Inside Love and Deepspace’s Quest to Become the Biggest Name in Global Romance Games
What does it mean to fall in love in a world beyond our own? For the team behind Love and Deepspace, the answer was simple: create a universe where players can feel emotions and joy as vast and genuine as the stars. Coming up on its first anniversary, the game has captivated nearly 50 million players worldwide, thanks in large part to its engaging storytelling, futuristic world setting, and memorable characters.
The game places your created character in the future, after humanity receives a mysterious message from Deepspace that coincided with the arrival of aggressive creatures known as the Wanderers. As an Evolver with superhuman abilities, you set off on a thrilling journey. Along the way, you’ll battle these monsters and cross paths with fellow Evolvers, with whom you can form intimate relationships. For Love and Deepspace, the concepts of love and its futuristic world setting were more than just themes — they were the foundation for every design decision.
“As I delved into the creative process, I realized how naturally the ideas of love and future align,” said the game producer. “Even as humanity ventures into the unknown, the need for love and companionship remains constant. While our destination may be the stars, love serves as an indispensable source of sustenance for the journey ahead. The word ‘future’ is inherently visionary, which fits perfectly with our plan to develop a forward-thinking romance game. This guiding principle influenced how we approached every aspect of game design, helping us decide what kind of content would be truly forward-thinking and future-oriented.”
The team has always been guided by one core philosophy — the fusion of ‘future’ and ‘love.’ This vision is reflected in every decision made during development, from the choice of 3D technology and art style to narrative pacing, character development, gameplay, and interface design. While the narrative forms the emotional core, the 3D visuals are the first thing to catch the players’ eye, and they were the biggest challenge to pull off during development.
“The main technical challenge was achieving film-quality cinematics and console-level character performance on a mobile platform. To address this, we adopted an ‘all-in’ approach across every aspect of the game, from technological investments to working hours and manpower.” That meant doing an incredible amount of work to get everything just right. To replicate the texture of real skin, the team used an array of more than 50 cameras to capture high-precision data for muscle simulation and reshaping. For clothing, the team developed an automated simulation process to handle loose, flowing fabrics — an area where traditional engines often fall short.
The team also relied on advanced performance capture systems that could record an actor’s expressions and movements at up to 300 fps, and developed an in-engine performance editing system that allowed multiple teams — lighting, props, animation, and special effects — to work in parallel. Despite the limitations of mobile hardware, these technological breakthroughs made it possible for Love and Deepspace to deliver console-quality visuals, reflecting the team’s technical capabilities.
“Ensuring that all these complex technical details ran smoothly on mobile devices posed an additional challenge. To tackle this, we dedicated all available technical resources to extensive optimization, leveraging multi-core performance and hardware GPU capabilities. This allowed us to support up to 800 physical bones for smooth operation, delivering dynamic effects down to individual strands of hair. Often, our artists and engineers pushed each other to their limits in a tug-of-war between artistic vision and performance constraints, forging a true love-hate relationship as comrades in arms.”
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