My reply was harsh and this one will probably sound that way too, but I think some players are not realizing the situation here. I, the writer, am 33-years-old. I write games that are intended to be helpful/reassuring/encouraging to people mainly 10-20 years younger than me (though I am happy some players older than early 20s like the games, too!). It’s the kind of stories I would’ve liked to see when I was 10-20 years younger. “Shipping culture” means nothing to me. I have a responsibility to make a game where the romance progression is age appropriate and the relationships are healthy.

There is no way on earth I am going to be neutral on power dynamic, age gap pairings of the characters I make because some people find that an “interesting” topic to make fan stories on. Yes, people are gonna imagine whatever they want for themselves, but I’m not a part of it. I have a strong line against that because it is not okay for what I’m trying to do here. It was, in fact, shitty to see some people trying to spread lies that content of that nature was promoted in the game itself.

You can’t ask me to be in my 30s as a game developer who writes child/teenage characters and say “creating uncomfortable stories with minors is fine because they’re not real” or to be a “pro-shipper” or say “someone who is almost an adult can certainly date someone who is barely a teen” or something. Absolutely not.

If this makes OL not possible for you to play anymore, I’m sorry. But it is the truth and it’d ruin way more people’s enjoyment of the game if they thought the adult they were trusting was cool with inappropriate content of the minor characters that adult created. I’d rather stop making games entirely than do something that’d make the young people who like those games feel objectified by someone much older.

Seriously, you don’t want me to be “on your side” with “problematic” or “kinky” relationships relating to minors. Adults making content about underage characters for real life teenagers/young adults to read about should not be promoting or tolerating that. It is irresponsible at best and dangerous at worst.

So remember, whenever content comes out from GB Patch Games, this somebody 33-years-old doing it as a job, not a fellow fan or fellow teen. I am someone who should be held accountable for what I’m doing and I’m trying my best to do it right.

That’s really shitty to know. Baxter does not have a crush on Qiu in Step 2. They’re not even friends. Baxter having a crush on Qiu in Step 1 is for the sake of showing how sheltered and spoiled he was at that time. He was still acting like a little kid. But Baxter didn’t so much as mention it. It was a lot of admiration for somebody without doing anything. When the story of OL2 starts it’s already the beginning of the end for that. It’s not long after that when the crush is over and the two start to drift apart.

The first crush on Qiu situation is an embarrassing story of his past. It’s something Baxter only admits to once he’s a young adult (and in an entirely separate game) to poke fun at himself. Baxter and Qiu aren’t a relationship pairing. They wouldn’t have gotten together if the MC wasn’t around or anything like that. Baxter really just wants to be friends with Qiu and also Ren, but it doesn’t go well because of his own issues.

Also, those couple awkward scenes in Assistance are the only time Baxter and Qiu interact in all of Step 2. Step 2 is massive, hundreds of thousands of words, and those two speak about twice. There’s nothing at all between them. Anybody who isn’t getting that are just twisting things.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, GB PATCH COMMUNITY! 🎁

Thanks for sticking by us through development, updates, setbacks, and everything in-between. 🫡 We appreciate you more than you know!

Our final sneak peek video of the year is here: The Step 2 Linked Moment opening!

Sure, standardized testing is coming up. Not great. BUT! The school is throwing a huge fundraiser to make things a bit more exciting.

Your vote in this scene determines which Moment you’ll experience first (“Tested” or “PJ Day”). Choose wisely! (Just kidding, they’re both fun 😅)

This is a limited edition drop, and will not return back to production. It’ll be available until Friday, December 20th, at 6:00am PST.

🚨 If you’ve been waiting to snag one, this is the final call! 🚨

The team has been hard at work as the year wraps up, and we’re here with our mid-month update!

This month, we brought on TWO new background artists: Tiana (Botai) Wen (@_taiart0229) and Ze from Square Weasel Studio.

We’re incredibly excited to have them join our team. They are both full of talent and will make fabulous additions to the GB fam.

GB reports that she has finished the draft of the 10th Step 2 Moment! The first part of the Step 2 linked Moment is also being programmed.

Finally, the Our Life Ocean hoodie has been extended through December 20th, at 6am PST. If you’ve been waiting, now’s the time! Once this one is gone, it’s gone for good.

Thanks for reading! We’ll have another update for you in two weeks – our last one of the year! 😳

The update happening on the 15th is a text post to explain what has been worked on in the past couple weeks. It’ll still be a while before the beta gets an update this month. I’m sorry for the confusion!

Haha, it reflects the last expression the MC had in-game. So, if your MC has been unhappy lately, it will show on their info screen.

There are some alterations in gender/sex related scenes if you are intersex and a specific scene where you can talk to Yusuf about it, since he is also intersex! I’m happy you love the game.

Thanks, haha. That is what I was trying to go with for her! She doesn’t mean to be mean, but is still immature and self-centered in some of her beliefs. Vianca thinks having good intentions and having her own reasons for what she does is what counts. Her view is that not enough people support ladies in society (and this is back in 2014) and so she will, as strongly as possible. She views it as unfair that she wouldn’t be allowed to act that way. She takes any advice on her attitude as essentially being told to “not care so much about girls”, which she’s heard more than enough of already. And she sees herself as not bothering anybody else. She just leaves them alone, so what’s the problem? But genders and humans in general are more complicated than she truly gets. Vianca is 14 and thinks she’s got it all figured out already. No offense to anyone at that age, but you have plenty of years to keep learning more.

Our hope is that you’ll be able to keep saves in future builds. So, instead of forcing your file to end at the end of the demo, it goes back to the Moment select screen. One day, there will be more Moments to play and if all goes well you’ll be able to load that file to access them.