A new dating sim/doggo caring hybrid Best Friend Forever will be releasing on the Switch next month, so we barked at Starcol for some more information on the game! It’s adorable and seems to be super engaging with doggie stat progression and characters of various sexualities!
Chris: Can you give us the elevator pitch for Best Friend Forever?
Starcol: Sure thing! Best Friend Forever is the world’s first dating-and-dog-friendship simulator, where your totally normal human love life grows along with the relationship you share with your New Best Friend.
BFF aims to create lasting and empathetic connections between the players and story by subverting dating sim tropes — stat-raising their dogs to create a connection, and delivering an equally engaging romance story to compliment it.
Chris: What was your inspiration for Best Friend Forever? Is it from personal experience?
Starcolt: Our Studio Director Lucy Morris loves dogs, and she loves dating sims — so she wanted to combine the two, and BFF was born. It might also be driven by our desires as renting millennials to own dogs, but that’s another story.
Chris: How did you blend the pet grooming and dating sim components to create a cohesive game?
Starcolt: Your dog stays with you all the time! We have dedicated a special part of each week for you to plan and enact activities with your pup, but aside from that we have the little “dogagotchi” in the corner of your screen which is constantly pooping, barking, eating stuff from the floor and generally doing dog stuff.
Your job is to train them and care for them — and sometimes that means picking up poop when you’re on a date.
Chris: How many dog breeds are there in the game, and what’s your favourite?
Starcolt: We have a Staffy, Mutt, Shiba Inu, and Maltese — I think my favourite is probably the mutt, he’s a very good athletic and tall boy!
Chris: Are there LGBT+ relationships in the game, as well as straight relationships? What steps did you take to make it representative, if you do have LGBT+ characters?
Starcolt: We do! We let you pick your own pronouns, image, and name in Woofr, and all six characters are romanceable regardless of your gender. We also have a trans love interest, and past LGBT+ relationships of the love interests are hinted at throughout the game. Taking steps to make sure we were doing it right wasn’t particularly difficult — almost our entire studio is LGBT, and if we hadn’t had a certain experience we had a lot of great friends we could reach out to. This game has had many consultants!
Chris: Why didn’t you go with the name Best Friends Furever?
Starcolt: BFF isn’t about dating dogs, and we didn’t want to give the wrong impression by using a name that alluded to furries!
Chris: What is woofr?
Starcolt: Woofr is our in-game customisation and dating app. It asks you cute questions, such as “Are you available for babysitting 9am-5pm Mon-Fri?”. Make of that what you will.
Chris: Are you planning to release the game on other platforms?
Starcolt: Just PC, Mac and Switch — we’re a small team, so we can only do so much!
Chris: Are there any final thoughts to give to Switch owners and dog lovers everywhere?
Starcolt: We’re so excited to show our game with you! If you’d like to join in with our community, you can find us here: https://discord.gg/bff . Or, you can check out our website: www.bffgame.dog. Hope to see you there!
Best Friend Forever is scheduled to release on May 14th, 2020.
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