Guest post written by Single Player author Tara Tai
Tara Tai is an Asian American writer living in Boston, where they spend most of their time playing TTRPGs and romancing video game NPCs. They hold degrees from Harvard University and Harvard Business School. When they’re not lost in imaginary worlds, they are annoying their wife Audrey and dog Gingko. Single Player is their debut novel.
About Single Player: Two video game creators go head-to-head in this delightful queer enemies-to-lovers workplace romance debut, perfect for fans of TJ Alexander and Helen Hoang.
My debut novel Single Player is about a game developer who lands her dream job writing the love interests in one of the biggest RPGs (role-playing games) to hit the market in years, only to find out her boss is a diehard hater of happily-ever-afters. Tensions run high—and eventually, sparks fly—as the two devs are forced to work together to reconcile their differing views on the role of romance in video games.
While I’ve always been a gamer, I really fell in love with the hobby during (what else?) the pandemic. I started drafting Single Player in 2022 after wondering what would happen if someone decided to apply video game logic—especially as it pertains to courtship and romance—to real life. What follows is a list of swoony video games that inspired my “rivals”-to-lovers sapphic rom-com.
1. Life is Strange
This episodic, choices-matter game follows Max Caulfield, a photography student, as she uses her newfound powers of rewinding time to—again and again—save the life of her childhood friend (and maybe new love interest!), Chloe Price. While romance isn’t the main thrust of this game, the rekindling friendship between Max and Chloe is so well-executed that I returned to it often while writing Single Player. Plus, the game’s soundtrack is just immaculate.
2. Fire Emblem: Awakening
Have you ever wanted to matchmake a whole troop of soldiers while protecting your fantasy kingdom? Well, that’s exactly what you do in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Sure, the encounters are tactically interesting by themselves, but to make each fight really challenging, try winning the day by making sure your preferred troops are stationed adjacent to each other so they fall in love while dispatching baddies. Awakening also boasts some of the hardest-hitting one-liners I’ve ever heard. Next time you’re squaring off against someone in one-on-one battle, definitely try shouting “Pick a god and pray” or “Foul miscreation!”
3. Dream Daddy
Dream Daddy is a game in which you play as a single dad and your only task is to meet and go on dates with other hot, single dads. In sum, it’s a dad dating simulator. Given how fun and adorable this game is (the art is just…chef’s kiss), it’s no wonder why I make a pretty overt reference to this gem in Single Player.
4. Dragon Age: Inquisition
In Dragon Age, you play as a luckless individual who accidentally becomes a hero tasked with closing interdimensional rifts across the world while building up a party of nobles, bards, mercenaries, and even spirits. I replayed this game while working on Single Player and every time one of my companions “GREATLY DISAPPROVED” of something I said or did, I had to quell the urge to drop everything and reload my last save so as not to piss off a fictional character. And honestly, who hasn’t walked away from a conversation they wished they could reload?
5. Mass Effect
Coming out of the same studio as the Dragon Age games, the Mass Effect series is well-loved for both the strength of its story and its at times quippy, at times utterly heartbreaking writing. Moreover, because you can romance the same character across all three games, there’s an emotional weightiness to each decision you make in the endgame—characters can die, including the character you’ve just spent a hundred-and-twenty real-life hours trying to get to love you (egads!). I love how player choice impacts companion approval and disapproval in Mass Effect, and I borrowed a lot of that when writing the way Cat, the protagonist of Single Player, approaches her personal relationships.
