Words by David C. Obenour
You made it! Out of the thousands who submitted videos, some market tested combination of how you battled adversity, your cultural uniqueness, how many followers you’ve amassed, or (most importantly) a smoking hot bod has awarded you a chance of finding love on reality TV!
But is that why you’re here? Thousands of followers could be millions and millions could mean millions! It’s time to live into your own intentions as you decipher those of others with Rabble Games’ hottest social party deduction game this season, Lovestruck!
Off Shelf: As a whole, what do you love about relationship-based reality TV shows?
George Li: I love the big moments in these types of show! There’s always a moment around the corner that will make you want to yell at the screen or gasp in surprise.
OS: Specifically, what are your favorite relationship-based reality TV shows? What do you enjoy about them particularly?
GL: I really enjoy any show that positions itself as a “social experiement.” I think the idea of framing it as a “social experiment” means you can put contestants in interesting situations and see how they react. So I really enjoy a lot of the Netflix ones like Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, Perfect Match.
OS: What inspired you to turn this interest into Lovestruck? What were some of your earliest “wouldn’t it be cool if you could…” thoughts?
GL: I had already been playing around with an idea for a social deduction game that people play individually at, I was just stuck at making a theme. Then during lockdown I watched a ton of reality dating shows and that’s where the inspiration for Lovestruck came from. From the start I wanted to recreate the drama that you see on reality TV so I tried as hard as possible to have the game naturally create moments that feel like they could be on TV.
OS: In Lovestruck, players try to deduce who is on the show for the “right reasons” and the “wrong reasons”. Thematically, as a viewer can you further define both?
GL: In a lot of reality TV shows the lingo has emerged of accusing someone for “being here for the wrong reasons,” if they’re not actually here for love and are just trying to get famous. I think it started from The Bachelor but that terminology has really worked its way to all the reality dating shows. Even though you as a viewer know that most of the contestants are just trying to use the shows for fame, the contestants themselves still have to pretend they’re only on the show looking for love.
OS: So you always envisioned Lovestruck as a party/social deduction game? There weren’t any “alternate universes” where the game ended up in a different format or play style?
GL: I definitely always envisioned Lovestruck as a party/social deduction game. Initially my idea for the game was that each episode would have it’s own set of rules that put contestants in a unique situation. So the game was in some sense easier to play, but there was a lot more reading since the instructions for each episode was on the card. After testing it, I quickly realized that the reading really slowed down the game which is how Lovestruck evolved into its current iteration.
OS: The Bombshell Cards are so much fun! Can you relate any of them back to specific moments from shows or where the inspiration came from?
GL: Yes! The Bombshell Cards are directly inspired from a variety of reality dating shows. Even the name themselves were partly inspired by Love Island, “a new bombshell walks in” and some of the card names are directly inspired by classic reality TV lines, “Can I steal you for a sec?”
OS: You really pushed roleplaying in the rulebook – and I’m glad you did, because that was some of the most fun we had with the game! How did you try to make sure that was emphasized in the rules, and how do you think meaningful or goofy roleplay can add to a game’s experience?
GL: I think Lovestruck is fun based off mechanics alone but from my play testing I quickly realized what pushed it over the edge was the roleplaying. There have been several instances where people would forget that they were playing a game with objectives and just want to roleplay the entire time! Other than calling it out in the rules, we tried to encourage roleplaying by making the game feel as thematic as possible. Everyone has a character that they play as – even though there’s no gameplay difference – and all the actions feel like actions you would take at the Villa. Even when you couple up, people love moving their tokens to a daybed together.
OS: The characters presented are really fun too in how they help frame roleplay. Based on archetypes, were there any sensitivities you had in the characters you wanted to encapsulate? How stereotypes might be perceived or acted out, for better and worse?
GL: We leaned into archetypes that felt relatable to anyone who watched reality TV shows, but also were not necessarily gender-specific. We also tried to pick archetypes that didn’t feel offensive since not all of the tropes from reality TV are the nicest.
OS: The illustrations are also amazing and just a lot of fun. Can you talk about some of your inspiration behind it? What intent you put behind the design and colors in hopes to how it could translate into the game experience?
GL: We spent a ton of time playing around with the design and bringing the game to life. At first the game had more of “The Bachelor” look with dark reds and roses but the game ended up feeling too serious. Once we hit on this neon/tropical color scheme that was inspired by the Love Island/Perfect Match world, a lot of the other elements of the game clicked, especially the Couples Board. We wanted anyone to see this game to be instantly reminded of reality dating shows!
OS: Could you envision expansions to Lovestruck? What might be fun to introduce to play from that world?
GL: Yes! The most common request/question we get is whether the different characters have different abilities. We played with that possibility at first but it just added so much complexity we decided to keep the first edition as simple as possible. The other request we get is a two-player version which is something we’re brainstorming about as well.
OS: What do you have coming out next with Rabble? What are you excited for what this new game adds to how gamers can enjoy play in a game?
GL: We have a lot of games in the works! In particular we are working on a solo/cooperative game that is tied to mental health which I’m very excited about. I think it will be a very unique way to show how games and play can be used for self-growth.