Super Lesbian Animal RPG – Official FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where can we buy the soundtrack?

• The soundtrack will be available for purchase at composer Beatrix Quinn’s Bandcamp and on Steam in January! We didn’t quite have time to sort that out alongside the release of the game itself, but we’re glad people are enjoying the music.

Controller support?

• RPG Maker VX Ace officially supports standard PC and Xbox gamepads. We cannot guarantee other types of controller (such as Switch and PS4 controllers) will work, even with Steam controller configurations.
• Controls can be configured via the engine-standard F1 menu, but for more options (such as the ability to use the D-pad, which RPG Maker doesn’t support for whatever reason) we personally recommend you look into a keymapper program like JoyToKey.

The functions assigned to your keyboard/gamepad from the F1 menu are:

• “A”: Sprint
• “B”: Menu/cancel
• “C”: Interact/confirm
• “L”/”R”: Toggle between pages in certain menus. “L” also opens the Quest Log.

I got a crash mentioning an “EFFECTUS” script when bumping into an enemy!

• This is a known issue. It’s thankfully very, very rare and seemingly impossible to repeat in the same place twice, so you should hopefully be fine if you reload your save.
• It’s unfortunately an issue with a third party anti-lag script that I’m unable to remove. The creator of said script disappeared years ago, and it’s difficult to get support for it since it’s a paid script that you can’t just share the code for.

Steam Deck compatibility?

• The game isn’t Steam Deck verified, but it launches. Due to RPG Maker restrictions the game needs a virtual keyboard to be brought up for initial setup. We’ve also received word of odd lag spikes during dialogue, and recommend that you set text to appear instantly and disable the text sound effect once you’re able to access the in-game options menu.
• However, we cannot offer technical support for further issues specific to the Steam Deck, as the game only officially supports Windows. (We also just… don’t own a Steam Deck to test these things on.)

Mac version?

• Unfortunately this isn’t possible at this time. Previously, Wine was a well-known way to run RPG Maker VX Ace games on Mac, but the Catalina update that disabled 32-bit apps has gotten in the way of this workaround.

Linux version?

• We’ve received word that the Windows version on Steam runs decently well via Proton. However, it may have some of the same issues as the Steam Deck listed above. Again, we cannot offer technical support for Linux-specific issues as the game does not support Linux officially.

Consoles?

• Sadly out of the question for the time being due to engine restrictions. Don’t wait around for a Switch port! It should run on just about any modern Windows PC, though.

Will you be adding Steam Achievements?

• Possibly in a future update! I wanted to do this for 1.0, but didn’t have the time.

Pre-Release FAQ

The Basics

What specific engine is this being made in?

• RPG Maker VX Ace! Ol’ reliable. The same iteration of RPG Maker that gave us modern classics like Hylics and Lisa: The Painful.

How long is SLARPG?

• I would estimate an average playthrough is around 10-15 hours total. This will vary based on your playstyle and how much of the optional content you seek out.

Is Melody the only character you play as?

• The party lineup is dictated by the story. Outside of battles, you’ll be playing as Melody most of the time, but not all the time. In battles, you select actions for the whole party, as you’d expect.

Can you choose who you date?

• No! Sorry, this is not a dating sim. Melody and Allison are already dating at the start of the game. I intentionally wanted to subvert the traditional romance story arc where the characters only get together at the end and they live happily ever after by instead telling a story about the ups and downs of an ongoing relationship already in progress. (You can ship whoever you want in your headcanons, though.)

Okay, you’ve got heroes. What about villains?

• You’ll have to wait for the final game to learn about them! I want the game to have lots of surprises instead of spelling out the whole plot ahead of time.

This game seems familiar…

• SLARPG is the successor to a freeware RPG Maker game I made in 2013, which is no longer available for a variety of reasons. That old amateur project ended up being the short proof of concept for this bigger, better game. Some things have remained the same, but the story has been drastically reworked from the ground up, the gameplay is deeper and more challenging, the amount of content has quadrupled, and in general there’s a much higher level of polish. If you played the original to completion (or watched someone else do it online), you’ll have a vague idea of what SLARPG is like, although trust me when I say you haven’t seen anything yet…

Accessibility

How mature is the content? Any content warnings?

• As an independent PC release SLARPG won’t need an ESRB rating, but it would probably be rated T for Teen. The game has no nudity or explicit sexual content, but it contains mild suggestive humor, PG-13 swearing, alcohol and tobacco use, mild fantasy violence, some emotionally intense scenes, depictions of anxiety, a couple indirect mentions of transphobia, and sequences of unreality.

How hard is SLARPG?

• Not particularly hard, but combat is challenging enough on its default difficulty to encourage you to think about your moves and your character loadouts a bit, instead of just spamming your default attacks and healing when necessary. That being said, you aren’t expected to grind (although you can if you really want to), and the story tends to tell you where you need to go next to progress.
• An easy mode is available for those who just want to get through the fights with less trouble and focus on the story. Easy mode can be enabled or disabled at any point outside of combat with no penalty. On the flip side, there are also a few optional challenges for those who want them.

Will SLARPG be colorblind-friendly?

• The game doesn’t really have anything that requires you to differentiate hues, so you should be fine.

Is there anything that relies entirely upon listening to sound cues?

• Nope! And all of the game’s dialogue is conveyed exclusively through text.

Will the game be translated into any languages besides English?

• No plans at this time – this game has a massive script for an indie project, and a high quality localization would be a huge undertaking. But things could change after the game is released in English.

Representation

Are the trans characters’ identities addressed directly in the game? If so, how?

• Yes, it’s stated plainly in the game that Melody and Claire are trans. It comes up in conversation several times, and it says so in their in-game character bios. Being trans isn’t the entirety of their character arcs, but it’s relevant to their growth as people, so it comes up. It’s also just important to me as a trans writer.

Are there any male characters? Do men even exist in this world (yes we get asked this all the time lol)?

• Yes, although they’re all NPCs, and most (not all, but most) of the major characters in the story are girls.
• Most of the characters shown so far are female because this is very much a story about sapphic girls, but we’ve only revealed a fraction of the game’s cast.

What about nonbinary characters?

• There are several recurring nonbinary characters! The bard duo Beth the Beast and Mary Ena from the demo are both nonbinary, as is the plant elemental Noel who runs the Sanctuary.

Are all of the characters in the game gay?

• This is not a world where every single person is gay, no. Most NPCs’ orientations aren’t even commented on one way or another. But Melody’s social circle (which comprises a large portion of the main cast) has a lot of LGBT+ people in it because, well, we tend to gravitate towards each other. I’m speaking from experience there.

Other Questions

Can I draw fanart of these characters?

• Yes, and I will love you forever. I track the #SLARPG hashtag on both Tumblr and Twitter and love to share fanart for others to see!

How is SLARPG pronounced?

• I just verbally spell out S-L-A-R-P-G, since it’s an acronym, or say slar-puh-guh. But you can say slarp-gee or slar-pee-gee or slurp or whatever your heart desires.

Any plans for DLC after release? Sequels? Etc.?

• No concrete plans at the moment. I would like to do more with these characters and this world in the future, but I can’t say what form that will take. Right now we’re focused on finishing the game before figuring out what we’d like to do next.