Five years of Boyfriend Dungeon: Reflections on Development
Tanya, director of Kitfox here. Today marks the fifth anniversary of releasing Kitfox's third internally-developed title, Boyfriend Dungeon. It's hard to believe five years have already passed. If you're reading this, you probably already played the game! Thanks for playing! I'm
Tanya, director of Kitfox here.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of releasing Kitfox's third internally-developed title, Boyfriend Dungeon. It's hard to believe five years have already passed.
If you're reading this, you probably already played the game! Thanks for playing! I'm personally very proud of the game, but it was also quite painful to make, if I'm honest. I'll explain, as best I can.
The passion that many people connected to in the game was authentic, because as a younger gamer, I often felt that games with romance constrained me. I wasn't the only young woman enthralled by dating all the cuties in Thousand Arms, or going on dates in the Persona series, and it seems I also wasn't the only young woman left feeling unseen or dismissed or unwelcomed by the game's content. It was like a pebble in my shoe for over a decade, a recurring joke, pining for a Persona-esque experience that didn't have developer interviews attached saying female protagonists would be incompatible, or too different, or whatever.
But that same yearning and personal passion meant that I couldn't help overcommitting. We started on it as a "quick joke" in 2017 that most of the Kitfox team enthusiastically supported when I suggested it. We thought, well, we've made action RPGs with procedural levels, no big deal, let's "just" add dating to it, that'll only take six months right? Well, maybe if we had kept the main character only facing 2 directions, with extremely basic combat, and only 3 love interests, a year could have been possible.
Then when we announced it, it went viral, even appearing on morning talk shows. We felt pressure to deliver something bigger and better than we previously thought.
Tanya and Victoria overseeing the launch of the Kickstarter in 2018
Then the Kickstarter exceeded our expectations, and to avoid tokenizing any of the cast, I felt we absolutely had to have lots of love interests -- cutting anyone would be removing part of what I loved about it, representing so many kinds of love.
And then I had a baby.
And then the pandemic hit.
And eventually the game came together into what it is now, a coherent game of heart and trust. It's imperfect, but I prefer games to be a bit messy, rather than sheared down into frictionless planes, so that's fine. It amused me at the time that we won, of all things, the Impact Award at the Game Developer's Choice Awards, but looking back, I can see that more devs looking towards it than I realized, taking heart from it, inspired and encouraged and emboldened in their own personal passions and authentic stories of trust and love.
Four years is a long time to spend, though, and it feels longer when it isn't planned that way from the outset, plus one year of live development to finish up the last 2 love interests. The game was well-played among game developers (thanks!), and sold modestly well, supplemented by GamePass, to break even quickly, even if it was never the big hit that many projected it would become.
I don't feel regret, and I can't honestly say I would go back and do that much different, if I could -- but I do feel that I'm wiser now, having learned from this experience. I suppose that's the best outcome anyone can hope for. Thank you for helping Kitfox grow as a developer, and me as a creator, for your support and your encouragement through the years.
With love,
Tanya
P.S.
If you want to see my hand-drawn (lol) first storyboard for the ending cutscene, I posted it here: https://bsky.app/profile/kitfoxgames.com/post/3msst3tx2bk2i - be warned, XKCD is much more polished in its style. I DID go to art school, if you'll believe it, but I did what was necessary here to communicate quickly. At least that's my defense. Ahem.
