FAQ #1: Sexual preference.

I have been asked the question a few times: whether it will be possible to form same sex couples in Bientôt l’été.

Answer: no.

There will be two avatars in the game: a man and a woman. Each will have a voice: a male voice and a female voice. You choose which you play. Since players will be matched anonymously, you will not know the gender of the person you are playing with. But his or her avatar will always appear of the gender opposite to yours. If you play a man, the other player will look and sound like a woman. If you play a woman, the other player will look and sound like a man. That is the story.

There is an economic reason for doing this: allowing for same sex couples would require 2 male avatars and 2 female avatars, doubling the amount of work. But even if our budget were sufficiently large, this would create a design problem that runs contrary to the artistic concerns of this project: we would have to design avatars with specific characteristics. To differentiate the men form each other, one would have to be tall and the other muscular, one would have a beard and the other a lip piercing, etc. That is not the story. This story is about a man and a woman. Not a specific man or a specific woman.

That being said. The love of which Bientôt l’été speaks is specific. It’s about cet amour-là. It’s about love how I have experienced it in my life. And how I recognize it in Duras’ work. Sure I’ve kissed with boys when I was young. But I would never be as presumptuous as to make any statements about how it feels to be in love with another man. I cannot talk about this. I simply assume that it feels similar to being in love with a woman. And I hope that gay players can extrapolate from there.

Bientôt l’été is about something very specific. It’s about cet amour-là. About the feeling. Not about the people involved. I don’t know how many people will recognize this feeling. Or what their sexual preference will be. I’m curious to see it. I’m trying to share something here, not appeal to the desires of the masses or conform to their demands.

We’ve already made a game that features only male avatars. So those who feel like sniffing the face of another male, rubbing against his fur or sleeping in the sunshine with him, should go and enjoy!

Meanwhile I’d like to encourage gay designers to create videogames about their experiences. Instead of counting on the bland political correctness of their hetero colleagues, I want them to tell their stories, express how cet amour-là feels for them.