Can you introduce yourself? Can you tell us about you and your career?

Hi ! Pleased that the Haven team is back out spreading love ! I’m Ryan Highley, actor with a strong focus on voice performances, particularly in the gaming and entertainment worlds. I’ve been living in this line of work since 2018, after a long journey before actually going down this path. “Career” is a funny word, I’m not sure where this is leading but I was born into a family of amateur theatre, singing, and dance lovers, and I got involved in theatre myself from the age of six. But when it came to my studies, I kept things broad, at that point I wasn’t too sure of my career path. I chose what I felt was a neutral dscipline in sales, thinking I could market products in industries I was passionate about, like electric guitars or music XD. But sales didn’t suit me, and I found myself exploring various other fields. In 2018, I had a wake-up call and decided to drop everything to get into professional acting. I committed fully, turned my world around, and here we are today—the leap of faith paid off!

At the very beginning when you started working on Haven, what did you expect? Did you feel inspired by the original performances?

I only found out quite close to the recording date that the project I was working on was Haven. A sound studio now called Light Fader (Audio Workshop at the time) got in touch about the role. As soon as I knew, I dove into researching everything I could about it—I’m pretty passionate that way. Thanks to YouTube, playthroughs, teasers, and other content, I got a good sense of the world  and what would be expected of me. But no, I didn’t initially know it was about a romantic couple stranded on a distant planet after escaping a civilization. Learning that a core part of the characters’ experience was conveyed through intimacy really resonated with me, as I value that depth of vulnerability in my own life, not only in romantic relationships but in every interaction where people show their true selves.

For Haven, the original performances were genuinely inspiring—Janine Harouni’s interpretation of Yu and Chris Lew Kum Hoi’s take on Kay brought so much authenticity to the characters, it was both inspiring and a big challenge.

Would you say you can relate to that couple, or to your character?

Absolutely. There’s something very real and grounded about the couple’s relationship that I think many people, including myself, can relate to. The way Haven portrays intimate moments, conflicts, complaints, and healthy resolutions feels authentic, offering a balanced, healthy take on the ups and downs of couple life, which I really appreciate. Funnily enough, I actually relate a bit more to Kay’s personality in real life than to Yu’s, but there are pieces of Yu that felt like home too. There is something very balanced about the writing, the characters have such different backgrounds and still find common ground, there are several moments where they may hurt each others feelings, but resonable and mature problem solving brings them closer together. I’m glad it’s out there, somewhat giving us all a nice story to witness.

Your performance was matched with the previous recordings, did that change how you recorded in the studio?

Well, we are less and less asked to work in the same booth as our co-actors and more and more, we only get pre-recored lines. So, I do adjust to this, but it has become a broad requirement and skill. What was most unusual, is recording lines that were already set as a reference. This was a unique challenge, as there was such a strong commitment to preserving the original personality and essence of Yu—not only through the writing but also through Janine Harouni’s interpretation. It was essential that I stay true to her portrayal while bringing my own believable version. As always my shades of personality trickle through, but I believe I managed to keep the character’s intricacies and subtleties, but Janine brough a cheaky sharp tone I really liked.

Can you share a funny or memorable moment that happened during the recordings?

Wow, this does take me back a bit, there was definitely fun moments involved. The writing for these characters is genuinely funny, and the relationship between Yu and Kay naturally lends itself to playing around with certain scenes that capture those nice, everyday life moments. The recurring Appledew references, the little conflicts that turn into sweet resolutions, and the bad and good jokes all added to the joy of bringing this character to life. I think “Bloot” ended up being the main laughing factor both for myself and the studio as it came back constantly! It was an overall pleasure to work on, and those small, relatable moments made it memorable especially the cheeky ones.

Is there anything you want to share with us?

Working on this game felt incredibly real, and I truly admire the extra time and effort the developers invested into the Couple Update not knowing exactly where this journey would lead. It was a bold choice that allowed more people to connect deeply with the narration. I myself, am proud to have contributed in my own way. This is also the way Lexie Kendrick and I got to meet. We caught up for coffee a few months after recording, it was great to meet female Kay ! (haha). Since then I’ve been busy in many other games and projects, but I suppose my latest big news is a youtube series called CATS: The Conspurracy with Devora Wilde, it’s in an RPG show called Rôle’N Play, all fun and games.

I can’t wait to see what the Game Bakers will be “baking” for the future! Thank you and Happy Season of Pride !

L’article Haven – Interview with Ryan Highley, male Yu! est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

What were the constraints when creating the characters?

Hmm, as I recall generally I was directed to retain the same general vibes for their hairstyles and facial features—largely for the purpose of animation/rigging, but I think we had to be wary not to make them look too much like completely different characters from their original counterparts. While I did iterate a few times on different takes, the versions that made it to final were the most balanced between the originals and something new.

In your last interview, you mentioned when working on characters, there are non negotiable elements to character’s designs when reworking them. What are the elements that were fixed and those you could change in creating the gender swap?

In this case, I was very excited to create new versions of Yu and Kay, so I was really keen to make them stand out haha. At certain stages there were requests to make them more 1:1 with their originals (whether it was the hairstyles or outfits), and although I did test them as requested, I also created new ones alongside them that were altered/adapted versions of their original outfits (which are the ones you see implemented in the game)—not because the originals did not fit them, but because I felt like it distinguished them a bit more and made the options feel more like actual options. I totally understand the direction to do a 1:1 and the desire to retain the original designs, but with the new hairstyles it felt like it also called for a new outfit to support the overall updated look—since Yu and Kay weren’t originally designed to have multiple choices in mind, it felt right to bring more variety through this side of things too! I just hope I wasn’t too pushy about it during the process haha, but I feel that it was the right decision in the end.

Only a little bit! But because they were done under the context of being implemented into the final game, it didn’t feel like fanart as much as it just felt like the next step of the process. It was the next step for Yu and Kay’s growth of their characters, and I was really happy to be a part of it!

If you’re not familiar with their work, Koyorin’s fanarts are legendary. FFXIV fanart, follow Koyorin! koyorin.com

Did you decide on the current design quickly? Or were there other designs that stayed in the run for a while? Are there any you still think about?

For outfits we settled quite quickly on the newly designed ones but it took a tiny bit of convincing haha; I wasn’t originally asked to make drastic alterations to their outfits but I presented them anyway because I felt rather strongly about it. Afterwards we settled on it relatively quickly. For the hairstyles and Yu’s face it was a different story since we had to bounce around a bit between some options. Looking back on the sketches, I think for Kay we ended up going for the right hairstyle—it has similar energy to Kay’s original look while bringing along a new feel (though we cut back the length of the sides to bring more similarity/technical reasons). For Yu, there was actually another hairstyle I felt a little more attached to, but I understand why it wasn’t picked. It was still quite similar to Yu’s original hair, though it was a little messier and spunkier and still had a ponytail; but it was missing the metal ring and I think that ended up being a dealbreaker for that option.

Are there elements in the gender swapped designs you wish were there originally?

I think overall I’m still happy with the four designs independently! While there are things that I would change if I were to design Yu and Kay from scratch today, I think the only alterations I would “carry over” from the swapped designs to the original designs are very small things, such as removing a metal piece here or there. The most noticeable 1:1 change I would probably carry to the original (which is a conscious decision I made when designing the swapped version) is probably just changing Kay’s left glove from a bandage wrap to a normal glove—not that I felt the bandage wrap was a bad look, but it was a really minor detail I sometimes forgot about until later haha.

Anything you’d like to tell us?

When I was asked about working on this particular update, I was super happy to hear about it—and I was even happier to see the amount of people it reached and connected with. In addition I’m also very happy and thankful that people are still finding joy in Haven today and that we’re able to share some of the behind the scenes with people! I don’t know how much I can talk about publicly but Haven’s creation was very expansive and very exciting—there’s a goldmine of things that the team and myself came up with that didn’t make the final game but still give me so much joy to look at. So I just want to say thank you to everyone who has played Haven, everyone it’s reached, and the community that is still excited about it to this day! I hope we can continue to share things about it in the future!

L’article Koyorin interview – Haven Community Week November 2024 est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

Koyorin is a freelance character designer and illustrator, and Haven’s incredible character artist.

Can you tell us about what you have worked on since Haven? How about any future projects?

Since Haven, I’ve been tackling some freelance projects here and there for various applications; mostly animation/video game character designs but sometimes just illustration work too! I work with a lot of indies and smaller developers, but occasionally contribute to some bigger properties when offered. In terms of future projects, I still have some ongoing projects with long-term clients, and I’m also working on a personal project that I hope to be able to share this year if I can fit in the time to work on it more!

You do a lot of fan arts, can you tell us more about what drives you to a specific character?

Haha well, first it’s usually the character’s design itself that draws me to a particular character. But also if they’re written in a compelling way/well characterized, and have a strong personality, then that’s even better.

Your work translates characters into your own style while keeping their recognizable design elements. What’s the process in doing so?

Hmm, I think the most important thing is figuring out a character’s defining elements, and then from there deciding how much I can adapt their designs to my style. Those defining elements then become non-negotiables and have to remain the same even in my style. For example, if there’s a specific way their facial features or hairstyle must appear, or if there’s clothing elements or props that I must make sure are visible in the illustration, etc. Then if those things are in place, then the rest is fair game pretty much!

Koyorin’s Malenia x CEL 240 fan art

What’s your favorite Haven illustration you’ve done?

It’s tough to pick! I think one of my favourites is the one with Yu and Kay sitting on a rocky outcrop laughing and smiling, and there’s a large sprawling environment behind them, with a huge cliff. I believe it was used for the “Sweet Little Things” update as well. I really like that one because I think at the time of development, I was getting the hang of painting backgrounds a bit more and that one captured a certain sense of atmosphere and scale; then combined with Yu and Kay in the foreground I think it made for a charming piece. Otherwise, I also really like the Yu and Kay character selection illustrations I did, as well as the promotional artwork for the couples update! I think they capture their personalities quite well, in my opinion.

What’s your all-time favorite illustration of yours?

I’m not sure I can really decide, haha. I’m really critical of my own work, so my personal work beyond 1-2 years ago looks worse and worse to me every passing year. But I think that’s okay, because it’s simply a part of growth and improvement, and I would be more worried if I never saw any of my work with a critical eye. With that being said, if I had to pick a recent illustration of mine it would have to be something more recent that has some of the recognizable elements of my work (ex. bright neon colours or heavy contrast), such as my pieces “glass”, “succubus // 4” or “showtime”. I think for those specifically, certain elements just came together well.

What are some things you’ve learned from character designs on your different projects?

I think some of the major takeaways from the projects I’ve been a part of, is how to interpret a character’s personality, and bring that into their design. Even though it sounds like a simple thing, whenever I’m tasked with designing a character I try to think of various parts of their lives and how they might react in situations presented to them outside of the context of their game/animation. Working from there, as I did with Haven’s cast, has typically given me a greater understanding of the character and how to represent that visually.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

I had a great time working on Haven and I hope people are still enjoying it today! It was a hugely pivotal project for me in my life and career, and I’m super proud of what the Game Bakers and I accomplished together, so I hope people are still having fun with Yu and Kay today too!

More of Koyorin’s work on Twitter Instagram Artstation or their Patreon

L’article Haven Community Week- Koyorin mini interview est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

As per tradition, we ran a fan art contest during Haven last community week, and the theme was “We love them when they do…”. We have received amazing applications, the jury has deliberated, and now it’s time to unveil the winners.

First of all, we would like to thank each of you for taking the time to participate: Freya, TRCelyne, Sieghiro, Skyler van Alen, MrPimp, Will, Baktos, Garayann, Mikaila, Loustica Lucia, Daranee, Aeroshino, Miomiea, June Gloom, Sukara Daiko, Catherine A., Raven, Apis Azura, Val, Basil, Svengouli, Kour, KhanSJet.

And the winners are…

1st place

Will – A Long Night

2nd place

Garayann – Lovebirds Traveller

3rd place

Mikaila – I love them when they do the seed contest

Coup de coeur

TRCelyne – When You Have No Clue What Morphognenesis Is But She Looks Too Passionate To Interrupt Her

Thank you to you for submitting great artworks.
You can check the summary of everything that was announced or discussed during Haven Community Week here.

And join The Game Bakers community, stay posted about our news and give us your thoughts directly by joining our Discord, or on our social media or signing up for our occasional newsletter.

L’article Haven Fan Art Contest – Results est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

You will find below a summary of everything we shared, to be sure you didn’t miss a thing!

• The Haven Cutest Creatures contest on Twitter is now over and the winner is Salamash (Oink). What a surprise!). We also shared the story behind the names of the creatures in competition.

• We unveiled a new Haven t-shirt (and you seem to like it a lot). It was exclusive to our team members, but you can win one with the Haven Fan Art contest. It will also be available this Spring when we re-open our merchandise store. Stay tuned!

• We shared 10 secrets about Haven on Twitter.
• With the help of our Discord Community, we created a bingo of things you should do while playing Haven. Have you filled it already?
• You can read a full interview with Florian Coudray, concept artist who created most of the creatures on Source.
• We shared on YouTube Haven’s credits video, if you haven’t reached the end of the game yet, or just want to enjoy the sensual outro video one more time
• Our team shared their favorite love stories, if you are looking for recommendations on new things to read, watch or play, it’s here.
• We shared new wallpapers & the super cute new avatars that Koyorin drew for this Community week.
• You shared with us which streamers you would like to see playing Haven together, and you had great ideas, thank you!
• We interviewed Thomas Brasdefer & Diana Díaz Montón about translating Haven, which is available in 9 languages.

Now, the Community Week is over, but the Fan Art Contest is still live for a few more days! I hope you loved it as much as we did.

You can join our Discord or register to our newsletter to stay in touch until the next Community Week!

L’article Haven Community Week is over! Thank you <3 est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

If so many players could enjoy Haven in 9 different languages, it’s thanks to our amazing translators. It’s time to highlight their work with an interview of Thomas Brasdefer and Diana Díaz Montón!

Can you introduce yourself, your background and your work on Haven?

Thomas: My name is Thomas, I’m an anthropology professor currently at University of Vermont, I specialize in linguistics and I translated Haven from French to English.

Diana: My name is Diana, I am a professional translator specialised in game localization, and have been working in the industry for over 20 years. I have participated in the localization of hundreds of games, as a translator, editor/proofreader or multilingual project manager. I am also co-founder of Native Prime. I was the Spanish editor at Haven.

According to you, what are the most important qualities to be a great video game translator?

Thomas: Translation is never just about words, most of the work is making sense of something for someone else… Which means that the translator has to understand the reasons why the words exist. But in a video game you have a million things to interact with, from the NPCs to the environment, and a surrounding community of gamers; so you have to take an entire universe into account before you even get started. I would say that having a carefully crafted game as material is definitely a big part of it.

Diana: I completely agree with Thomas. In game localization, the goal is to convey the emotions into the different target languages, so players can truly engage with the characters they are controlling and immerse themselves in the game universe. A good video game translator needs to understand how games work as a whole, they should be familiar with the different mechanics. It is important that they also master the source formats we work with, and how strings will be used in the game, be it as part of the interface or as VO dialogue. And also need to know their target audience well, their expectations. But overall, translators have to master the source and target language so the results sound fluent and natural and match the tone and style of each particular game.

Haven is a huge project, with more than 90 000 words. How do we start while translating a game as talkative? How long did it take to translate the game?

Thomas: Believe it or not, Haven isn’t the longest game I’ve worked on. And on top of that, there are parts of the script that didn’t make it into the game! I actually like it better when there is a lot of dialogue, because that gives me time to become closer with the characters, and to watch them grow through the storyline. But it does have some drawbacks when it comes to continuity: games aren’t being developed in a linear manner, there’s alternate stories, some parts are ready before others, some need to be re-written, etc. I think it took a bit over 3 months for the whole process, but it was spread out over the course of a year from start to finish.

Diana: As Thomas mentioned, this is not a large game, though it does have quite a bit of dialogue. I also agree that this is the most fun part of any project. Dialogues give you the chance to become more creative, and you can decide how a character should talk, based on their personalities. It is fun to shape them through the words we type. The project spanned over several months, mostly because not all content was ready when we first started working on it. The drawback is that there are several pauses and it makes it a bit harder to get a general picture of the game and the different parts that make it.

How do you approach cultural specificity? Some references could make sense in some countries, when they don’t in others. What are the best practices for you?

Thomas: Losing your reference points is a big part of Haven, so I had to be careful for what is alien to Kay and Yu to be also alien for gamers, while also maintaining the cozy parts as relatable. This is where knowing the characters is absolutely crucial because I’m not telling the story, they are! My job is to make sure that gamers are hearing the story more than my own voice.

Diana: This is what localization is all about, bringing the game, the story, the characters to a target audience through expressions and words they can relate to. Again, the goal is to keep in the target version the same effect the text causes in the original. Haven however has its own universe, so the challenge here was not to use references to the real world! I remember one line in which one character called another a “parsnip” and one of the translators was like: “But parsnips don’t exist in Haven”. So we had to change that to something else that made sense in the game universe. We had to keep on our toes and that was fun!

For Haven, writer Pierre Corbinais created a lot of new words: apple dew, creamberry, loofacrid, or even swear words like bloot or boron! How was it to translate those words?

Thomas: Pierre is a terrific writer, and I’m always looking out for what he comes up with. He speaks English quite well too, so he definitely had some input when it came to word inventions, as did Emeric, the creative director for The Game Bakers; some words they came up with, some I gave them options. This is another case where their vision is much more important than my translation because they know the universe better than I do. Cursing is especially difficult because you don’t casually say them, they come straight out of your limbic system; I liked using “boron” as a swear word tough, because it sounds very close to an existing insult, but it’s also an ore that’s kind of everywhere and not particularly valuable.

Diana: This was the most fun part in the localization process. All three translators decided together each of the terms in the game. Each of us suggested a translation and then held a couple of meetings to discuss the terms one by one to settle on a final translation. It was fun making up words for the food and medicines. We based our translations on the French and English alike, also considering the description and the visuals, trying to come up with words that were evocative and that matched the game lore. We also came up with a series of cursing words that we had to use in a different way compared to English. We spent a lot of time deciding the names of the planets. We felt these were an important part of the universe and we wanted to get them right. I am quite happy with the names we came up with.

Thomas: We owe the planets’ names to one Murray Gell-Mann, who actually passed away while the game was in production (look him up!). One of many cheeky references to be found in Pierre’s writing.

What makes a difference for you to be able to provide the best translation? Is it playing the game, a good translation guidebook, a good glossary, direct access to the team to ask questions, a little bit of all of that or actually something else?

Thomas: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. I generally find it hard to rely on glossaries and guidebooks for video games, because it’s such a different practice than other visual media, but sometimes you need specific technical terms. I’ve also never started working on a game that was finished or fully playable (at first I only had gifs for Haven!), but having storyboards and demos is definitely a plus. Access to the team is certainly important in a narrative game, because they have a pre-existing relationship with the characters, but they also have to trust that you are doing your job. So I guess the key is to make sure that translation is part of your design process, and not an afterthought.

Diana: I’d say a bit of everything. It all depends on whether the game is finished by the time we start working on it, or if it’s still early in development and subject to lots of changes. I’d say, the key is to have good communication with the dev team, so we can ask questions and get as many assets as they can share with us: be it a build, gameplay videos or screenshots. In Haven we received a very detailed lockit up front, which helped us all get familiar with the characters, the universe and the mechanics of the game. This to me can be even more valuable than playing the game, since it helps us define how characters will talk, or how we will tackle the localization of certain terms. Having contextual information in the files we work is also very helpful, so that we know exactly where a string is used in the game, or in which context a line is spoken.

What did you enjoy the most while working on Haven?

Thomas: Literally everything: it was a wonderful experience from day one because everyone at The Game Bakers is so talented and dedicated, and the game is obviously beautiful. It felt really comfortable to spend all this time with Kay and Yu. And receiving a new batch of text was always exciting!

Diana: This was a really nice project. The game is beautiful, the characters are lovable and the dialogue was very relatable, so it felt great giving voice to them in our language. I was the editor in the Spanish team, so I got to discuss lots of things with the translators and had to make it all consistent and cohesive. As an editor, or if you are the sole translator, you get to read all the content and that gives you a good understanding of all bits and parts. The Game Bakers were also a very cooperative team, always eager to help. Feeling backed up and taken into consideration is not always a given!

And what was the most challenging for you?

Thomas: Because I was discovering Source at the same time as the characters in-game, approaching some of the practical details was sometimes pretty abstract. Things like Flow and Rust have no analog either for me or for them, so even if I knew more, it wouldn’t necessarily be helpful since the characters don’t have that information. It’s too tempting to over-explain things when you’re dealing with the unknown.

Diana: Probably defining the right terms to keep faithful to the game universe. We wanted to get it right so we took our time. As Thomas mentioned, there are some elements whose meaning was harder to grasp, such as the Flow, and we struggled to convey the exact meaning, but eventually everything fell into place!

Any last word for Haven players?

Thomas: I have to say that the community that came out of Haven is also something to behold. I still lurk on Discord and Twitch pretty regularly to check out how people are reacting to the game, whether it’s their first or hundredth play-through. But it was especially soothing during the early months of the pandemic, when I could just plug in to Haven and enjoy some quality time with my friends… including Oink!

Diana: Since the game was launched, reading all comments players left in Twitter and Discord, I could already tell this was quite a special community, very welcoming. And I feel honoured to be part of it. I just hope the players continue enjoying Yu and Kay for many years, in whatever language they choose to play!

You can follow Diana on Twitter and read more about Thomas on his website!

L’article Interview with Thomas Brasdefer & Diana Diaz Monton est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

So if you like romance, you will find below some recommendations of new works to read, watch or play. Please share yours in the comments too!

Pierre, Writer

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Novel) by Carson McCullers: When asked by a journalist why there weren’t any love stories in the Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers seemed startled and she replied : « There is nothing but that ! ». This is always the first book that comes to my mind when I hear « love story », and even if it is not a romance, it’s definitely all about love.
• Locas (Comic book) by Jaime Hernandez: Locas is a comic book series started in 1985 and still going today. It tells the decades long love story between two L.A. latin-american punk girls Maggie and Hopey. At times they’re together, at times they’re apart, and sometimes they’re not even there. I’ve been reading their stories since I’m a kid and I hope I’ll keep reading them for a long time. Locas is my The Young and the Restless.

• Pilules Bleues (Comic book) by Frederik Peeters’ Lupus: I already mention Frederik Peeters’ Lupus when asked about my inspirations for Haven. Pilules Bleues is an autobiography about a couple dealing with H.I.V. It’s funny, sad, beautiful but most importantly : it’s deeply human.
• Strangers in Paradise (Comic book) by Terry Moore: Katchoo loves Francine. David loves Katchoo. As for Francine, well, she’s figuring things out. This might sound like a pretty classic love triangle, and it would be if Strangers in Paradise didn’t also involve troubled pasts, secret agents and crime syndicates. Is this soap opera comic book a bit too long? Maybe. Did it jump the shark a few times? Certainly. It’s still a landmark of US indie comic books and is well worth your time!
• When Harry met Sally (Movie) by Rob Reiner & Nora Ephron: This movie is often mentioned as one of the best romcom movies of all times (if not the best) but what I love the most about it is that… it’s hardly a romcom? I mean, most of the movie is about friendship, not romance. A Friendcom maybe? Now, is there really a difference between friendship and romance? Are they two different categories? A spectrum? Is sex compatible with friendship? Its absence with romance? Well let’s watch the movie and find out.
• Castaway on the moon (Movie) by Lee Hae-joon: He’s stuck on a desert island in the middle of Seoul, she’s stuck in her room. Soybean noodles will bring them together. Sure, it doesn’t make any sense now, but in its own way, Castaway on the moon is a pretty classic romcom.
• Language Lessons (Movie) by Natalie Morales & Mark Duplass: After a year in lock-down doing zoom calls after zoom calls, I didn’t think I would enjoy a movie which is basically that, zoom calls. And yet. Language Lessons is a super impressive first movie, a surprising huis-clos, and a wholehearted friendship/love story.

• Alabama Monroe (The Broken Circle Breakdown) (Movie) by Felix Van Froeningen and Carl Joos: Sometimes you want to watch a cute lighthearted romcom, sometimes, you just want to cry every single drip of water your body contains, and more. Alabama Monroe is for the latter. You’ve been warned.
• Big Ocean Wide Jacket (Video game) by Turnfollow: Would Big Ocean Wide Jacket even qualify as a love story? I think it does. It even offers two love stories for the price of one: the newborn, tweenish and cute love story between Mord and Ben, and the steady, tried-and-tested and not any less cute love story between Uncle Brad and Aunt Cloanne. It’s literally the best video game ever made (I mean it) and it’s short enough to be played 5 times in a row in a single day.

Emeric, Creative Director

• Thelma & Louise (Movie) directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri: A road trip that goes bad for Louise and Thelma. I first saw this movie when I was much younger, and it struck me as one of the best love stories ever. To the point that, when I saw it again much later, I was surprised to realize that they were only presented as “friends”. Still one of the best love stories for me.

• Ruby Sparks (Movie) written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton: It’s the story of a writer who sees the character of his novel come to life. It’s both very funny and surprising and a nice angle on what happens in a couple when the balance of freedom is broken.
• Maison Ikkoku (manga) by Rumiko Takahashi: I love Maison Ikkoku not so much because of the love story but because it shows the daily life of normal Japanese people. It’s fun, moving, and still very unique even though it’s 40 years old.

• Nagi no asukara (Anime) directed byToshiya Shinohara & written by Mari Okada : Despite its cheesy looks, this anime is quite a surprise if you give it a chance for more than 3-4 episodes. I won’t spoil anything but if you’re into coming of age romcoms with a twist, it’s a good one.
• Marin Eden (book) by Jack London : This book by Jack London is probably the most impactful love story I ever read. A young, poor and illiterate sailor falls in love with an aristocrat and to seduce her he dedicates his life to become successful as a writer. An unmatched love story about obsession.

Audrey, Executive Producer

• Saga (Comic book) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: A major inspiration for Haven. The story of a couple from two nations at war, fugitives hunted down by formidable foes, trying to protect their child. Yet on the backdrop of the epic odds they are against, their story is so ordinary and relatable: lassitude in the couple, raising children, getting on with the in-laws, giving birth…
• In The Mood for Love (Movie) by Wong Kar-wai: For the sensuality and the restrained desire that emanate from this impossible love but also for the voluptuousness of the nights of Hong Kong.
• Lost in Translation (Movie) by Sofia Coppola: for everything that doesn’t happen between them, the unspoken words, everything that could have been and never will be.

Marjorie, Game Artist

• Lore Olympus (Webtoon) by Rachel Smythe: I love the cartoonist art style and the story. It’s about the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades but in a revisited and more modern version. It also deals with a lot of difficult subjects like harassment, physical & moral violence, rape.
• Wuthering Heights (Novel) by Emily Brontë: It’s a dark but delicate story and setting. A story of love and revenge in England in the early 1800s.
• Final Fantasy X (Video game) by Square: My favorite game of all time, but also a amazing story of chemistry & love between Tidus & Yuna.

Julien, Programmer

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (Novel) by Sarah J. Maas that tells the tale of a young mortal Feyre Archeron who is abducted into the land of fairies after she accidentally kills one. This is a fantastic love story full of tension.

• Kimi no Na wa (movie) by Makoto Shinkai. What to say? Probably my favorite Japanese animation movie. A cocktail of emotions and surprises that left me with a wonderful memory, and especially a reaction like: “But wait… what? WHAT?!”
• Outlanders (TV Show) based on the novel from Diana Gabaldon: A huge crush. I think I watched the first season in just one week.

Also, one of my passions being music:

• Crépuscule – Coeur de pirate,
• Enfant de – Pierre de Maere
• Margaux, Omar, Marlow – Kyo

Steven, Game Designer

• Banana Fish (Manga) written by Akimi Yoshida : This manga starts off pretty intense: the first volume shows gang wars, murders, corruption, sexual exploitation… It kind of feels like a gritty HBO show. And in the middle of that, these two characters meet. At first, I didn’t think much of it, there was a lot going on anyway. But the more I read, the more I found myself rooting for these two, hoping they would overcome the many obstacles between them and find their way together. It might not be a love story in the strictest sense, but in my book, it’s definitely a great one.
  tldr: Came for the gunfights, stayed to see the relationship between the two main characters unfold.

Mylène, Marketing Specialist

• Malgré tout (Comic book): This story by Jordi Lefebvre is about two lovers who never had the opportunity of living their love. It’s very touching and the narrative structure is very refreshing <3

• This is Us (TV Show) created by Dan Fogelman: This is a story about family but also about love. I really enjoy the couple dynamics which are always trying to get the best of their partners. They feel relatable and a couple goals at the same time, and make us cry a lot!

Here you go for a few recommendations from Haven’s team, we hope you will make some discoveries that will stay with you for a long time.

L’article Favorite Love Stories of the team! est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

Over the last two years (time flies!), you have been sharing with us your stories playing Haven, how you thought Yu or Kay reminded you of people you knew, how some of you enjoyed playing the game with a partner, and how you were touched by their adventures in the world of Source. We received so much love from this community, so again thank you for all the messages, artworks, or recipes shared. It’s time to give a little back, so let’s have a new community week celebration!

For this new Haven Community Week, we will share some behind-the-scenes details and secrets about the game, new wallpapers, interviews with some of the team members who worked on Haven, a selection of our dev team’s favorite love stories, and more! As a tradition now during our community week, and because many of you are so talented, we are having a Fan art contest on the theme “You love them when they do…”. All the details and the prices to win are available here. We can’t wait to see what this subject inspires you!

Haven is also discounted with the highest discount ever, -60% off on Steam, GOG, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and 50% off on Xbox so we count on you to spread the word among your friends!

L’article Haven – Share the love during the Community Week <3 est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

This is the story of Haven, a romantic space adventure about two lovers trying to stay together against all odds. Who are these two lovers, you ask? Well, with this Couple Update, the question just got more interesting.

Haven originally let you play as Yu, the hot-headed mechanic and Kay, the cautious biologist. This free update introduces two new characters: Yu, the hot-headed mechanic; and Kay, the cautious biologist. Which means you’ll now be able to play with Yu & Kay, Yu & Kay, or even Yu & Kay.

Still confused? Ok let’s clarify a bit: while Haven originally let you play as a heterosexual couple, you will now be able to play as a same-gender couple.

It could feel like a small change, but Haven being a game about the freedom to love whomever you want, we’re really happy to provide more ways for players to identify with our precious couple.

Whoever you chose to play, the main story won’t change, nor will the personality of the characters. What will change is their design, models, art, animations, quite a few lines, and of course, their voices, since the 80,000 lines of dialog have been entirely re-voiced by our amazing voice actors, Lexie Ann Kendrick (Kay) and Ryan Highley (Yu).

When we first started to work on this update, soon after the release, I was curious, as a writer, about how the original dialogues would translate for these two new couples. Will some of them sound odd? Unnatural? After all, I wrote Kay as a man, and Yu as a woman, didn’t I?

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that, pronouns and minor details aside, almost nothing had to be edited. Overall, the alchemy between the characters remained unaffected.

As if characters weren’t determined by their gender. As if men and women could have the same interests, the same thoughts, the same feelings.

Funny.

We hope you’re as excited as we were to discover or rediscover your favorite couple. Oink, for once, can’t wait to meet his two new moms. Or dads.

Haven Couple Update is available for free on PC, PlayStation 5 & 4,Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

Pierre Corbinais

L’article Haven Update: Meet the new Yu and Kay est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.

Haven is a game about the freedom to love whomever you want, and that’s why we’re particularly happy to bring this free Couple update to all platforms. You can now choose to play the game with the Yu and Kay you prefer: either a woman and a man, two women, or two men. Check the update trailer:

This update will not change the story arc for Haven, and you still play as Yu and Kay, but the game offers more options as to the composition of the couple. Haven can now represent love in a broader way!

This update is special to us. Originally, the concept for Haven featured 8 couples, with a diverse range of relationships. It became clear during production that we wouldn’t be able to reach our initial vision for the full cast of characters, so we focused on the two characters you know well. But right after the game launch, we went back to work on this update to add the alternate couples!

You can read more about the Update in two very exciting blog posts:

• One by our Creative Director Emeric Thoa for Sony Playstation: Read the blog post
• One by Haven’s Writer Pierre Corbinais on Xbox Wire: Read the blog post

We’re very happy to be able to provide the lovers’ story in two new ways that more players can identify with. We’re looking forward to seeing which Yu and Kay you will play, as you enjoy the two lovers’ adventures on planet Source (and catch up with Oink!).

As always, a big thank you for playing our games and your support,
The team at Game Bakers

L’article Choose your Yu and Kay and play as a same-gender couple with the Haven update available now! est apparu en premier sur The Game Bakers.