one interesting thing i've learned with subversive game design is that you seem to have two polar reactions - intense dislike, because stereotypes expected have been altered, or intense like, because of the surprise/discovery of subversion

best friend forever was never a typical otome game or dating sim, and we never marketed it as such - but the intense dislike camp re: not having 'traditional' otome elements like CGs really surprised me

it seems players either like surprise and discovery, or they don't. and i feel this is again where genres are doing us a disservice. reviewing a game and marking it 'not recommended' after 7 hours because of a genre-specific mechanic and stereotype feels, well, ouch

and i'll write a longer article because i have a lot of thoughts on this, but this is why experimentation and subersive game design is a risk. you're creating something that doesn't exist - and genres are so rigid in terms of what they're supposed to offer, it works against you

we've had maybe 3-4 'not recommended' reviews that specifically mention bff didn't include CGs in it, which isn't something we ever marketed or said would be included - but because it touched on an adjacent genre, you get those expectations put on top of your title

bff is an interesting, imperfect project that definitely elicited polarising opinions in terms of how it handled things - we have 'bad' reviews from people expecting trad otome/stat raising, & 'good' reviews from people with more open expectations? i suppose i'd put it

it's a catch-22 right? without iteration and sometimes subversion, we make the same thing over and over again. but the consumer market is also not particularly supportive of that process, or the artefacts that come out of it. it's a weird, awkward place to be, and genres suck

anyway i still love subversive design but i guess my point in this thread is being a studio trying to keep the lights on while innovating or practicing subversive design, that makes things a lot harder and a lot riskier

and consumer expectations of game content vs. genre or perceived genre are still buck wild