increasingly uncertain. Do you feel gaming and digital platforms have a particular advantage in the greater discourse around social issues?
J: I definitely think so, and I’ve already seen some other of my colleagues working on environmentally conscious games. DevDuck is working on a game where a polar bear deals with the melting of it’s home, and Dani just recently published a tree-planting game where all of the ad revenue goes toward the TeamTrees movement where each dollar plants one tree. So it’s definitely on the rise! Personally, I hope to convey the value of developing an individual relationship with nature and understanding how often just awareness and gratitude toward what we get from the planet can make a difference. It’s great how many different ways the message can be communicated, whether it’s through a narrative in the game, a character you play, or even directly from the developer in youtube video. Every medium is useful!
CM: We could not agree more. So what is it for you that makes this particular medium so fascinating? What do you find exciting about game development, and how do you view its importance in our emerging world?
J: Growing up with two older brothers, my entire childhood was packed full of video games. We were a gamer family through and through - even my dad got into them, starting with Diablo II, and moving onto World of Warcraft which he still plays today. As I got older I discovered the social aspect of video games - playing with my friends on the couch or meeting new friends via voice chat. I formed bonds stronger than any I had in school at the time, people who I am still friends with fifteen years later. Games ultimately formed the foundation of my critical thinking, my entire social life, and my early interest in technology.
The most fascinating thing about game dev for me is looking at a game and understanding the lengths that the creators had to go through to create it. A game as complex a World of Warcraft - a literal world with lore and characters and countries and religions, simultaneously with servers loaded with millions of players! It's crazy once you realize how absolutely massive it is. I also feel so grateful to have found something that incorporates all of my seemingly unrelated interests in one place. I've always been creating art and music but I also love math and programming and science. Until I found game dev I felt a constant split of having to choose between the arts and sciences. Game development allows me to do both!
I'm excited because more people are playing games today than ever before, and that number is constantly growing. Games and gamification is an incredible way of communicating ideas, teaching skills, forming relationships, and even calming anxiety. I'm also excited to see the continued advancements in the way games are made. We've already come such a long way that it's now possible for a single person to make a fully fledged, profitable game. The ease in which these things can be created is only increasing, which means more people will make games, which means more perspectives can be shared. I'm also really excited about Virtual Reality. People are using VRChat as group therapy! It's mind-boggling. And absolutely heartwarming.
Click to learn more
CM: Boggling is right! With 2.2 billion gamers around the globe, it’s an incredible emerging (indeed, an already existing!) force, and it is the developers that are creating the path upon which that force is taking shape. Can you speak a bit about your 100 days of game dev challenge?
J: Certainly! I saw a couple of 100day challenges going around and looked to see if there was anyone doing it for game dev. When I did a search on twitter I found maybe like 10 posts from 2017 so it seemed to be pretty dead. I wanted to put more consistent effort into building my game but knew I wouldn't be able to commit to 100 days on my own, so I put some feelers out there to see if anyone was interested in joining me. My tweet got a lot of response and I started to think... How could I get a group of people to actually commit to 100 days of game dev? So I turned it into a challenge, with milestones and rewards and mini games. I made a discord server (which is like a chat room) and shared the link to it. I created badges that were to be given out each time a participant hits a certain number of days. And I managed to line up the challenge with the last 100 days of the year, starting on September 23rd (while still encouraging latecomers). It's now evolved into a community way bigger than I expected, with more people joining every day. We have over 450 people in the server as of now with members from at least 38 different countries, so there's a lot of really great perspective. And even better, the community is so incredibly positive and supportive. I've never seen anything like it. People are always encouraging each other, commenting on each others' work, providing feedback. I'm so pleased that everyone has come together to create such a positive space. It's been really encouraging to see how many different game developers are out there, some of them full time, a lot of them beginners, most of them hobbyists. The feedback has been incredible - so many people have told me how they are doing more work on their game than they have in months, so it seems to be working!
CM: That’s so amazing. One of my favorite things about nontemporal, nonlocalized communities is the diversity. The ability and flexibility to interact with people across time and space around a common passion is tremendously potent. You, for example, are currently living in India. Can you talk about your experience a bit? What took you there? What have you learned? What do you love about it?
J: I first came here in 2014 for a yoga teacher training program. Long story short is that I met someone, fell in love, and, after four years of managing a long distance relationship, moved from Canada to India to finally be with my boyfriend, Sandip. That was in April of 2018, so I've been here a year and a half at this point. I knew the first moment I stepped foot in this country that I was going to live here, even before I met my partner. I just love the chaos of it all. It's a complete 180 from western life, and through observing the differences it's allowed me let go of some of my own conceptions of societal norms, while reinforcing others. A shift in perspective is an incredibly powerful tool for self growth. Etherial self analysis aside, I am particularly fond of the street animals. Having a group of sleeping cows cause a traffic jam in the middle of a city doesn't happen many places. And the food is absolutely fantastic! There is an endless variety of Indian food that I'd never even heard of - not just differing region to region but city to city. It's been a joy to continuously taste new things. Sandip and I bought a car and embarked on a road trip in May so we're spending the next year or so exploring the country. Then we'll move to Canada to settle down at the end of 2020.
For those who might be wondering how I support myself while living in India; as I previously mentioned, I worked as a web developer for a start up company based out of Canada for four years. When I decided to move, my boss was very understanding of my situation and allowed me to continue to work remotely from India. I did that for the first year but just recently decided to leave my job and pursue game development full time. Actually, my last day of work was just this last Friday October 11th! As I dove deeper into this industry, I realized how much satisfaction I was getting from this work, and totally lost my interest in doing anything else. I have some savings that I'll be using to stay afloat for the next year or so as we travel (and luckily a little goes a long way in India). But it is my intention to build my own profitable business around game development. I wanted to add this because a lot of people struggle with the idea of earning money as a game developer - it seems like a nearly impossible thing to most. This is why a lot of people just stick to it as a hobby, with pipe dreams of maybe releasing a hit one day and being able to quit their day job. A lot of people don't even let themselves think of it as a viable career option. And simultaneously the AAA game industry sounds like it can be a nightmare for developers. My hope is that I can help pave the way for a solo or small team game developer to be able to work full time on their passion, and earn enough money to live off of. I've seen digital entrepreneurs succeed in so many other industries (food, knitting, motherhood, lifestyle, art, you name it) which makes me confident that the same thing can be done in the game development industry. So alongside making my game, that is something I'm aiming to accomplish, not just for me but for all of the other game developers out there.
CM: What’s next for you, how can people connect with your work?
J: Next I plan on making each level of this game a different 2d style so that I can really expand my knowledge about game mechanics. I still feel like there’s so much I don’t know yet, so I have a lot more I’d like to explore. Simultaneously I’m going to keep making resources for other game developers to help them market their work to the right people.
I’m most active on Twitter, but you can get a more in depth view of my work process on youtube. My game demos are shared on Itch. And you can stay involved or sign up for updates on my game development blog.
CM: Fantastic. One final question we like to ask our contributors: What excites you at the moment?
J: I’m excited because I believe this is the best time ever to be a game developer. More people are playing video games today than ever before. A lot of people play games and don’t even realize it! It’s easier than ever to make a game and the market is huge. So I’m excited to figure out a good way to help other developers reach people and share their work, and be able to sustain themselves financially doing so.
Play the game below:
For best results, hit the full screen button. Use your arrow keys to move your character, the space bar to jump, and click the mouse to shoot!