#fuseboxes

[archxvii]

watching paint overs and wanted 2 practice rendering. also his eyes pissed me off </3 did not succeed with his hair unfortunately but amen I'm going to bed

[willkimurashat]

Lingerie👏 is👏 NOT👏 pajamas👏

Say it with me one more time: 👏LINGERIE👏 IS👏 NOT👏 PAJAMAS👏

[loverbobby]

every day (since december 2023) i wake up (and miss bobby mckenzie in ways i can’t describe)

[longbobmckenzie]

Things I'd do...

... if I were a Fusebox writer. Fusebox, if you're reading this, feel free to take these into consideration. I know you won't though because it would require more work on your part.

(note: this ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but I probably should have expected that)

5 girls, 5 boys

Let's go back to the early seasons when we started off with a full lineup of 5 couples to start off with. Like I said, this means more work, more characters. But it also allows for...

More unromanceable characters

Hear me out. The last truly unromanceable male character was... Toby? I think? But for the most part, all the male characters from S6-S9 are available in some way (even if it's only at the finale/reunion, which is really just a copout from FB because they don't want to branch routes but still want to be able to say that everyone's romanceable).

Here's the thing. Everyone wants to romance their favourite characters, nobody wants to meet a character and really love them only to find out you can't have them. Trust me, I've been there. But it's also not the end of the world, and it means you can read/write fanfics for that character, pine for them from afar, etc etc. Maybe it's my sadism talking, but it kind of makes things more interesting in a way? To me it's kinda boring to have all these guys in the villa who would get with me at the drop of a hat (obviously excepting the slow burn LIs).

But the thing about unromanceable characters is that you NEED them in order to write a realistic season with distinct characters who aren't just interchangeable with one another based on MC's choices. Those characters can help drive the plot, they can have canon storylines, they can be friends, they don't have to share dialogue, etc etc.

First coupling

So with those first 2 points out of the way, here's what I'd like for the first coupling:

Of the 5 guys, 1 is completely unavailable to be chosen, and another is not an endgame LI. Think Noah and Rocco in S2 - one can't be coupled up with but is still a slow burn LI, the other CAN be coupled up with but is always going to be dumped. I think this formula from S2 works so well because it still means you have 3 OG guys to be endgame LIs but also allows for the other 2 to be part of fixed plots.

I want the boys to choose instead of the girls. HOW HAS THIS NOT BEEN DONE YET?!?!?! On the show, the girls only picked on day 1 for the first... 1 or 2 seasons? and then it was always boys choosing until they started messing around with other options. But this could work SO WELL for the game! MC has the choice for each guy to step forward or not. If she steps forward for the unromanceable guy, he picks someone else. If she doesn't step forward for someone, he won't pick her. If she steps forward, gets picked, and then steps forward again for someone else, that person steals her and it gets acknowledged throughout the game a bit (minor branching!) If she doesn't step forward for anyone, she ends up being the last picked. IT WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN

Couples/Sneaking around

You shouldn't be able to do bits with someone you're not coupled up with except under certain circumstances:

Casa Amor

You're developing a relationship with someone but not able to couple up with them (or one of you gets stolen) and you're upfront with your partners about going to the daybeds together

You're sneaking around behind people's backs but there WILL be consequences

Just honour the couples, that's the point of the game. Stop letting people go to the hideaway with people they're not coupled up with.

Consequences/Drama

Further to the above, there should be consequences for BOTH parties if you sleep with someone you're not coupled up with. Even if you go to the daybeds and your partners know about it, they should be able to say how disrespectful that is to them.

Sneaky kisses always have a way of coming out on the show, so the same thing should be done in the game. It's harder to branch because some players may choose not to kiss anyway, so those people shouldn't be attacked for something they haven't done. But if you kiss someone and your partner finds out and breaks up with you because of it? And the partner of the person you kissed also dumps them? That would be fun!

Female villains

Just stop with the whole thing where one girl constantly gets up in MC's face. Whether it's because the girl is gunning for the same guy or for other reasons, it's so tired and annoying. Or a girl being a bitch for absolutely no reason.

And especially stop making them WOC!

More filler scenes

This has been one of the big complaints over the last few seasons, and that's the lack of filler scenes. There needs to be a balance, obviously, because you don't want too much filler - but this is how we learn about the characters' personalities. Let us be involved in fun chats, give our MC a personality other than "everyone loves me except that one bitch who hates me for no apparent reason," let us chill with the other islanders instead of constantly being involved in drama, eavesdropping on conversations, investigating who slept with who, and doing a million challenges

(Slightly) Longer season

Season 2 is the only deviation from the typical 13-14 "day" season (S1 is technically 7 weeks squeezed into 14 days, later seasons use volumes instead of sticking to a morning/afternoon/evening format but they fit so much into them that they just feel chaotic). Adding a little filler and stretching the seasons out a bit (5-7 volumes seems reasonable?) should make them more enjoyable to play (and replay?)

Cliffhangers

I love cliffhangers (insert joke about all the LIs I like who do rock climbing), but not every episode/volume needs one. It's perfectly fine to find a natural ending to an episode (like going to bed at the end of the night, which was common in S2), and save the cliffhangers for when they really matter

Make the challenges make sense

I didn't play S8 and I'm not playing S9, but I've heard some complaints about the order of challenges - playing Mr & Mrs in Casa Amor, etc. And I saw that today's volume included the Excess Baggage challenge, which is fine, but that one should always be near the beginning

Have the 'get to know people' challenges (kissing challenges, truth/dare, never have I ever) in the first few volumes. Once people are coupled up and relationships are developing, hit 'em with the snogathon to maybe create some drama (and do it when new bombshells have just come in so you get a chance to kiss the new guy). After Casa Amor, you can do Mr & Mrs, any other couple compatibility challenges (or do one of these just before Casa Amor to create some drama just before splitting up the couples), and of course Snog, Marry, Pie.

Have a few of the random obstacle course challenges, food challenges, building tents/sandcastles/whatever challenges interspersed throughout, but make them mean something.

And for the love of donuts, make the challenges in Raunchy Races objective - none of this 'coolest person' or 'hottest person' or whatever, just stick to tallest/shortest/oldest/etc or 'one person must snog the person they fancy the most' or whatever like in S2

Casa Amor

I think CA is a great plot device, but there's a fine line between 'too long' and 'not long enough' that's hard to figure out. But either way, let's stop with the hideaway and sending couples on dates, because nobody's coupled up in CA. Give everyone a chance to get to know everyone. Have a couple guys who aren't interested in MC. If MC is wlw, give some scenes with her LI where they can talk about the future and wanting to couple up when they have a chance, etc.

WLW Routes

I don't do WLW routes in the game so I don't know exactly what the experience is like, but I know that it's not great - carrying on a romance with someone with no consequences but also not being able to couple up with them and sometimes watching them also be carrying on a relationship with whoever they're coupled up with.

I don't have any brilliant solutions, but why not spend every night on the daybeds together until being able to couple up? Why not have two guys who couple up together on these routes, like in S3? Or bring in another character like Sammi in S1 to even out the couples? Or an NB/bisexual character who could couple up with a girl or guy depending on what MC does?

Ultimately, the show and the game are extremely straight-coded, and it's not easy to account for players being able to couple up with female LIs early on, but every option should be explored instead of just doing what they're doing every season.

[rebelrayne]

HAMISH IS AN LI HAMISH IS AN LI!!

Grace says Hamish told the boys that MC is so gorgeous and he’s nervous to talk around her 😭

And this if you kiss him for hottest islander???

Hamish girlies, we can do it. It’s gonna hurt, but we can do it.

But tbh I think they may have him locked because there have been a few times that we can give an opinion on him. It’s either nice or mean.

Like Kelly today? You can say he’s untrustworthy or defend him. I bet you you need enough choices (wishful thinking. Would be cool and nice and whatever but).

[ariendiel]

Well, I guess this is the end then. What a shame, but also not surprised as fusebox has run this game into the ground 💔

[honey2hoochie]

The big 3 when it comes to face this season 😭 they’re so pretty!! Idk if it’s just me, but they look similar in a way. I’ve truly been having fun with this season lol 🤭

[hpowellsmith]

I was already having a rough day. And this is really sad.

Working on Love Island the Game wasn't always easy in a variety of ways, especially at the end, but even after most of us were laid off amid dramatic circumstances, more than two years ago now, it was nice knowing that some people enjoyed our work that was still out there.

The Season 3 episodes and scenes, and the ones I edited, were my first experiences in a game studio team (shoutout to the scenes with Tai, Rafi, and Lily that were the first pieces of writing I did on the game!). I learned so much from that, from The Wedding, Chelsea's Murder Mystery and The Boat Party, from all the prototypes and ideation that never went anywhere (that wonderful Regency-era Noah art... sigh...), from how the characters and storylines came together for Season 4 aka Bombshell (I loved coming up with the original concepts for Bruno, and Oliver, and Juliet, and Lexi, and Tiffany, and Valentina, and Kobi, and Hazeem: absolute joys to write and to see other writers bringing them extra sparks of life, and to do the same with helping bring other writers' concepts to life, and to start doing all sorts of exciting senior role stuff). It was very sad and stressful when it turned out that we couldn't be there to complete Season 4 in as polished a way as all of us wanted.

I'm still friends with many of the people I worked with on Love Island the Game and our other projects, and the things that didn't end up going out there, and I've worked with some of them since which was an absolute pleasure. I saw a lot of them earlier this month, and chatted with one on a video call just this morning. The way it ended for us was very painful, but a lot of it up to that point was so much fun.

There will still be some of the work I did for Love Island the Game out there in Season 4/Bombshell and Matchmaker. But what a shame that a huge chunk of the work we all did, and the work before my time that got the studio its audience in the first place, turns out to be so ephemeral.

Thank you to all the people who played and enjoyed the work we made.

[icemoonsposts]

Pretty please 🥺🥹👉🏻👈🏻

[chocolatesvilla]

you're telling me people that'll start playing litg from december 11th onward will never experience the joy of THE bobby mckenzie route? fusebox you're the devil incarnate.

[justtuesdays]

if fusebox doesn’t give me Stefan, i’ll make Stefan.

[cxhleel108]

Black man in the med field from Chi-raq with SLEEVES…prepare for me to become the most annoying person ever for the next 3 months again!

[luhvey-duhvey]

I need to speak on this because it’s happened far too many times and seems to be a recurring pattern with Fusebox.

It’s really shameful and disheartening to see how often Fusebox puts black women characters into couples with people that don’t actually like them, and proceeds to villainize them in the eyes of MC/other characters in the game.

We’ve seen it in S2 with Hope being loyal to Noah then getting disrespected by him when he confessed to MC in the end.

We’ve seen it with Grace in S6, sticking with Ozzy although he’s disrespected her and clearly wasted her time by staying with her when he was pining for MC all along. And even when he does tell her he’s not interested anymore, she does everything in her power to “win him over” instead of allowing her to rightfully look elsewhere for love.

And if you’re going the Jin route in S8, it happens with Luna. Jin doesn’t want her but he sticks around to spare her feelings. She embarrasses herself trying to win him over only to get booted off the show.

Next, they love to turn them into the “mean ones” by getting upset with MC/defending their relationship when romance (often initiated by the one they’re coupled up with) strikes.

Then they’re the enemy and everyone is waiting for them to be voted out of their game.

Yeah, sure, they’re just characters. It’s just a game. But it blows my mind, especially seeing this as a black player, that time and time again they’ve done this with the black women characters in the exact SAME way:

1. Couple with someone that’s not interested

2. argue/be a jerk to MC/refuse to take hints that their love interest doesn’t like them

3. do acrobatics to win said love interest over

4. get heartbroken, kicked off

If you’re going to put black women in your show, is it too much to ask them to be respected? To be deserving of a happy ending too? Reflect on how you’ve been representing black women, Fusebox.

Then do better.

[0shewrites0]

Guys, Fusebox has been sold ???

I saw this on Reddit and 💀

[24countcrayolacrayons]

fusebox has done it again.

having to PAY to participate in a truth or dare game is actually insane. almost every decision is gem choices it’s not even fun to play anymore and hasn’t been in years.

[ariendiel]

Using my lunch break to do some snooping on the company that's bought Fusebox Games and what they have to offer and:

"We see a large opportunity in building an IP-based global gaming business that benefits from our core base in India, where we can support global studios through enhanced user acquisition strategies, data analytics, live operations, and new initiatives such as implementing our in-house AI playbook."

The CEO also "believes there are unlimited use cases of AI that the company can deploy" when making games, and also to "throw all the data being generated by the players during their activity to the AI to make a lot more personalized offerings which will help increase engagement as well as better monetization through advertising and user acquisition."

In other words, expect more AI. Not only for making the games either, but for using all the data generated when playing to try and get more money from the players (you all). I might do some more research on the company later, but I'm honestly just tired of all the fusebox bs – and not really active in the fandom anymore.