Project W Post: November 2024
It's finally a Project W Wednesday!
This month, I want to share a little more info on the non-human race of beings that I came up with for this game. The character you create and play as is one of these fantasy individuals, the shorthand for them are "L"s. Ls are humanoid in body type and are as intelligent and capable as humans, but they're still pretty different from humans. They've got their own survival needs and social norms. They are also not creatures of flesh and blood, Ls don't reproduce sexually, and they're not assigned genders at birth.
The majority of Ls do not have chosen pronouns or think anything of "masculine" or "feminine" or generally "gendered" qualities. They speak of others non-specifically. Ls don't even use someone's name unless they're close or have been requested to do so. It's not rude to never ask about aspects of one's identity, it's considered impolite- an unnecessarily personal question. Ls simply speak to someone directly without any acknowledgement of their identity, say "you" or human/L, or use a relationship term such as companion or friend, or refer to another by a visual detail.
If for some reason an L needs to be called by a pronoun, the default for their kind is "it". For Ls, the pronoun "they" is viewed as a more neutral term for a typically gendered being, not a term for genderless creatures like them. They'd rather have a term humans use for inanimate objects since those are by default ungendered. But in this world humans have been historically accepting of pronouns other than he/him and she/her, so "they/them" is a common pronoun used for identity expression in human society. Some humans do use "it" as well, but that's still the best option to the Ls. Though, of course, despite the majority insisting on their lack of gender, there are Ls who feel that they do have a gender. Ls exist who are are men, women, have specific pronouns they are comfortable with, etc.
You will be free to choose any gender and pronouns, just like you can in Our Life. However, your choices are basically boiled down to living as a totally gender-free being or as someone who is trans/gender queer in different ways. You won't face cruelty/violence for not being an agender L, however you will need to go out of your way to assert who you are and not everyone will understand why you care. So, that'll be something to keep in mind!
And I'll leave the post off there. Ideas are still coming along for the game. I hope to be able to share even more in 2025. I can't believe we're almost there.
February 2024 (Time Period, world, and MC details)
March 2024 (Story and release structures)
April 2024 (A bit of leading character details)
May 2024 (Info on the brainstorming process)
June 2024 (Explaining serious content level)
July 2024 (Scale and ambitions)
August 2024 (Planning Progress)
Comments (21)
This sounds like a lot of fun! It’ll be nice to see a race which isn’t just like humans or even other animals on earth. I’ve always loved sci fi series with bizarre aliens who operate and thrive differently than we do. It makes for a far more interesting experience :)
That's an interesting approach! Can't wait to know more about the species!
Sounds like an interesting species, kind of reminds me of the doppelgangers in D&D (who are normally without gender esp. when they are around other doppelgangers, mind you they are able to alter their appearances to the point of being able to look like any other humanoid of their general size, including the gender of the person they are impersonating as).
Oooh I didn’t know you were planning your next game! I’m excited to see it!
I dig it.
Woah
HELLLL YEAHHHHH!!! I love fantasy races with different concepts of gender! Its really interesting that genderless is default but it still is seen different socially than a genderless human. I think this works well because cisgender players (ideally) shouldn't feel left out by this. You can still play an L with binary pronouns, and if anything you get more bonus content because this is seen as uncommon for the species. I wonder what kinds of unique dialogue this would open up with different characters? It'd also work great as a metaphor to show people of the majority what it feels like to be the minority. But also as an agender person myself I'm just hyped as heck to see what on earth a world would be like where my gender is common! I've never played a game like that. (except I guess Cattails technically?)
Ls sound so cool. Not reproducing serially, and being agender, I'm invested in the other aspects of the L race.
This is such a cool concept!!! Every new update i get more excited about this game
this is super cool!! I'm excited to see how this turns out
I really love this!! It’s such a refreshing and comforting concept to see genderlessness as a default. I feel like it provides a really nice clean slate for player characters of all genders and adds to the fantasy vibes by really shaking off the default gendered-ness of our tangible world (that because it’s so ingrained in us also permeates most fiction)
that’s so cool! the game keeps getting more interesting !! as someone who doesn’t like self inserting in games, my MCs don’t always have the same gender as me so that should be fun!
To be completely honest, this is kind of disappointing. Gender and sexuality are a major part of most people's identities, including mine, and forcing the player forgo these things just takes a lot out of the potential for being invested in the game for me personally. It's great to add agender representation, but I wish there more options than either being agender or not being understood by others in your race. Of course, it's your game and you can do whatever you want with it, but I think it's important for potential players to voice their opinions on these things, especially when it might make them legitimately lose interest in the game.
I totally understand. People can lose interest if it doesn't work for them. I'm prepared for that to happen both because it has more upsetting topics than OL and because it is made entirely with the queer experience in mind rather than queer being equally available but just another option. I'm a queer creator, the Ls view on gender is my own feelings and I'm making a story that explores it. With the way the world is right now, I simply feel more compelled to use my time and platform to make a story like this. Games where people can be whoever they are in real life are absolutely wonderful, but stories where people in the gender majority have to be a part of someone else's experience while those who are a gender minority get to be the focus are valuable too. I'm aware of what I'm doing and how it's not equal towards all experiences, but that's an intentional choice.
Huh this is something. I don't really like being forced agender but I will still try it and see how it's like. Good for all agender people who want some representation though!
I don't think it's saying it's forced agender? Dev said you can still choose other pronouns if you wanted, it's just seen as uncommon in universe. So maybe you'd get bonus dialogue because of it?
Getting to be an agender race? As an agender person, thank you!
Ahh, this is actually so interesting! I like how you seem to be balancing lore and character customization :)
Ooo cool, i m agender so gettin to be a race that s genderless is sick. How do the L's look like? Do they have any distinct features from humans?
I can't say much of how they look yet, but they do have things distinct from humans!
I wanna be an L now