Love and Chaos: A Share House Visual Novel Background

Background

Thanks so much for your interest in crowdfunding “Love and Chaos: A Share House Visual Novel”. My name is Akane. I was in charge of planning and production for this game, from creating the characters and developing the plot to devising the game’s world.

Around the time I first began wanting to make a game which would help players learn how to better connect with themselves while enjoying romances between characters, I was personally troubled regarding my own personal relationships, and was under a lot of pressure at work. This led me to visiting a mental health clinic.

Back then, I found myself longing to get into an accident every day rather than face work. I honestly thought that I could escape from work and my relationship issues with impunity if I were hospitalized. I was sure that people wouldn’t blame me or be disappointed if I got injured in an accident and couldn’t work. After all, I wouldn’t be responsible for causing it!—That was how I was thinking.

Fortunately, over the course of guided Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a counsellor, I came to notice and learn about those negative thinking patterns I’d fallen into without ever noticing. Slowly but surely, I regained the ability to feel joy at work.

Even among my friends who faced the same sorts of issues, while some were themselves recommended by people to seek counselling and CBT, I noticed most of them were hesitant. They said things like, “I don’t think my problems are serious enough to need medical help” and “I’d be embarrassed if anyone found out I was in therapy”. Some of them were also very anxious that they’d be diagnosed with ADHD or another condition without being properly examined or taken seriously if they dared to take the plunge and seek assistance from a professional.

By being afraid or embarrassed, or not wanting to to uncover particularly bad memories or thoughts, or for any other reason… What if people spiral downwards beyond the point of recovery because they aren’t able to receive consultation with specialist organizations? That question preyed on my mind. I felt like the world would benefit if there was a tool out there that would deliver accurate info easily to help people understand their own minds.

My first thought about how I could create something like that was that I should do something related to entertainment. I’ve been making VN romance games for a long time, so that felt like a good option. But what cemented it was how, as an otaku, I’ve always been inspired by certain characters. I’ve always been saved by idols who aim to make their audience smile, and anime characters who stand up against unimaginable foes when push comes to shove.

Just when I was wondering what would be the best way to go about giving advice on how to better understand your mind (as well as what advice to give), I stumbled across an interview article featuring HIKARI Lab. In it, I read that HIKARI Lab founder Ms Ayako Shimizu had already released an RPG app game in Japan (developed in New Zealand) in which players can learn CBT techniques. She was quoted saying, “I believe that when we start by giving players characters they find interesting and want to see in a game, it’s possible to improve their physical and mental health without resorting to “obvious” counselling.”

“This is how we can do it!” I thought, and contacted Ms Shimizu on that very day. Thankfully, she was interested in my concept too, and we started production on “Love and Chaos: A Share House Visual Novel”.

Flooded with inspiration, I first narrowed the game’s target audience to adult women. I decided to make the protagonist a working woman, and show her experiencing issues that are common in people’s careers and social life. She’s the kind of character that you can totally see in the real world. Thereafter, I kept in mind my resolution to craft relatable romances as I worked on making the game with HIKARI Lab’s input.

As we developed the game, I proposed that we include depictions of romances between women as well as heterosexual romances. favary has produced and distributed several games with gay and lesbian romances before “Love and Chaos: A Share House Visual Novel”, since I have always personally enjoyed playing and watching such stories and want to make and release my own stories in that vein. In fact, this was one of the main reasons I founded favary.

I sometimes receive fanmail from players in the LGBT community saying things like “I’ve been waiting to see a love story like this” and “Playing made me forget the harshness of reality for a while.” I feel that the characters and stories I create go beyond being pure entertainment and manage to be sources of encouragement for people I’ve never met, which has become a huge motivation for me to continue. I am a cis woman and am married to a man. No one on our staff is an out member of the LGBT community. I’m aware that people who aren’t involved with favary may express discomfort with this. But in my goal to make available more LGBT-relevant stories, I’ve come to feel strongly that there are things I can do to help shape our society to better understand and respect our individual differences. Not to mention, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender is an ongoing problem in many communities and environments. It is not something that’s only in our past. For that reason, I’m grateful that I can now freely express myself thanks to how other people have helped me, and I appreciate that I can keep learning every day.

“Love and Chaos: A Share House Novel” was born out of my combined wish to “change” and “take action”, and grew thanks to the support of my wonderful partner.

And now, we’re launching this Kickstarter with the desire to deliver it to many more people.

It would make me very happy if you’d lend us your support for “”Love and Chaos: A Share House Novel”.

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