Q: I FOUND IT INTERESTING THAT AS YOU DO BETTER IN THE GAME, YOU SEEM TO BE FLYING AWAY.
I was looking at things that appealed to women as players and things that dealt with fantasy. Fantasy is a strong element of sexuality and I wanted to work with it, but not in a literal way. There was a certain aesthetic that I wanted, a feeling of freedom and release, so the concept, in full, would allow much further travel – the demo is sort of scratching the surface.
Q: I WAS READING THAT YOU INCLUDED THE TEAPOTS, BANANAS AND OTHER ITEMS BASED ON WHAT WERE IN WOMEN’S FANTASIES. DID YOU READ STUDIES ABOUT THIS OR TALK WITH WOMEN DIRECTLY?
I did do a little polling of my friend about what kind of things they connected to fantasies. When I say they “fantasized about,” it’s not like they were saying “I’m really turned on by teapots.” It’s a combination of these visual things, like a teapot, that symbolize sexual pleasure. Not all are directly Freudian like, say, a banana. One friend I talked to said that when she was really turned on she could smell cupcakes, or would see sparklers. You may see these elements, but they are not directly about pornography.
Q: THE TOUCH SCREEN MAKES IT APPROPRIATE, BUT THERE IS STILL SOMETHING SUBVERSIVE ABOUT DOING THIS TYPE OF GAME ON THE NINTENDO DS, A KID-FRIENDLY MACHINE.
But the game is kid friendly. I’m sort of walking that fine line. The intention was not to make an adult game. A lot of women don’t play games at all, so I was trying to figure out what would appeal to them. Many wouldn’t play something sexually hardcore, so what kind of sex game would appeal to women? Also, the Nintendo DS really appeals to game designers because of the touch screen and portability. The aesthetic of the machine was my main motivation.
Q: AND I READ YOU ACTUALLY WON THE GAMES CONTEST. HOW WAS THE REACTION?
I did win and the reaction was surprisingly pleasant. I was the only female competitor, and the others were really well known and
beloved game designers, so I felt the pressure of representing not only Ubisoft’s intellectual talent, but women in general. You’re talking about a topic in our everyday real jobs that we don’t usually address, so it was good in that respect!
The reaction was interesting because I was in front of a relatively large audience demoing a female stimulation simulator. The audience was about 95 percent guys. It was funny because there was a deep hush over the audience when I talked about certain parts of the game. It wasn’t a bad hush, and the reaction to the demo when it was over was well and good, so it was quite encouraging.
Q: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO CREATE THE LAPIS DEMO? I’M ASSUMING YOU JUST DID IT IN YOUR SPARE TIME.
It was mostly done within a month, but you’re right, I wasn’t doing it on company time! Having a full month to work on it would have been lovely. A lot of things that go on with the GDC [Game Developer’s Conference] and stuff like that, Ubisoft is really good about encouraging people not only on game designers in projects like this but also musicians and artists. So I did work on it over the course of a month, but not a solid month. After I got the concept down I brought in a team of friends, not all of them Ubisoft employees, to help with the demo.
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