Describing Bientôt l’été.

I’m in trouble now. When I try to describe Bientôt l’été to somebody who hasn’t played it, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to present it so they understand what I find interesting about this game.

In our previous games there’s always some kind of hook that we can hang up a story from. “It’s based on a fairy tale”, or “life and death in a graveyard”, or even “the legend of Salomé”. But mentioning a game inspired by the work of Marguerite Duras, I can expect mostly blank stares: Who? Or if they happen to know Marguerite Duras, they’ll probably go How? and/or Why?

I remember feeling like this about our other games too, though. That all anyone could do was play the game and make up their own mind. That it was impossible to describe. This is followed by a period of discomfort, describing the game in terms that are easy to communicate, even if they don’t cover the game exactly. And after that comes comfort with the “lies” that we are spreading about our own work. As it happens, those imperfect descriptions still tend to sound more interesting than the usual “it’s a platform game with a twist” or “it’s a puzzle game and it’s really difficult.”

So I’m hoping something similar will happen with Bientôt l’été. Right now, I cannot see any approach towards this game that would make it feel comprehensible. We can’t even say that it subverts this or that feature of conventional games, because it doesn’t. Maybe I need to add such a feature to enable description.

I guess I should practice. Attack unsuspecting game fans and just start describing Bientôt l’été to them and see how they respond. If I start babbling to you at the GDC, you know what’s going on. You have been warned!
(then again, if you’re reading this, you won’t need my elevator pitch, you will already be familiar with this project -so stop me in that case!)