Love Your Own Way: Wylde Flowers and LGBTQ+ Relationships

Andrew -

How Wylde Flowers gives an authentic voice to LGBTQ+ relationships in a magical game experience.

Fresh off a bad breakup, the star of the Apple Arcade game Wylde Flowers decides to leave the big city to tend to her grandmother’s country farm and begin anew. But a breakup with who, exactly? That’s up to you!

As the young witch Tara, you determine the gender of your ex, mapping out the person you’ll become. Along the way, you’ll form meaningful relationships with characters of all stripes, from the nonbinary butcher Kim to same-sex couple Angus and Francis.

“It’s a town that is fully accepting of gay and trans rights,” says Amanda Schofield, creative director and cofounder of developer Studio Drydock. “I hope that everybody will find they’re accepted there—or perhaps see themselves in the other residents.”

To keep the experience authentic, Studio Drydock enlisted a stellar voice cast of BAFTA Award–winning and LGBTQ+ actors.

“I’ve never worked on a game that had romance-able options that were so in-depth and interesting,” says voice actor Valerie Rose Lohman, who plays Tara.

Giving voice to LGBTQ+ relationships

Breathing new life into the old farm takes magical skills. As a benevolent witch, you’ll craft harvest-boosting potions and fly on your broomstick to buy feed for your livestock.

Voice actors Valerie Rose Lohman (left) and Erika Ishii, who play the game’s protagonist witch and nonbinary love interest, respectively.

Although some elements are far-fetched, Wylde Flowers grounds its story in true-to-life LGBTQ+ experiences. For example, the character Giva, a potential love interest of Tara, shares how she had to hide her first romance from her school and parents.

“The script had been treated with care,” says Lohman, and is peppered with inside references, like a joke about “moving-truck lesbians” who are ready to move in with a new partner quickly. “It made me feel the team really knew what they were writing about.”

And although the character of Kim, the local butcher, wasn’t based on the experiences of voice actor Erika Ishii, the two share an uncanny resemblance, says the actor: “Kim is literally me: nonbinary, mixed Japanese/Chinese/American with family from New York, who is queer and has a side shave.”

The Pride flag hanging in town was originally a placeholder but remained in the final version of the game.

Love is for everyone in Wylde Flowers

In Wylde Flowers, you can date (and eventually marry) eight different characters. The more you get to know them, the more they reveal about their past and dreams for the future. Will the relationship flourish or flounder? That depends on how you play it—which actor Lohman found particularly moving.

“I’m a big believer that games create empathy,” Lohman says. “The active participation really does make you live in someone else’s shoes."

For Ishii, showing different types of sexualities and relationships—and portraying them as authentically as possible—is equally crucial.

“Gaming is for everyone, and I want everyone to see themselves reflected,” she says. “Wylde Flowers normalizes it for folks who don’t see that LGBTQ+ representation in real life.”

Wylde Flowers

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