I have a story that I like to tell, but honestly, I just ended up making games and it was so much fun, that I kept making them.

I was curious about what got other people into making games, and I’ve heard all sorts of answers, from ‘I love playing games, so I wanted to make them’, to ‘nobody was making the games I wanted to play, so I decided I’d make them’, and ‘I’ve always wanted to make games, so I’m doing it now!’

Hearing these answers made me wonder why I liked making games so much. What was I trying to do with it?

Well, as a student, I made a Twine project from the pov of a woman, where it looked like she had a one night stand. Now, the way the story progressed was nothing short of anime-like and ridiculous, but I loved it. I loved the nonsensical storylines that followed from a plausible scenario.

Interestingly, when I had people play it, one person mentioned to me ‘oh I couldn’t relate to it at all because it was a woman’

This was a very confusing thought. Many women who play games are often role-playing as a man, and go on to play and finish the game. Why was the character being a woman what stopped them from relating to her? 
I didn’t have an answer for this then, and I don’t now, and I imagine there’s definitely some research somewhere that speaks to empathy and the psychology of what players have experienced and therefore they can easily make connections to, but I won’t get into that here.

While I didn’t ask too many more questions at the time, it did make me want to make more games where the story was nothing short of ridiculous, funny and a bit ‘left-field’. I wanted there to be all sorts of stories for people to relate to.

And the more I think about this, the more I’m reminded of the first few projects I made, all text based adventures, that were centered around ‘feelings’, speaking to a character’s motivation and building on the background of this character.
I remember the delight people had playing the game, swept up in the music and writing, and I thought to myself, I’d love to give more people experiences like this.

I think that’s why I keep making games, and why I love being able to work with text and narrative, so that I can give people a chance to express themselves, or see themselves represented.