Guildford, UK – Low Birth Studios, a small Montreal-based video game developer that makes role playing games targeted toward the LGBTQ community, tries to attract players by getting them involved in a mystery.
Listen to the author read this article:
“One of the first things we try to figure out when developing a new project is the ‘player fantasy,’” said Oliver Lussier, co-founder and creative director of Low Birth Studios.
‘Player fantasy’ refers to “the unique experience that the game offers and that can get players excited,” Lussier explained in an e-mail interview with Youth Journalism International.
“If you figure out what makes your game unique and exciting from the very beginning,” Lussier said, “it’ll be much easier to attract players.”
With a 15-person team, the company has two games out now – “This Bed We Made” and “Lost & Found.”
Both are short mystery games where players have to solve a murder or theft.
Low Birth Studios used Catholic and Christian imagery such as Bibles and rosaries in both games while also dealing with topics like divorce and homosexuality, which many modern content creators say go against church teachings.
Olivier Lussier said that the reason Low Birth Studios does this is because they “strongly believe in [the Catholic Church’s] values of solidarity and care towards the most vulnerable” which go hand in hand with the message of their games, even if not everyone in the studio is Catholic.
The studio did receive a bit of hate due to the topics covered, said Lussier, but he is undeterred.
“As long as our stories keep connecting with players, we’ll keep creating complex queer characters, haters be damned!” he said.
For me, this demonstrates how indie studios are much more confident in exploring the themes that matter to them, compared to large gaming engines.
Lussier said the company based both of its games on walking simulators in the vein of “Gone Home,” a game by The Fulbright company. He said the setting for both games was influenced by his own experience working in a hotel and by 1950s lesbian pulp fiction.
“This Bed We Made” was nominated for, among other awards, three titles in the Gayming Awards 2024 – the best LGBTQ indie game, Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award, and the Authentic Representation Award – which are exclusively for LGBTQ+ games.
“Most LGBTQ+ awards are fairly easy to apply to,” Lussier said, as “applying is usually free or fairly cheap.”
And due to fewer numbers of LGBTQ+ games, he added, “you’re competing against a few dozen games instead of hundreds or thousands.”
“This Bed We Made” and “Lost & Found” were some of the most impactful games I’ve ever played.
When I was younger, I needed games like “Fire Emblems” and “Zelda” – games about epic feats of courage – to motivate me to face and overcome challenges with determination and perseverance.
Low Birth Studio’s games, though, increased my emotional bravery.
They made my teenage self much more aware of the complexities of love and loss in a way that the role-playing games I’d previously played simply could not.
The games are user friendly. Everything was laid out neatly and clearly from the beginning, so I didn’t have to spend time figuring out what, exactly, the storyline was supposed to be. That meant that I could more thoroughly enjoy the plot.
Other players agreed, as “This Bed We Made” was nominated for several 2024 games awards. We’ll soon see whether “Lost & Found,” released in August this year, will be nominated for this year’s awards.
Manuel Bernardo Tavares Moreira Belo Carmona is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
