How do you balance your creative life and your family life? An unexpected video game will help players around the world confront that problem.
We’ve embedded the trailer for The Novelist below–what do you think? Developer Kent Hudson spent over ten years working on major video game releases like Deus Ex: Invisible War and BioShock 2, but felt “creatively restless.” Nearly two years ago, he left work and started an indie video game. Here’s more about the game:
The desire for relatable, universal subject matter led to its focus on a single family. During its development, the concept began to hit closer and closer to home; as months passed and the challenges of independent development made themselves known, Kent faced scenarios eerily similar to those he was creating in the game. Can a person follow their dreams while remaining connected to those they love?
Kotaku interviewed the designer last week. Here’s an excerpt:
my hope is that as you’re presented with the same fundamental question in nine different ways over the course of the game, that you start to learn about your own values. And by the end… maybe your guy has written the greatest book ever but his wife left him and his kid is getting in trouble at school at the time. Well, I guess when push comes to shove you’ve decided that career’s more important than family. Or vice versa.
The video was featured over at Reddit’s Litvideos page, a growing community spot to share book trailers, author interviews and other literary videos.