Over the Hungry Ghost Games Festival organised by SEAGamethetic, I chanced upon the adorable matchmaking ghost game, Love, Ghostie! Its developer, Jennifer, kindly filled in an interview with us. In Love, Ghostie, you play a well-intentioned ghost who wants to matchmake its residents. You do so by giving gifts and each pairing offers a delightful dynamic!
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you?
My name is Jennifer and I used to work as a software engineer in the mobile gaming industry. When I was in college, I took a couple of game design courses and absolutely loved them. Ever since then, I’ve always dreamed of releasing an indie game and now I’ve done it! Love, Ghostie is our debut game and something that I’m extremely proud of!
2. What games do you enjoy in your free time, and did any of them inspire any aspects of Love, Ghostie?
I love playing JRPGs! Some of my favorite franchises are Final Fantasy, Octopath Traveler, and Fire Emblem. Even though Love, Ghostie is not a JRPG, it was actually inspired by Fire Emblem! In Fire Emblem, there are dating sim/shipping components that I absolutely love. I found myself doing anything I could to increase characters’ support levels so I could watch their unique support conversations and their relationship dynamics. I wanted to play another game with similar mechanics, but didn’t know of any others that focused only on relationship building, so I decided to make it myself!
3. Did you create all the art in Love, Ghostie by yourself? How did you draw inspiration for each character design and objects to be discovered in the game?
The art was created by two friends, Bing and Susan! They’re both extremely talented at what they do and have done an amazing job on the art in Love, Ghostie. A lot of the character and object designs are based on personal aspects of our lives! For example, Wobbles, the penguin, exists because penguins are my favorite animal and I love the colors teal and mint. Sky, the polar bear, is based on one of Bing’s cats. As a teenager, I loved emo/punk music so that’s why Gerard, the emo giraffe, exists! As for the object designs, we brainstormed different items as a group and thought it would be fun to include silly items that normally wouldn’t be gifts!
4. What game engine is Love, Ghostie designed on and why?
Love, Ghostie is built on Unity. The main reason why I picked Unity is because I already had experience using it at my previous job! While it would be interesting to learn other game engines, games are hard enough to make as it is, so it’s easiest to go with what I’m most comfortable with.
5. Do you have any characters or ships who are your personal favourites?
It’s too hard to choose! I personally love Apollo x Wobbles, Gerard x Ami, Apollo x Felix, Mina x Noir, Felix x Sky, but I could go on forever! I think there’s something I love about every pairing – whether it’s their dynamics, their storyline, their ending, or their couple art!
6. What inspired the design and dynamics for the lovable critters in Love, Ghostie?
We drew inspiration from tons of sources! We played LOTS of Fire Emblem and watched LOTS of K-dramas and romcoms. We first decided on each character’s personality, building their backstory, their insecurities, and their reason for “not finding love.” Creating a strong identity for each character made it a lot easier to imagine the dynamics between each pairing and how they would interact with each other!
7. As an indie developer, how do you plan your time and balance work and life?
It’s hard, because there’s always so much more to do than what I have time for. I try to stick to “normal” work hours to preserve a work/life balance, but when there’s a deadline, I often find myself working late. However, I try not to make that a habit and make sure to rest and relax with my other hobbies. It’s so easy to burn out, so it’s important to be aware of how much I’m working.
8. What keeps you inspired to continue game development?
Game development is so tough. It’s so hard and often underappreciated how much work goes into making a game. There have been many times where I’ve felt like giving up, but what inspires me to continue is seeing the reaction of players. It’s so fulfilling to see someone enjoy something you’ve made and really connect with the story or characters you’ve created.
9. Love, Ghostie has earned a lot of praise after its release, and I enjoyed it thoroughly during the Hungry Ghost Games Festival as well! Were there any receptions that were unexpected or surprising with its release?
Shortly after release, I think many people didn’t realize how replayable Love, Ghostie is! While we tried to emphasize that every resident is shippable with everyone else, it’s hard to imagine just how many combinations there are. The number of combinations grows exponentially with each character, so there are 66 combinations with 12 characters. While a single playthrough can be short, you have to play it at least 11 times to see all the character endings! I had to patch in an ending screen after the credits to show how many endings they’ve seen out of 66 and show that it’s meant to be replayed!
10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about your games?
We have a newsletter on our website at janbehgames.com and you can follow me on Twitter, Bsky, Instagram, or TikTok!
Thank you so much for reading our 21st developer interview, and my sincerest apologies for the delay in getting some of these up. Our site went through a major migration but we’re now back up and running! Hopefully, this means more consistent updates and features. Thank you so much again to Jennifer for the interview and the team at Janbeh Games for creating this delightful cozy game!