Love Limit: a game where your date invades Earth

 Alana M. Carroll

Art Director 

A first date is, more often than not, a nerve-wracking affair. Even more so is a blind first date arranged by your younger sister. Just when it seems your mysterious match has decided not to come, spaceships descend from the sky outside. Then, a nonhuman face appears on every screen in your vicinity, apologizing for his lack of punctuality and assuring you that he will arrive shortly for your “duel.”

“You gave my information to an alien!” you scream at your younger sister.

“But he’s a super cute alien!”

Created for Otome Jam 2024, Love Limit is a visual novel following three days in the life of Eiren Reeves. Set up on a blind date by her younger sister, Lynne, Eiren is wrapped up in an alien invasion and forced to romance Prince Egen Xiakafhizal (pronounced sha-cough-fa-hi-xhal) of the planet Orthon to ensure safety for Earth and her fellow “Earthians”. In spite of a rough takeoff, their relationship has the opportunity to bloom or wilt depending on the players’ choices. It is an Otome game, a genre of romance game originating in Japan focusing on a female protagonist romancing one, or multiple, male leads. While love is the primary focus, Love Limit combines the trope with slapstick humor and witty dialogue adjacent to that of a comedy.

The title screen for Love Limit. Photo by Alana Carroll.

The script editor, Quacksolotl, shared the importance of humor when working on the script. “Working on Love Limit was a lot like taking part in an improv comedy routine with Nune. Day after day, we would constantly ‘yes, and’ each other’s jokes.”

Comedy, in fact, was what initially drew him to work on the project alongside Nune, the creative director. Quacksolotl was asked about his motivation and he said: “The sheer absurdity of the premise was an immediate draw. A game about having a blind date with an alien invader, with the vibes of a Saturday morning cartoon? Who wouldn’t be drawn to such a whimsical project!”

What constitutes a visual novel? According to a 2021 article, a visual novel is, broadly, a “digital‭ ‬narrative‭ ‬focused‭ ‬game‭ ‬that‭ ‬requires‭ ‬interactions‭ ‬where‭ ‬the player‭ ‬must‭ ‬be‭ ‬able‭ ‬to‭ ‬impact‭ ‬the‭ ‬story‭ ‬world‭ ‬or‭ ‬the‭ ‬story’s‭ ‬progression”. Some compare them to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books published by Bantam Books through the 1980s and 1990s. The game was published to itch.io, a hub for independent creators to share their game creations. Many popular games have started on the website, such as Friday Night Funkin’, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning. Despite its lesser-known status when compared to those games, Love Limit is carefully and compassionately written. Each character, major or minor (and even those who spend the story unnamed), leaves an impact. Egen is the only “dateable” character, Nune of Winking Corvid Studios, a women-run indie game studio, shared that this was not always the case. 

“While Egen was always the poster boy of the game, I considered the possibility of dating any of the three chief Ornthonians on the ship in the beginning,” Nune shared during a Q&A. Being the project manager, writer, character artist, and the programmer behind the game, the primary story direction sat in her hands. Egen’s right-hand men, Andelle and Nabo, respectively, play a secondary role in the story. Despite their relatively brief screen-time, plenty of consideration was put into each scene they were in.

The itch.io game page. Photo by Alana Carroll.

“Andelle was originally supposed to speak in an overly-flowery and eloquent manner. He was actually supposed to be overly-kind to everyone except Egen. … Another notable [change] is that Nabo used to have Andelle’s job, and Andelle used to have Nabo’s job! I swapped them because I felt the occupations suited their personalities better.”

She also elaborated that Egen’s role as a main character was a result of enthusiastic approval from those who were introduced to the project early on. 

“He just barely had a foot in the door as a love interest, but everyone was excited to know what he’d do next! It was incredibly encouraging.”

Despite being the first and only game from Winking Corvid Studio, it has received critical acclaim from those who have played it, currently having an average rating of 4.9 stars and a total of 243 reviews. The overwhelming positive reception has ensured that more content for the game will come soon, with Nune working on more character sprites and a functional mobile version of the game. Most excitingly, Winking Corvid Studio is working on a fandisc, Love Limitless, to be launched on Steam, arguably the most widely-used game distribution service. 

The game’s 3 Ornthonian characters in-game. Photo by Alana Carroll.

A fandisc is a package of new content released for an existing game, and Nune has assured fans that there will be much to explore with both fan favorites and new characters alike. The game will follow Eiren as she explores Ornthon and meets Egen’s family. New features to the game will include CGs (short for Computer Graphics, meaning special art of important scenes), customizable relationship intensity, and map exploration. While Love Limit was only around 45,000 words long, Nune estimated that Love Limitless will be more than twice as long, with 130,000 words at minimum. “We sincerely hope players look forward to their vacation on Ornthon to the fullest!” she posted in a Sept. 27 brief.