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Love and Deepspace became one of the biggest romance games in the world because it dared to rethink what romance can feel like in a mobile game.
At this year’s Game Developers Conference, Infold Games shared more about the design ideas behind the hit title.
Producer Lizi, who has worked on the game for 6 years, explained how the team built a romance experience that goes beyond beautiful characters and emotional scenes.
A romance game with major global success
Love and Deepspace launched in 2024 as a free-to-play mobile game.
By early 2026, the game’s lifetime revenue had reportedly moved close to $1 billion.
It has also reached more than 80 million global accounts.
The game has earned attention for its high-quality graphics, full voice acting, rich systems, and strong appeal among romance game players.
However, that success did not come easily.
The team faced confusion, doubt, and outside skepticism during development.
According to the article, what kept the project moving was the team’s love for romance games and its desire to explore what romance could mean inside an interactive experience.
The big question behind development
During early development, the team asked an important question.
How could they convince players unfamiliar with otome games to give this genre a chance?
Traditional romance games often focus heavily on story, illustrations, and character interactions.
Love and Deepspace wanted to go further.
The team wanted to create a fresh experience that would feel unexpected compared with standard romance games.
That idea eventually became a futuristic romance game with real-time combat.
Fighting side by side as romance
In Love and Deepspace, players become a powerful Deepspace Hunter.
They fight monsters together with male leads instead of only watching romantic scenes unfold.
At first, this combat system became one of the most questioned design choices.
However, the team believed that combat itself could become a form of romance.
Fighting beside someone creates trust, teamwork, and emotional support.
The player and the male leads overcome danger together as partners, not as one side simply protecting the other.
This equal partnership became central to the game’s emotional design.
Combat helps players feel connected
The team wanted players to love both themselves and the male leads fighting beside them.
By surviving danger together, the player character and the male characters build stronger emotional bonds.
The article frames this as a relationship based on mutual support.
That makes the romance feel earned through shared struggle instead of only dialogue or scripted affection.
Major changes before launch
When the game was first revealed in 2020, many existing romance game players reacted negatively.
The team eventually won players back before the official 2024 launch by making 3 major improvements.
First, the male characters needed to look better.
The team initially underestimated mobile hardware and created models that were not detailed enough.
They later rebuilt the characters with console-level standards first, then optimized them for mobile performance.
This allowed each male lead to use high-polygon character models with stronger visual quality.
Second, the relationships needed better pacing.
The team realized that players were being asked to fight beside characters before understanding them properly.
They then adjusted the experience so the early game focused on serious cooperation first.
More intimate interactions would unlock gradually as the story developed.
Third, the combat layout changed.
The game was originally designed fully in portrait mode, including both conversation and combat.
However, real-time battles needed a wider view and more comfortable controls.
The team decided to switch the game into landscape mode whenever combat begins.
Daily life systems strengthen the bond
Beyond combat, Love and Deepspace also uses life-simulation systems to make the male leads feel present in the player’s daily routine.
The game includes diaries, schedule reminders, working together, photo booth activities, card games, and claw machine activities.
Its second anniversary home system also gives players more ways to spend time with the male leads closely.
These systems help the characters feel like companions who exist beyond the main story and battle scenes.
A new definition of romance games
The popularity of Love and Deepspace is not only due to the looks and personalities of its male leads.
Its success comes from the team’s willingness to redefine romance.
Instead of keeping romance limited to conversations and illustrations, the game turns combat, trust, partnership, and daily companionship into emotional experiences.
That bold approach helped Love and Deepspace become one of the most successful romance games in the modern otome market.
Love and Deepspace works because it understands that romance can come from more than sweet dialogue. Fighting beside someone, trusting them in danger, and growing stronger together can feel just as intimate. That is why its combat system matters more than it first appears.
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Source: automaton-media
