Unlike, unlikely.

I’m just working all day, trying to make something beautiful and nice and fun. Little step by little step. It’s a lot of work. But we’re making progress. We know what we want to make and we’re getting there. Bit by bit.

And then I look up and see what my colleagues are releasing. Dragons! Ninjas! Shotguns! Chainsaws! Pits to jump over, ropes to swing from, fast cars, big guns. Impossible platform structures, game level architecture, mechanics based on physics. And players having so much fun.

And I look back at my work and ask myself What am I doing? What kind of medium is this? Who are these people who enjoy these games? Is that the joy they find in life?

And so I shake my head. I don’t know, man. Bientôt l’été is not that. I’m not sure what the point is. Even the supposedly enlightened journalists won’t know what to do with this one. I guess they’ll just think it’s freaky and weird. Or “artsy”. God, what am I doing?

But it needs to exist. The amount by which Bientôt l’été is different from other video games makes it seem like something heavy and monumental. But it’s not like that at all. It’s really quite simple, seen from this side of the universe. Obvious, even. Straightforward. Clear. Modest.

Why do I have to feel like a freak? I’m not the one dressing my characters in metal bikinis, having them slay dragons and commit serial murder for hours on end, or leading my players through absurd dungeons, bashing on every crate looking for loot, saving the world over and over from alien invasion, finding amusement in blood splattering all over the place or in growing fake potatoes on a fake patch of fake farm land with fake friends.

It’s amusing, of course, to some extent. And I look forward to seeing people’s reactions. But I wish things were a bit more normal sometimes.